[TADSLOS]

I find it fascinating.

[pghoilman]

I like it. It’s a little cheesy at times, but they do a good job replicating the early 80’s.

[Perdogg]

I feel old, I cannot believe Keri Russell is pushing 40.

[BipolarBob]

I’ve been watching it. The only drama I watch on TV. I limit my TV time and I enjoy this one.

[cripplecreek]

Its an interesting show but I haven’t really decided whether I like it or not.

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

I am enjoying it. I’m guessing that a possible criticism might be in their showing Russian spies in too favorable a light. Short of turning them into cardboard cutouts of villains, I think the portrayal is necessary when you’re doing a show that centers around the spies.

A comedian (probably Seinfeld) did a bit about watching the Nature Channel and getting caught up in the point of view of whichever animal the show was about on a particular day.
When the show was about gazelles, he was rooting strongly for them to get away from the lions. Next episode is about lions, and he’s screaming—”C’mon—get that gazelle! Your babies are hungry!”

Keri Russell is still adorable, several decades after “Felicity.” And Matthew Rhys, who played a homosexual in the soap-opera-esque “Brothers and Sisters” is a revelation as a martial-arts-trained, tough-as-nails spy.
I think the show is one of the best new ones of the season.

[TomGuy]

I saw the first episode, have the next two on DVR, but haven’t watched them yet.

First episode was interesting. I want to see how the plot develops.

It is interesting that Russkies have again become the more prevalent ‘bad guys’ on television.

==

I watched the 1st episode of Monday Morning (TNT). It was okay. I watched part of the 2nd episode and turned it off before the first set of commercials. It just wasn’t interesting.

[stuartcr]

We enjoy it. Why won’t you say anything about it?

[BitWielder1]

Only watched the pilot. I was torn between rooting for them and hoping they'll get caught.

[envisio]

Nope, Moonshiners was on last night.

Followed by re-runs of Duck Dynasty on A&E.

Now thats good TV, Jack!

[Strategerist]

I watched the pilot and have the other episodes on my DVR, but haven’t watched them.

Really annoyed by two things:

1) No FBI agent would volunteer that he worked in “counterintelligence” to his new neighbors.

2) DC doesn’t have a “port.” There’s one dock in Alexandria where a ship brings paper for the Washington Post very sporadically, but it certainly doesn’t go overseas.

[count-your-change]

A soap opera with better lighting.

[Night Hides Not]

Thanks for the reminder, been getting home too late thanks to scouting and athletics.

I need something to entertain me until Season 6 of Sons of Anarchy.

[Rusty0604]

I’ve been watching it; so far so good. Doesn’t seem to put the Soviets in too good a light.

[verga]

Liked the first two, have seen the recorded one yet. Interesting idea but not sure how far they can can without showing the FBI or CIA to be bumbling clowns.

[Proud_texan]

I guess it depends somewhat on the prism through which you view it but I’ve been enjoying it. Firstly I like the recreation of the 80s, I think they’ve done a good job. I also like that every time I think they’ve shown the good guys as looking like they’ve gone overboard, gotten paranoid, etc. the commies do something to prove them right.

[Sender]

I like it, although it has been TV-dramatized in much the same manner as NCIS. The reality of Soviet spies would probably be too boring for TV. BTW, I noticed that in the third episode, there was no sex and no warning about sexual situations. I wonder if someone made them quit. It was a bit steamy before last night.

[Nowhere Man]

Kind of interesting. In fact I have a nostalgia for the Cold War, at least we knew who we were then, our side, their side or neutral as the case may be. Back then, Bronco Bama would have never been elected, most likely would have failed to even get through the primaries. Still, as someone who became 13 in 1979 and spent the 1980's as a teen and young adult, they did a good job of capturing the era of the time. A few minor nitpicks, maybe it is my Asperger's kicking in, but I did see a Volvo that would not have been on the U.S. market until 1984 (this is 1981) and the same thing with a Toyota minivan.

I keep hoping Matthew Rys has a "come to Jesus moment" and defects. I did see yesteday's episode though with Robert's (the KGB agent who was killed) where they promised his wife a "good life" in Cuba (I'd rather take the "zonk" from "Let's Make a Deal") but instead, take her baby to the USSR and killed her off in an overdose. Same with the maid and her son over the clock. I understand that maybe in the spy world, you gotta do some bad things but still, these people in the KGB here are really a bunch of scumbums.

[Zuben Elgenubi]

I'd like to see it updated with Moslem characters subverting the USA, installing gun caches in mosques nationwide and running the white-slave trade.

Because thats what is going on.

[Rockingham]

I am watching the show, and, with qualifications, I like it. Given the constraints of commercial TV, the show does a fairly good job of depicting the era and the lives and work of Soviet illegals, meaning spies who operate without benefit of official diplomatic cover and protection.

The use of sex by Soviet spies to recruit intelligence sources is accurate, even by a husband and wife team. So also is the brutality and ruthlessness of spying accurate, with blackmail and threats and force used to recruit and control people. Even the approved, routine sexual abuse of Soviet female spies in training is accurate.

The contradictions between being Soviet spies and also loving American parents in suburbia is also true as a major source of tension. In one nearly forgotten case, which was broadly depicted in the movie Little Nikita (1988), a team of illegal Soviet husband and wife spies was detected when their bright and patriotic American born son applied for admission to West Point.

Eventually, in the actual spy case, the two illegals were persuaded to defect to the US, with their son getting a fully merited admission to West Point no less as part of their deal. If The Americans lasts long enough, it may head in that direction. Notably, as in the real case, in The Americans, the wife is the most loyal to the Soviet Union.

As for the broad political implications, The Americans is creditable to our side of the political equation because it takes Soviet spying against the US for what it was: a major threat to our national security, pressed with an amorality and ruthlessness that were integral to the Soviet system.