VANITY: Anyone watching "The Americans" on Fx network?

Fx network ^ | 2-14-2013 | Vanity

[OKSooner]

Has anyone been watching this show? Last nite at 10:00 EST would have been the third installment.

I'm curious what others around here think of it but I'd rather not come out and say what I'm thinking just yet.

(Hint: Posted in chit/chat maybe for a reason.)

[stuartcr]

You must have a very weak stomach if you found it revolting.

[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.

[TADSLOS]

I enjoy the technical aspects portrayed in the show and the historical perspective of the Reagan era. I suppose I'm attracted to it because these are the times I lived in my ascendant 20's. Reagan was, and still is my happy warrior knight. So far, the script depicts the Soviet communist espionage apparatus as manipulative, cruel and downright evil set against the background of operating (mostly) in middle income America. Last night's episode really brought that to light.

I don't agree that the FBI are portrayed as antagonists on this show. Of course, they add tension against the main characters, but so far the show writers are depicting them as patriots doing their best to keep the Soviets at bay. We'll see if that theme continues in future episodes, or if the show descends into a psycho babble fest about the good communist fight gone astray by the Reagan doctrine.

So far, I enjoy watching it.

[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.

[ken5050]

Good observations..but I suspect it has more to do with dramatic license..

The show's quite good..I especially enjoy hearing the Soviets spout all the criticisms of Reagan (i.e. "he's a lunatic")that the MSM and the American left have been using for years..

The twist seems to be that it's the female who is the more ideologically committed/fanatical..the husband seems to have been somewhat "sensitized/softened" by the time they've already spent in the USA.

[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.

[discostu]

In the show the good guys are the “family”. It works kind of like the Godfather series, we root for that family against both other mobsters and cops because our introduction to them was controlled to make us like them. We learn early on in The Americans that their Soviet leaders are cutthroat and brutal and don’t have the “family’s” best interest in mind, and of course the FBI wants to capture them, but they’re nice people even if they do bad things so we root for them. It’s a hard balance to setup, but once the story teller succeeds it gives them a lot of dramatic potential, because basically everyone around our good guys is a potential threat and thus a bad guy.

[Nowhere Man]

One more thing, seeing “John Boy” (Rcihard Thomas) as a CIA/FBI agent is a real hoot.

[Goldsborough]

I like it. Sure, it is a little soapy, but isn't Sons of Anarchy a little too soapy a portrayal of outlaw bikers? Anyways, I am really enjoying Matthew Rhys' performance of the deeply conflicted Phillip Jennings the most of all. His acting job in this role is the main reason to watch the show. Since I like it, the show will probably be canceled.

[Goldsborough]

I like it. Sure, it is a little soapy, but isn't Sons of Anarchy a little too soapy a portrayal of outlaw bikers? Anyways, I am really enjoying Matthew Rhys' performance of the deeply conflicted Phillip Jennings the most of all. His acting job in this role is the main reason to watch the show. Since I like it, the show will probably be canceled.

[NFHale]

RE Watching “The Americans”:
No, I can’t say that I do. The only thing I’m keeping up with on TV is “The Walking Dead”...basically, it should be subtitled “What NOT To Do In An Apocalyptic Situation”. It provides a good laugh due to the dumbass things the writers put in there for the characters...

Watched “Breaking Bad” for a while, but I lost interest.

RE Keri Russell: I’m not familiar with her at all.

[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.

[Bernard Marx]

You must have a very weak stomach if you found it revolting.

I'd say the same about your brain.

[stuartcr]

???

[Future Snake Eater]

They certainly pulled it off in “The Shield.” Vic Mackey was a terrible, terrible person, but you couldn’t help but root for him.

[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.

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

From commercials, the production value looks high. But aren’t the bad guys the good guys? It seems the central protagonists are commie spies.

So, no thanks. It looks like a vehicle to be able to spew subtle commie propaganda and soften us up to like and identify with commies.

This is the exact plan with Glee and fags. Make a show about a bunch of wholesome talented homosexuals so we “like” and “identify with” them.

It is all part of our reprogramming to meld our minds into what the socialists want us to believe. Of course, the biggest impact will be on the kids and teens that pick up the nuances. “Oh commies aren’t bad, they are people just like us. We shouldn’t hate them, mommy”.

So no I won’t watch this show. It sounds like a vehicle to get people to subconsiously accept socialism.

I was raised on Roy Rodgers and other stalwart TV role models. Think back to when those shows were new. Now imagine in that time, Hollywood puts out a show all about cattle rustlers or robber barons. The show would have flopped then because there is NO WAY any US audience would have accepted it or identified with the evil protagonists.

We have fallen so far as a nation and become so morally relativistic, that as a society we now accept these shows like Amerikans about the lives of commie spies, or Breaking Bad and Weeds, about drug dealers.

Until the 1970s, such shows would be impossible in America because the people would have demanded protagonists be moral and good and evil characters always die or end up in jail.

Not anymore. We lost the population in the grade school brainwashing post 60s.

Nope, I won’t watch a show where the “good guys” are commie spies and the show will be chock full of subtle propaganda espousing the upside of communism.

Looks like a well done show the way GLEE is a very well done show.

How about a well done show about a boy scout troop leader trying to keep his scouts morally sound in today’s depraved cultural climate? I’m waiting for Hollywood to put out that show.

Thanks but no thanks. Thank goodness for Netflix. I just finished watching every episode of Frasier. Now I’m watching reruns of Dallas, Moonlighting, and Hill Street Blues.

[max americana]

“I just finished watching every episode of Frasier.”

I had to contradict, if I may. I know Glee is just a bunch of faggots singing, and we all know that. But Niles in real life, is a fudgepacker. Sure, Kelsey Grammer is one of us but the fact that Niles is a real-life homo, well...

[Dave346]

I miss Jack Bauer and CTU fighting the Muzzies on 24.

Hard to believe it’s been 3 years since the show ended.