The Americans

    On Wednesday night at ten o'clock, a new series started on FX Channel. I watched the premiere and really enjoyed it. It is a spy story, told without qualms, told in a gritty, dark manner that spares no feelings.
    A Russian couple, Elizabeth and Philip Jennings, played by Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys, come to the United States to begin deep-cover espionage activities. They are forbidden to even speak their mother tongue, once in America. They are married and living in D.C. They have two children, a boy and a girl. They go to the malls, eat ice cream and do all the mundane things that Americans do. They also compromise men and women who are involved in government offices. The lady seduces intelligence people to reap a treasure trove of intel. The man pretends to be an investigator who is tasked with keeping tabs on the CIA and FBI. They have a clandestine relationship with their 'handler' through the Soviet embassy.
     The guy, Philip, likes it in the U.S. and wants to defect and take the reward money for doing so. The lady, Elizabeth, is ready to turn him in to her boss, because she is a Russian patriot who brooks no frivolity, fun or betrayal. Doubtless her pseudo-husband thinks her stuffy until he finds a tape recording of one of her 'interviews' with a guy she picked up in a bar.
     Things get lively, right from the start, when they capture a defector and keep him in the trunk of their car, in their garage, in suburbia. To complicate things, the KGB guy in the trunk had previously forced himself on Elizabeth, during her KGB training, and she wants to kill him very badly. It merely spices the dish when an FBI guy, tasked with counter-espionage, buys the house next door. This all takes place during the Reagan Presidency, while the Cold War was hot.
    This show is not for kids. It has a lot of adult language and situations, violence and other things that you may not like. I found it to be well done, well acted and very good. I set it up to tape every week on my DVR. Check it out if you want.
      I am pleasantly surprised at the quality of some of the new series that are appearing on television. I don't like sit-coms with their canned laughter and had just about quit watching regular television. True, the amount of commercials are ridiculous on this show and recording the shows are almost a necessity, so you can fast-forward through them. Chances are, though, if you like shows like Justified and Deadwood, Breaking Bad and The Sopranos, you'll enjoy this one.
     I'm CE Wills.