FX hit a home run last year with the debut of their sizzling retro-spycraft series, The Americans - featuring Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys as early 80s cold war-era Soviet sleeper spies posing as a nice, normal American couple in suburbia.
Keri Russell Talks The Americans: Season 2
And their cover would've been perfect if it weren't for the fact that they had two teen children who didn't know their parents were spies. Oh and that one of the two parents, Rhys' Phillip, had started treating his family loyalties more seriously than his duties as a KGB agent. Oh, and the fact that they lived right next door to the FBI agent assigned to track them down. That didn't help matters either.
'MERICA?
The first season of The Americans took us on a hell of a journey - one filled with gripping suspense and powerful emotion. Something a bit unexpected for a show rooted in outdated prejudices and international dick-wagging. The show returns tonight for its second season, which means more covert missions, shadowy conflicts, riveting drama, and - most importantly - crazy ass wigs!
If you haven't caught up on the show, you can watch the first season episodes over on Amazon Prime. And if you're looking for a reason to tune in, here's what makes The Americans so damn cool!
At first glance, these images of Russell and Rhys' Elizabeth and Phillip in full costumery might seem goofy. But this is how you got s*** done back in 1981, son. Without security cameras everywhere, or people recording stuff with their phones, or satellites being able to track your every move, you could totally trick someone with a well placed wig and a confidently stationed mustache. You could use an elaborate get-up to make yourself look faux-frumpy or super-sexy. And then when it came time for the sketch artist to draw the eye witness' description of you (since that's all they had), the cops and authorities would end up with someone who looked like a gigolo and not a mild-mannered travel agent.
On any other show, these outfits would play as borderline parody, but The Americans somehow makes them feel awesomely sinister in an expertly dorky way. Nothing like getting seduced by your guidance counsellor, or taking a bullet between the eyes from the local librarian.
It's a wonder that we can create suspense at all nowadays what with all the googling, DNA mapping, GPS'ing, and face...recognition...ing. The Americans may only take place three decades ago, but not many people realize or remember that the spies back then were using the same basic technology that they used back in the 40s and 50s. There'd been very little done in the way of advancements. So forget about heading into an op with an earpiece. Or a cell phone. Or really any way to make contact with anyone if you got in trouble.
Elizabeth Jennings and her...computer? I'm not sure. Could be a cinder block.
If Phillip and Elizabeth needed to record something, well then they needed to record it on a a reel-to-reel audio box the size of a briefcase. If they needed to take pictures, well then they needed to develop those photos in a dark room, praying that the images come out the way they intended. And so The Americans constantly presents us with this wayback "brave new world" of stripped down spy games in which situations that would seem easy to us in the present are perilous in the past.
Good things they still had knives and guns back then. Classic murder.
"Hey man, is that Freedom Rock?"
"No, man. It's progressive new wave protopunk! Get the f*** out of here, hippie!"
Nothing accompanies a high-stakes, perilous covert mission like some Phil Collins. Or Roxy Music. Or maybe some Fad Gadget. The Americans is set in the 80s, yes, but not the "totally tubular" 80s. And while there are some recognizable hits, there are also some magnificent deep cuts - like The Cure's "Siamese Twins," Pete Townsend's "Rough Boys," and Peter Gabriel's "Game Without Frontiers." All of them expertly used to luxuriously envelop scenes of violence, fear, trauma, seduction, and sorrow. So the show's soundtrack wound up creating a wonderful extra layer that I don't think anyone anticipated.
In fact, what are you even doing here? Go bust out your Echo and the Bunnymen albums and... *drops everything, painstakingly explains to an entire generation what a record is"
At the heart of The Americans, naturally, is the duo of Russell and Rhys and their powerhouse performances as Elizabeth and Phillip. Two KGB agents who've been living as an American married couple for well over a decade, speaking nothing but English and fully integrating into USA living. But it's the turmoil between them, as a man and a woman who never really knew each other before they were put into an arranged marriage by their own government, is what drives the show. Elizabeth's mistrust of Phillip. Phillip fearing Elizabeth's more hardline loyalties. The two of them both having to deal with the escalation of danger in the missions they're being assigned to carry out - some of them seemingly impossible. And all the while having to worry about being taken out by their own superiors, much less the FBI on their tail. It's an incredible tight rope act to follow.
Spies Like Us.
I don't want to give too much away about Season 1 for those of you who still need to catch up, but let's just say that things became harrowing on both a family level and professional level for the Jennings, as the clandestine black ops war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union heated up with the creeping news of President Reagan's "Star Wars" satellite defense system initiative.
And while I'm touting the performances from Russell and Rhys, let me also put it out there that folks like Noah Emmerich, Alison Wright, Annet Mahendru, Susan Misner, and (of course!) Margo Martindale, who's superb in a recurring role, make a spectacular supporting cast.
The Season 2 premiere of The Americans airs Tuesday, February 26th at 10pm on FX.
Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/Showrenity.
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