The Americans (Season 1)
Aug. 21st, 2014 02:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakThe first season is now available on dvd in Germany, and thus I could at last marathon it. I think I have a new show which provides me with entertaining (fictional) spying and shady characters. Given my fandom backstory, if I had to pitch the first season in a sentence I'd say "the Spyrents, Jack and Irina from Alias, if they had both been working for the KGB".
Not that the personalities are a match, mind you. Philip and Elizabeth are very much their own characters, which is a good thing. Also, there is no red ball in sight. But they're a couple of ruthless and efficient spies pretending to be suburban Americans, their children - whom they love and lie to on a regular basis - have no idea of the truth, and the question as to how much what was originally a (shared) assignment has become an emotional reality to them is key to their dynamic.
Like many a post-Le Carré spyfiction, this is definitely a "spying is a dirty trade on both sides, and each side also mistreats their own people" kind of tale. I knew via fannish osmosis that in addition to Elizabeth and Philipp - who are Russian agents in American disguise - as the central characters, there was Stan the FBI agent as the third main character, and had half assumed Stan would be the show's "good" character, i.e. Philip and Elizabeth provide the guilty thrills of spying, Stan as the American audience representative the conscience. This isn't the case. I mean, as of the first season Elizabeth and Philip still have a higher body count than Stan, but we do see Stan commit murder (sanctioned pre and post facto by his superior), and he as well as they blackmails, threatens, emotionally manipulates, lies to and uses assets. Which isn't to say that Stan is the villain and the show justifies Philipp and Elizabeth through him, but that all of them are shown as employing these methods while justifying them to each other - but not the narrative - as being for a higher cause.
They're also showing the occasional moment of guilt, though it's at least as interesting what they DON'T feel guilty for as what they do. For example, Philipp has yet to show the slightest flicker of guilt about what he's doing with Martha, an FBI employee whom he has turned, without her knowledge, into a source via romancing her in a different identity, as Clark the harmless nerd, whereas nearly suffocating a boy in order to get his mother to corporate made him sick. Conversely, Elizabeth felt guilty about using the emotions of her very first asset (and lover), Gregory, but never yet has had a problem (before or after) shooting hapless bystanders if they are inconvenient witnesses.
Meanwhile, the show itself doesn't forget the bystanders. That murder Stan commits is the execution of a hapless minor employee from the Russian embassy in revenge for his partner getting killed. "Death of a partner" is such a tried and true cop show trope used to justify manpain and revenge slaughtering, but here the after effect is shown at length, and not just on Stan (though also on him), but on Nina, who was the unfortunate Vlad's friend. Not girlfriend, and not in love with him, though he may have crushed on her; just friend, and that's treated as as important an emotion as Stan's grief for his partner. (And honestly, I thought Vlad was the more sympathetic character.) Nina is Stan's asset but the death of Vlad is a huge factor in her reconsidering her loyalties.
What fannish osmosis hadn't told me about but who was a delightful surprise: Claudia. Claudia is Elizabeth's and Philipp's handler, nicknamed "Granny" by them, and not in an affectionate way. It's an accurate nickname in as much as Claudia's public facade is "benign old overweight woman" (and I've seen the actress play that type in other films and tv shows, she always gets cast as this, so it's perfect because it's not the truth at all), whereas the reality of her is Stalingrad survivor and female KGB version of George Smiley. It's exactly the type of role which in 99% of shows would go either to a male actor or, if to a female one, to a spectacularly beautiful one. Instead, someone in the casting department must have read Terry Prattchet and concluded that granny(s) can be TERRIFYING. Claudia has most of her scenes with Elizabeth, and that's another dynamic you rarely see between two female characters, let alone two female spies; hostile, but for reasons that aren't about sexual competitiveness, and if the audience is at first invited to share Elizabeth's distrust of Claudia, it later learns that Claudia's competence at her job does, in fact, include loyalty to her agents - as long as they are her agents -, and that Claudia does in fact have a better understanding of Elizabeth and Philipp than they have of her.
What the show stands or falls with, imo, though is whether or not it manages to sell you on the central Elizabeth and Philipp dynamic. Well, it sold me. I like the "marriage of arrangement becomes real" trope if it's well done and doesn't take the easy way out (i.e. once emotions are admitted, everything's fine), and by God, this show ever does not take the easy way out with these two (who lie and fake emotions for a living, and that inevitably colours how they interact with each other as well, even if they don't mean it to). It also unites this trope with the one about long term partners who both have each other's back but also have let each other down in some ways, and thus have a mixture of intimate knowledge and (often justified) distrust for each other, which is usually, again, given to male characters (ESPECIALLY in Le Carré novels) - Alias watchers, think Jack and Arvin Sloane rather than Jack and Irina. Also, neither of them is shown to be in the right or in the wrong all the time. Both the professional and the emotional screw-ups are equally divided. (I remember liking the early X-Files but being annoyed by the show making Scully so often wrong with the rational explanation. Not so here.) Oh, and I really like the actors. Keri Hallwell isn't a human chameleon the way Tatiana Maslany is, but she makes Elizabeth the ruthless spy in distrust of her emotions believable, and Matthew Rhys does both the harmless nebbish guy next door and the cold-eyed killer perfectly.
Downsides: well, the pilot not only includes a rape flashback but opens with Elizabeth seducing a mark. The later is balanced when ep 2 opens with Philipp doing the very same thing (did I mention that yes, both Elizabeth and Philipp have sex with other people throughout the season, both for spy reasons and in one specific case for each for emotional ones?), and also we get a lot more not-rape (or for that matter any type of sex)-related flashbacks from Elizabeth's past (in fact, most of the flashbacks through the season are Elizabeth's; the season is two thirds over before we find out what Philipp's original Russian name was or anything about his past, whereas we find out Elizabeth's original name in the pilot). But I can understand why people watching solely the pilot might be turned off by this. Another potential fail could have been Stan starting to sleep with his asset, Nina, whom he blackmailed into becoming a double to begin with (power imbalance, anyone?), but this then turns against Stan, not Nina, Nina isn't fridged, and gains agenda instead of losing it.
In conclusion: I have a new show! Mind you, I'm aware that it could fall apart as Homeland did in the second season. Then again, it could prove, like Breaking Bad did, that you can use the premise to create something strong for longer than just one season, and without making half of your cast look stupid. Guess I'll find out...
Not that the personalities are a match, mind you. Philip and Elizabeth are very much their own characters, which is a good thing. Also, there is no red ball in sight. But they're a couple of ruthless and efficient spies pretending to be suburban Americans, their children - whom they love and lie to on a regular basis - have no idea of the truth, and the question as to how much what was originally a (shared) assignment has become an emotional reality to them is key to their dynamic.
Like many a post-Le Carré spyfiction, this is definitely a "spying is a dirty trade on both sides, and each side also mistreats their own people" kind of tale. I knew via fannish osmosis that in addition to Elizabeth and Philipp - who are Russian agents in American disguise - as the central characters, there was Stan the FBI agent as the third main character, and had half assumed Stan would be the show's "good" character, i.e. Philip and Elizabeth provide the guilty thrills of spying, Stan as the American audience representative the conscience. This isn't the case. I mean, as of the first season Elizabeth and Philip still have a higher body count than Stan, but we do see Stan commit murder (sanctioned pre and post facto by his superior), and he as well as they blackmails, threatens, emotionally manipulates, lies to and uses assets. Which isn't to say that Stan is the villain and the show justifies Philipp and Elizabeth through him, but that all of them are shown as employing these methods while justifying them to each other - but not the narrative - as being for a higher cause.
They're also showing the occasional moment of guilt, though it's at least as interesting what they DON'T feel guilty for as what they do. For example, Philipp has yet to show the slightest flicker of guilt about what he's doing with Martha, an FBI employee whom he has turned, without her knowledge, into a source via romancing her in a different identity, as Clark the harmless nerd, whereas nearly suffocating a boy in order to get his mother to corporate made him sick. Conversely, Elizabeth felt guilty about using the emotions of her very first asset (and lover), Gregory, but never yet has had a problem (before or after) shooting hapless bystanders if they are inconvenient witnesses.
Meanwhile, the show itself doesn't forget the bystanders. That murder Stan commits is the execution of a hapless minor employee from the Russian embassy in revenge for his partner getting killed. "Death of a partner" is such a tried and true cop show trope used to justify manpain and revenge slaughtering, but here the after effect is shown at length, and not just on Stan (though also on him), but on Nina, who was the unfortunate Vlad's friend. Not girlfriend, and not in love with him, though he may have crushed on her; just friend, and that's treated as as important an emotion as Stan's grief for his partner. (And honestly, I thought Vlad was the more sympathetic character.) Nina is Stan's asset but the death of Vlad is a huge factor in her reconsidering her loyalties.
What fannish osmosis hadn't told me about but who was a delightful surprise: Claudia. Claudia is Elizabeth's and Philipp's handler, nicknamed "Granny" by them, and not in an affectionate way. It's an accurate nickname in as much as Claudia's public facade is "benign old overweight woman" (and I've seen the actress play that type in other films and tv shows, she always gets cast as this, so it's perfect because it's not the truth at all), whereas the reality of her is Stalingrad survivor and female KGB version of George Smiley. It's exactly the type of role which in 99% of shows would go either to a male actor or, if to a female one, to a spectacularly beautiful one. Instead, someone in the casting department must have read Terry Prattchet and concluded that granny(s) can be TERRIFYING. Claudia has most of her scenes with Elizabeth, and that's another dynamic you rarely see between two female characters, let alone two female spies; hostile, but for reasons that aren't about sexual competitiveness, and if the audience is at first invited to share Elizabeth's distrust of Claudia, it later learns that Claudia's competence at her job does, in fact, include loyalty to her agents - as long as they are her agents -, and that Claudia does in fact have a better understanding of Elizabeth and Philipp than they have of her.
What the show stands or falls with, imo, though is whether or not it manages to sell you on the central Elizabeth and Philipp dynamic. Well, it sold me. I like the "marriage of arrangement becomes real" trope if it's well done and doesn't take the easy way out (i.e. once emotions are admitted, everything's fine), and by God, this show ever does not take the easy way out with these two (who lie and fake emotions for a living, and that inevitably colours how they interact with each other as well, even if they don't mean it to). It also unites this trope with the one about long term partners who both have each other's back but also have let each other down in some ways, and thus have a mixture of intimate knowledge and (often justified) distrust for each other, which is usually, again, given to male characters (ESPECIALLY in Le Carré novels) - Alias watchers, think Jack and Arvin Sloane rather than Jack and Irina. Also, neither of them is shown to be in the right or in the wrong all the time. Both the professional and the emotional screw-ups are equally divided. (I remember liking the early X-Files but being annoyed by the show making Scully so often wrong with the rational explanation. Not so here.) Oh, and I really like the actors. Keri Hallwell isn't a human chameleon the way Tatiana Maslany is, but she makes Elizabeth the ruthless spy in distrust of her emotions believable, and Matthew Rhys does both the harmless nebbish guy next door and the cold-eyed killer perfectly.
Downsides: well, the pilot not only includes a rape flashback but opens with Elizabeth seducing a mark. The later is balanced when ep 2 opens with Philipp doing the very same thing (did I mention that yes, both Elizabeth and Philipp have sex with other people throughout the season, both for spy reasons and in one specific case for each for emotional ones?), and also we get a lot more not-rape (or for that matter any type of sex)-related flashbacks from Elizabeth's past (in fact, most of the flashbacks through the season are Elizabeth's; the season is two thirds over before we find out what Philipp's original Russian name was or anything about his past, whereas we find out Elizabeth's original name in the pilot). But I can understand why people watching solely the pilot might be turned off by this. Another potential fail could have been Stan starting to sleep with his asset, Nina, whom he blackmailed into becoming a double to begin with (power imbalance, anyone?), but this then turns against Stan, not Nina, Nina isn't fridged, and gains agenda instead of losing it.
In conclusion: I have a new show! Mind you, I'm aware that it could fall apart as Homeland did in the second season. Then again, it could prove, like Breaking Bad did, that you can use the premise to create something strong for longer than just one season, and without making half of your cast look stupid. Guess I'll find out...
no subject
Date: 2014-08-21 03:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-22 07:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-21 05:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-21 10:10 pm (UTC)They're also showing the occasional moment of guilt, though it's at least as interesting what they DON'T feel guilty for as what they do. For example, Philipp has yet to show the slightest flicker of guilt about what he's doing with Martha, an FBI employee whom he has turned, without her knowledge, into a source via romancing her in a different identity, as Clark the harmless nerd, whereas nearly suffocating a boy in order to get his mother to corporate made him sick. Conversely, Elizabeth felt guilty about using the emotions of her very first asset (and lover), Gregory, but never yet has had a problem (before or after) shooting hapless bystanders if they are inconvenient witness.
Oooh, this is a great observation.
And lots of great comments about the number of unexpected things the show does.
Re: Claudia -- Margo Martindale has tended to get cast as innocuous granny types, though I think the credit for realizing she could be tough and sinister goes to the casting director at another FX show, Justified, where she played the Big Bad of a season arc as the formidable matriarch of an Appalachian family. Though it's still a step from that to envision her in the (like you said, usually male or else young and overtly sexy) handler role.
Great casting all around, here.
no subject
Date: 2014-08-22 07:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-22 01:32 pm (UTC)