The Americans
Aug. 29th, 2013 01:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shapinglightI meant to write a post about this series now I've finished watching it (didn't get to see even the last episode when it actually aired. Had to catch up on itvPlayer).
Spoilers behind cut.
I really loved this show. Okay, yes, all the way through it you had to remind yourself that these characters you can't help rooting for have done, and continue to do, some appalling, morally repugnant things - Philip and Elizabeth threatening to kill that poor woman's son, unless she plants the bug in Casper Weinberger's office, Elizabeth killing the security guard, Philip's whole relationship with Martha etc, etc - but you can't help rooting for them anyway.
And if you're me, you can't help rooting for Nina to 'redeem' herself by turning Stan into a KGB mole (I feel annoyed with what Stan did to poor Vlad too, and I don't like Stan anyway), and are pleased that Claudia got her very grisly revenge for Zhukov's assassination and then turned out not to be 'evil' - well, not evil in the sense of betraying Philip and Elizabeth, despite Elizabeth's personal antagonism towards her.
There isn't really 'good' and 'evil' in the big picture sense in this show anyway. Both sides believe (more or less) in what they're doing. 'Evil' only happens on the personal level. I'd say what Philip is doing to Martha is evil, for instance.
I also like that the final scene in the episode showed that Paige at least is getting a clue, because if she and Henry remained blissfully ignorant of the fact that there is Something Weird about their parents for much longer it would be even more unbelievable.
So, anyway, great series, with the only false note for me being that (yet again) almost all the non-white characters ended up dead, and that Stan's extreme reaction to the death of Amador just didn't strike me as earned. I just didn't get from what went before that they were that close. Also, the eighties setting doesn't quite work for me. Some characters - Philip and Elizabeth included - especially Elizabeth - just seem too 'modern.'
Roll on season 2.
Spoilers behind cut.
I really loved this show. Okay, yes, all the way through it you had to remind yourself that these characters you can't help rooting for have done, and continue to do, some appalling, morally repugnant things - Philip and Elizabeth threatening to kill that poor woman's son, unless she plants the bug in Casper Weinberger's office, Elizabeth killing the security guard, Philip's whole relationship with Martha etc, etc - but you can't help rooting for them anyway.
And if you're me, you can't help rooting for Nina to 'redeem' herself by turning Stan into a KGB mole (I feel annoyed with what Stan did to poor Vlad too, and I don't like Stan anyway), and are pleased that Claudia got her very grisly revenge for Zhukov's assassination and then turned out not to be 'evil' - well, not evil in the sense of betraying Philip and Elizabeth, despite Elizabeth's personal antagonism towards her.
There isn't really 'good' and 'evil' in the big picture sense in this show anyway. Both sides believe (more or less) in what they're doing. 'Evil' only happens on the personal level. I'd say what Philip is doing to Martha is evil, for instance.
I also like that the final scene in the episode showed that Paige at least is getting a clue, because if she and Henry remained blissfully ignorant of the fact that there is Something Weird about their parents for much longer it would be even more unbelievable.
So, anyway, great series, with the only false note for me being that (yet again) almost all the non-white characters ended up dead, and that Stan's extreme reaction to the death of Amador just didn't strike me as earned. I just didn't get from what went before that they were that close. Also, the eighties setting doesn't quite work for me. Some characters - Philip and Elizabeth included - especially Elizabeth - just seem too 'modern.'
Roll on season 2.
no subject
Date: 2013-08-29 07:06 pm (UTC)I just hope the TV channel that showed it over here will show it again.