FX's The Americans

I've never "reviewed" a TV show. Tho I'm a bona fide couch louse, I could've written about OITNB, or some years back on, It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, Spartacus: Blood and Sand (the one with Andy), Copper, the Spaniard El Gran Hotel or some Korean soap opera infused with fantasy about a mother and daughter who really are Foxes posing as humans. But in this new era of binge watching, I watched The Americans by streaming it on my touchscreen PC. First via Amazon's 30 day trial. and once I finished all first three seasons in under a week, thanks to my nursing a sprained ankle the size of an American football, I hopped on over to Time Warner's Cable streaming service and watched season 4. The beauty of streaming has revolutionized viewing pleasures. A couch potato's paradise. Or an office chair potato, or wooden chair at a cafe or library potato, car seat potato. Whatever. Wherever.

I first encountered The Americans when it initially came out by becoming intrigued through it's commercials. I was going to night school so I never started it, but it caught my eye (I'm an "all or nothing" type of gal). I filed it away. I have an amazing capacity of flicking and zooming through thumbnails and picking a great movie out of hundreds. I guess my eye has been trained, considering I'm a film school drop out, but it was my keen eye which got me into film school to begin with. What came first? The chicken or the egg? What's my point? If I can pick a decent film in a sea of wannabe videos posing as movies then a commercial of a really good show is like a jewel in a catalog you put mental lay away on.

ANYWAY, The Americans is an allegory of the disintegrating or struggling family unit among other things. The statistics have a face. It's also a throwback on beautiful 1980's office blouses which I happen to collect or just stare for long periods of minutes at the Salvo. Vintage never looked so beautiful. It's also about people "working" each other. Assimilation. Secrets. Sex. Violence. The show is well cast, edited very nicely, written ok, and many times has that dark cozy look. A distant young bland cousin of the X-Files. But Mulder & Scully are KGB who actually get to bang and kill.

Keri Russell has always reminded me of the young version that was my mom (she looks NOTHING like Rusell anymore). This is what probably made me do double takes when the commercials first came out back in 2013. Russell looks almost exactly like my mom from what I gather thru the sepia and b&w pictures, sans the curly hair. And as the episodes went on Matthew Rhys kinda looked like my dad when he was young too, in a way. This cemented the theme of The Family that is together but far apart. So close yet so far. The wife or husband who knows the other is sleeping around or even in love with another. It has a hint of swinging culture too.

What abounds are hurt consciousness, Reagan on TV,  patriotism, office culture, clunky heel leather boots, wigs, Russians, beer, bureaucrats, secret meets, plots, self help, acceptance, units and children caught in the middle. And Sex. And Violence. The last two abound. A lot. Sure, the show gets redundant, but when you have extremely well developed characters, who cares? It's something familiar your brain can nicely set a steady release of serotonin to. Or the opposite can be true as well. Those 10 minute plots can give someone a nice case of anxiety, but it goes by quickly. Than you see the ridiculousness of it all. How Beeman is the neighbor to my dad & mom, and is oblivious. Or is he?

I would have to say Matthew Rhys is the real spear head of the show. AND CAN SOMEONE CAST HIM AS PAUL WELLSTONE PLEASE IN A BIO PIC?! All yelling aside, this leading man is like that boyfriend your friends and family swear you're settling on, but ends up being a great piece of hunk and catch. He's an approachable intense. His relationship with Martha and her arch were one of my favorite relationships/developments on the show. And what a set of acting chops on Alison Wright! She is the one I related to. Yes. I too have been duped. To be fair many on the show use sex as power (think Nina) or as a tool (think Elizabeth), but ultimately the thin lines between espionage/survival sex and the falling in love kind gets blurred. Like I said, Martha's arch was a great one to watch. Another of my fav characters is Beeman's (Noah Emmerich). If that nervous tick of his is acting, by gosh, that's great! It works.

Evolution. Things change. Eras become the foundations of many more decades of spying. Empires become frenemies. The only difference now is: We know it's going on. We are willing participants of the inverted big brother. Joy sticks become fingers on screens, but families continue to keep up the appearances. Wigs become weaves, the living room or bar gets replaced by a beer garden or a pricey brunch spot. In short, the outside of things changes but the core, the essence, remains the same. An explanation/demonstration of how things came to be not only becomes a history lesson but a warning. Men in suits or in uniforms or gate keepers of borders claiming to do it for their country are ruthless. No matter what year it is. I wonder if ASSad or Putin watch this show via satellite. If they do, how ironic is that?