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“The Americans’” creators discuss the season finale

Thu, 02 May 2013 03:00:00 +0000

"The Americans," FX's excellent and exciting spy series about two married, deep-cover KGB agents, Philip and Elizabeth Jennings, living in 1980s America, finished its first season in fitting fashion: with a finale full of, but never overrun by, action. The season ender contained not one but two covert missions, a sting, a high-speed car chase, and a shooting, but ended quietly, with the CIA momentarily foiled and Philip and Elizabeth, a bullet wound in her side, finally reconciled. Next season has near endless juicy material to explore: Nina, now a USSR double agent, is out to flip Stan; Elizabeth may want Philip to come home, but one of his alter-egos is still married to Martha; the Jennings' daughter is getting suspicious of her mother; and the Cold War is only escalating. "The Americans''' two showrunners, Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg, also the series creator and a former CIA agent himself, spoke with me about the finale, season 2, the intentional lack of cliffhanger and those super wigs.

How much of what happened this season did you know was going to happen when you began?

Why can’t I hate “The Americans”’ Elizabeth Jennings?

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 22:50:00 +0000

Likability, well on its way to becoming a dirty word, is on everyone’s lips these days: Why aren’t Anne Hathaway and Taylor Swift likable? Why are Jennifer Lawrence and Mila Kunis? What does it matter if Hannah Horvath or Amy Jellicoe is unlikable, so long as they are interesting? Why are women, both real and fictional, constantly being assessed for likability while men doing similar things get a pass? And what is with our current, not gender-specific cultural obsession with the unlikable anyway? And with making the unlikable lovable?

“The Americans” gets entangled in psychological spy games

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 14:51:00 +0000

I want to pay “The Americans” a compliment, but to do so, I have to start with an insult. I was really irritated and bored with the first half of last night’s episode — “Trust Me” — in which first Philip and then Elizabeth appeared to be captured by the FBI, who torture them, and Phil especially, in the hope they will confess their true identities. I was bored and irritated because it just so obviously could not be the FBI that had captured them. That’s a plot point we’re not going to see for a few seasons, at least, because it will mean the show is pretty much over. And besides, the Russians had just realized they had a mole in their outfit: Clearly they had captured Elizabeth and Philip, and were testing them to make sure they hadn’t flipped. (This is a particular spy-genre trick I’ve seen before, like in that bad-but-sort-of-fun to watch Colin Farrell–Al Pacino movie “The Recruit”; also, if the Russians meant it, they would have kept Philip and Elizabeth for more than an afternoon.) This is, in fact, what had happened, but when Elizabeth and Philip figured out it was the KGB doing the physical and psychological assaulting, “The Americans” got original and dark.

Matthew Rhys: “I still blink hard when the young PAs say, ‘We’re doing this period drama’”

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 01:00:00 +0000

The Cold War-era espionage thriller "The Americans," which is halfway through its first season on FX (and airs on Wednesday nights at 10 p.m. ET), is not the first series to challenge the audience to identify with unsympathetic characters. But this early 1980s drama pushes American views a little harder, asking us to root for KGB sleeper cells living in suburban northern Virginia as Americans — and see CIA and FBI agents as the enemy. Welsh actor Matthew Rhys, who last appeared on U.S. television in ABC's family drama "Brothers & Sisters" as a gay lawyer (and whose TV brood included Rachel Griffiths, Calista Flockhart and Sally Field), returns to the small screen to play Philip Jennings, a Russian spy, who takes all of his roles very seriously, no matter which identity he's assumed. He is an effective strategist when it comes to collecting intelligence — and a scrappy thug when he needs to be. But equally interesting is the domestic drama within "The Americans": Philip is devoted to his wife, Elizabeth (Keri Russell) — despite the fact that theirs is an arranged, sham marriage — and an extremely protective father to their daughter and son, who know nothing of their parents' secret and past lives. And part of Philip wonders if it would just be better for the family to defect, to buy into the American way of life — which would, of course, mean betraying his country and abandoning his life's work.

Must do’s: What to watch and read this weekend

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 15:00:00 +0000

Every week, our critics tell us about the books, TV shows and films that set their minds racing. As you settle into your weekend in pursuit of good stories, here's a recap of their most essential picks for what to watch and read — and discuss.

Laura Miller is absolutely absorbed by Herman Koch's gripping thriller "The Dinner" — a best-seller in Europe, selling over 1 million copies — a story propelled by an unreliable narrator. It's not quite the Dutch answer to Gillian Flynn's huge hit, "Gone Girl," but is no less riveting. She writes:

"What Koch achieves with his prose — plain but undergirded by breathtaking angles, like a beautiful face scrubbed free of makeup — is a brilliantly engineered and (for the thoughtful reader) chastening mindfuck. The novel is designed to make you think twice, then thrice, not only about what goes on within its pages, but also the next time indignation rises up, pure and fiery, in your own heart."

FX orders another season of Cold War-era spy thriller “The Americans”

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 14:15:00 +0000

FX's Cold War-era spy thriller "The Americans," which premiered in January, has already been approved for a second season with 13 episodes. The show has been compared to the Showtime espionage hit "Homeland"; the Hollywood Reporter's Tim Goodman wrote in January that "It's too early to really judge 'Americans' against 'Homeland,' but if the latter is getting away from what hooked you in the first place, then you might find what you're missing on 'Americans'."

Indeed, "The Americans" debuted with high ratings, and although fewer people tuned in after the first few weeks, ratings company Nielsen has attributed the decline to increased viewership on DVRs.

Is “The Americans” making the same mistakes as “Newsroom” and “Homeland”?

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 14:23:00 +0000

Two thoughts about “The Americans,” FX’s Russian spy/dysfunctional marriage show, which aired its fourth episode last night, about the aftermath of the Reagan assassination attempt.

1) A couple of days ago, Ben Williams, who runs New York magazine's website (and, full disclosure, my old boss) tweeted, “I'm not sure why the main focus of 'The Americans' so far is the central characters' 'marriage.' It's like 'Homeland' all over again.” This is a really good question!

The Jennings’ marriage is, theoretically, what makes “The Americans” more than just a spy show (although, so does the whole ‘80s thing). Ideally, it adds another complicated, fraught layer to an already multilayered situation. These two spies have been keeping their covers, emotionally, with one another these last 20 years: What happens when they finally stop being double agents in their marriage?

“The Americans”: Rooting against America has never been so fun

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 18:13:00 +0000

“The Americans,” FX’s wonderfully sly, ass-kicking new spy show, premieres tomorrow night and stars Keri Russell ("Felicity") and Matthew Rhys ("Brothers & Sisters") as Elizabeth and Phil Jennings, two Russian sleeper agents under deep, deep cover in 1981 America. The two began training in the early ‘60s, learning to speak English with no accent, to fight with no survivors. Paired together in their early 20s, forbidden from talking in Russian to one another, and told not to share their real identities, they were sent off alone, together to the United States posing as a young married couple. More than a decade later, they are balancing top-secret, ultra-dangerous Cold War missions with two kids, a house in the D.C. suburbs, and a travel agency. Their arranged, fake marriage, full of resentment, disagreements and passion, and characterized by complete dependency and entanglement, looks not so dissimilar from a knotty, real marriage.