The Americans: The Complete Third Season

THE AMERICANS: THE COMPLETE THIRD SEASON

Lo, The Americans is blessed and cursed.  The Americans is one of the best shows on television today.  UNFORTUNATELY, it is all but lost in the shuffle with other shows like Better Call Saul, Game of Thrones or The Walking Dead.  Nothing against sleazy lawyers, unhinged kings or zombies, but this tragic tale of Soviet spies who find their moral core corroded and their children in danger both foreign and domestic is, I think, a better show. 

As I finished Season Three, I thought about what makes The Americans such great television.  It all boils down to two features: great acting and great scripts.  Such a combination isn't always easy to achieve.  I think of Sherlock for example.  Yes, it is highly critically acclaimed and has a rabid fanbase (one that thinks the episodes are better than Canon, which some Sherlockians just don't care about...because The Hound of the Baskervilles can't be as good as Hounds of Baskerville).  I think it is very well-acted, but the scripts are lousy and nonsensical. 

The Americans is different.  Almost all episodes are true to the characters, and in the ten episodes they take time to have our leads, Soviet spies Elizabeth and Philip Jennings, evolve and grow (and sometimes regress).  We have seen them fight, love, work together and be at odds.  In short, we've seem them as an average married couple.

This season we've seen them grow if not conflicted about what they do at least see that there is a high human cost.  Elizabeth had to sit as she cajoled Betty Turner (Lois Smith, in what should be at least an Emmy-nominated performance for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama) to kill herself.  Betty is an innocent caught up in their espionage, and I wonder whether the fact that Elizabeth's own mother is dying somehow impacted seeing this old woman expire in a particularly brutal fashion. 

The real evolution has been with Philip, who was always the more sensitive and 'Americanized' of the two.  Elizabeth believes that life in America is 'easier but not better'.   Philip doesn't.  He isn't about to defect, but he also has been more troubled by his conscience, which as guest/supporting actor Frank Langella observed to him, is a dangerous thing. 

As he sees his daughter Paige slip further from him both emotionally and with the Center's desire to make her a second-generation spy, along with his explorations of emotion through EST, Philip is being dragged emotionally through the mud.  He now not only could lose his daughter, but he could lose his son Misha, whom he's never met, in the deserts of Afghanistan.  I'm still haunted by what he wrote as the 'suicide note' in the season finale.  "I had no choice.  I'm sorry," the note read for Gene. 

In truth, he was writing it about himself.

I think at heart The Americans is a tragedy.  Our hearts break for these two people who are killing and working to destroy our country.  I think it is because they are destroying themselves and what they truly hold dear (their family) slowly and irrevocably.  Brilliantly, we both know them and don't know them.  The Jennings are a front.  They disguise themselves constantly to everyone they meet (and the fact that The Americans hasn't received a Make-Up nomination is as foolish as Crappie Redmayne winning an Oscar for giving an impersonation rather than a performance).   Yet, for all their disguises and subterfuge, at heart they actually are good people doing terrible things.

We are getting such rich performances from the whole cast.  At the top of the list are the leads, Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell.  Rhys gives us the heart of the show as Philip, who does his duty but now is almost as robotic as the mail bot he puts a listening device on.  He is growing more conflicted by what he is asked to do: seduce a fifteen year old, give his daughter up, kill more innocents.  This has been a running theme this season, Philip's increasingly divided soul.  Rhys has handled this so wonderfully (and with a successful American accent to cover his native Welsh one). 

Russell has done the same as Elizabeth, who isn't as conflicted about her mission but who also is perhaps starting to regret what she has done/is doing to her daughter.  Elizabeth, unlike Philip, sees that her work makes the world a better place (at least to her), despite what Betty tells her about being evil.  Odd, that we don't think of her as evil even as she does evil things.  Can we, like her, compartmentalize it all?

I also think that The Americans has the best cast on television as a whole.  Holly Taylor has taken center stage as Paige, and I think she's done brilliant work for a younger actress.  When she finally learns the truth (after relentless digging on her own) there was no great hysterics, no wildness.  Instead, it was all rather calm...too calm, almost as if the shock hasn't fully registered.  Taylor handles all this so well on-screen.  The Martha storyline is equally brilliant, as Alison Wright makes the secretary into a sad figure, one who loves but finds herself in a horrible situation.  It's also been good to see Noah Emmerich not just be devoted to investigating like the good FBI agent that he is.  We also see the private side of Stan Beeman: haunted by his love for Nina and the hurt he caused to his soon to be ex-wife Sandra. 

Annet Mahendru as Nina, the Soviet who is working to save herself from certain death in a Soviet prison, has been nothing short of amazing (and yes, remarkably beautiful for a woman locked up in a gulag).  Nina is a survivor, who lives by the opportunities presented to her, who has been given a thin lifeline and is determined to make a go of it no matter how much she has to do.

I now have curiosity over Season Four.  Now that Martha knows her husband 'Clark' is not who he says he is, and Paige has squealed to her hippy-drippy pastor (sorry, but don't understand why Paige found religion through a lefty church when the Moral Majority was taking hold of American politics back then, a hold that is all but dead now), what will happen to both?  Will Elizabeth's resolve strengthen now that Ronald Reagan has declared the Soviet Union an 'evil empire'?  Will Philip finally break?  What about Henry Jennings, who is being left adrift, becoming more obsessed with video games and bonding with next-door neighbor Stan?  What will their next mission be?  How many more innocents will have to die? 

The Americans is a brilliant show in all aspects: writing, directing, hair/makeup, and acting.  I don't understand why more people aren't watching it.  I hope to be more diligent when covering the show, for unlike others, I'm not big on binge-watching.  I love the show and recommend it to everyone.

Next Episode:

The Americans: March 8, 1983 Review

THE AMERICANS: MARCH 8, 1983

Ronald Reagan, in my view, is one of the Greatest Presidents in History.  I admit to being prejudiced on the subject, given I am a Child of the 1980s and grew up with President Reagan.  He is a shadow over The Americans, given that he saw the defeat of the Soviet Union as not just a political but a moral crusade.  March 8, 1983 is the day on which President Reagan gave what has come to be known as "The Evil Empire" speech.  As the world of the Jennings is coming down all around them, to hear the leader of their enemy refer to their country and cause as evil has an impact on all of the Jennings and their circle, whether they know it or not.  March 8, 1983 is not just the season finale to The Americans, but it is a tumultuous day for the family, as so many things start emerging that could end up exploding all around them in ways none of them can foresee. 

We do have to go a bit back, to when Elizabeth Jennings (Keri Russell) along with her daughter Paige (Holly Taylor) manage to get tickets to West Berlin,  Ostensibly a perk of being a travel agent, this is really a secret trip to see Elizabeth's mother, who is dying.  Gabriel (Frank Langella) is livid about this, but in the end he gives in. While in Germany, Elizabeth is on alert for anyone suspicious of them.  They do get to see Elizabeth's mother, smuggled in as she is in the last stages of cancer I believe.  Grandmamma knows about Paige, but this is not the happy reunion her granddaughter expected.  Instead, she's slightly traumatized: worried that Elizabeth could leave her like she left her mother, she prays for them both.

Philip (Matthew Rhys) meanwhile, has one particular young man in mind while plotting the newest mission with the Afghans with Yousaf (Rahul Khanna).  As part of their efforts to throw the FBI investigation off track regarding the bug, Philip kills Gene (Luke Robertson), the tech guy.  He frames it as a suicide to suggest that it was him who planted the bug, but Philip's conscience is getting at him.  He sees all the toys in Gene's apartment, and it brings to mind his son Henry (Keidrich Sellati), who has become obsessed with electronic toys.  Despite his excellent work, Philip is basically a broken man.

Stan Beeman (Noah Emmerich) gets the proof that Zenaida (Svetlana Efremova) is a double agent, but Agent Gaad (Richard Thomas) is livid that he created this operation with Oleg Burov (Costa Ronin) AND did it without authorization.  (There's a lot of livid higher-ups, aren't there?).  Gaad is convinced Beeman is finished, but an unexpected source of rescue comes from the assistant attorney general, who encourages Beeman to keep up his relationship with Burov.  However, Beeman's goal of rescuing Nina failed, as she will not be traded for Zenaida.

In the end, we see Philip and Elizabeth in their room as a news report details Ronald Reagan's speech to the National Evangelical Association.  As Paige is on the phone, revealing to Pastor Tim that her parents are Russian spies, Elizabeth becomes quietly enraged at Reagan, while Philip, defeated, is blubbering on, not caring about what the President has to say.

There really is nothing more to say other than The Americans is one of if not the best-acted television series so far.  I can't find a bad performance from any of the cast in this episode.  Certainly the trio of Russell, Rhys, and Taylor all score grand slams.

The scene with three generations as they reunite is so tender and heartbreaking and beautiful.
Philip's regret about killing Gene, down to when he types the 'suicide note'.  "I had no choice.  I'm sorry," is what he writes as Gene, but I think he was writing that about himself.  His quest for peace through EST, which he now finds a source of release and comfort.  Paige's fears about being left.  Elizabeth's quiet rage at Reagan.

Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.

On the whole though, March 8, 1983 isn't perfect. We get only the slightest glimpse of the storyline with Nina and Anton, and Martha has disappeared, both of which I find curious choices.  However, that does make Season Four a more fascinating affair.  That, and the idea that Paige has revealed the biggest family secret.

She should have gone Catholic: at least priests can't reveal what they learn in confession...

10/10

Season Three Overview

The Americans: I Am Abassin Zadran Review

THE AMERICANS: I AM ABASSIN ZADRAN

It is said that it is the old who wage war, but the young who die in them.  I find this to be true, and I Am Abassin Zadran, this episode of The Americans, proves it to be true.  Not only that, but it also shows that the players on the world stage may change, but some things appear eternal, like the quagmire that is the basketcase known as Afghanistan. 

There's so much going on around Philip and Elizabeth Jennings (Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell).  Their daughter Paige (Holly Taylor) is acting out: staying with Pastor Tim and his wife over the Jennings' objections.  Martha (Alison Wright) is starting to waver in keeping what she knows about 'Clark' and the bug secret from the investigation.  Elizabeth's mother is dying and Philip is pushing Gabriel (Frank Langella), their minder, to grant her a last visit (which Gabriel doesn't want).  Then they have their work of disrupting the mujahedeen group the CIA is working with by playing one side against the other.

At the Rezidentura, the head officer Arkady (Lev Gorn) want to terminate Operation Zephyr (the bug that was placed on the FBI mail robot).  He's tired of listening to idle gossip the device picks up.  Both Tatiana (Vera Cherny) and Oleg (Costa Ronin) advise him to give it more time, suggesting that to terminate an operation so quickly would look bad to Moscow.  Reluctantly, he agrees.  Gabriel meets with our old friend Claudia (Margo Martindale) and expresses his doubts about turning Paige (which Grannie is in charge of).   It isn't that he's concerned with Paige.  He's worried that the efforts to make a spy out of Paige are affecting Elizabeth and Philip, particularly the latter. 

The culmination to this appears to be good news/bad news.  Good news: Abassin Zadran (George Georgiou) kills the other mujahedeen.  Bad news: Paige will see her actual grandmother in East Berlin.

I think I Am Abassin Zadran is a particularly prophetic episode, more about today than yesteryear.  At a critical point in the episode, when Elizabeth and Philip are feeding doubts int Abassin about how the Americans work, he replies, "Why is there no war here, in America?".  It's clear we know what is coming, but it's chilling to realize that in a couple of decades, the same source of trouble for the Soviets will plague the imperialist Yankees.  It's subtle, but highly effective.

We keep getting such brilliant performances from the cast.  Of particular note are Wright as Martha, who is so devastating in her final scene with Rhys as her faux-husband, the terror and heartbreak and fear all revolving so well.  If there were any justice, Wright would be mentioned as a potential Emmy nominee along with Russell and Rhys.  The scene when she calls her parents, if just to hear a familiar voice, is devastating.

Rhys is equally powerful in I Am Abassin Zadran, particularly that last scene when he finally reveals his true self to Martha by taking off the wig.  It's not just an unmasking, it's an emotional strip-tease.  Russell too has brilliant moments when facing off against Maurice (Thaddeus Daniels), the husband of her unwitting agent who pushes for more money.  Her quiet rage at having to deal with this man is palpable. 

We get a beautiful scene between two great actors: Martindale and Langella.  As the Soviet agents, we see the sarcasm and cynicism of those who don't believe that America is "the land of the free" and marvel at the variety of choices of hamburgers.  The paradox of being American, Grannie states.  No wonder they thought the imperialists would be easily defeated.

I do wonder a bit about Martha: how welling she was go to get a ride from Hans or not have some concerns about 'Clark'.  Still, apart from that, I Am Abassin Zadran does great work that will lead to a hopefully great season finale.

9/10

Next Episode: March 8, 1983

The Americans: One Day in the Life of Anton Baklanov Review

THE AMERICANS: ONE DAY IN THE LIFE OF ANTON BAKLANOV

I remember when I had to read A Day in the Life of Ivan Desinovich by the brilliant Alexander Solzhenitzyn.   Just like Do Mail Robots Dream of Electric Sheep? borrows from literature, so does The Americans' episode One Day in the Life of Anton Baklavov.  As that storyline gets deeper and deeper, we don't ignore some of the others, which are also building to a strong conclusion (at least we hope they do). 

Paige (Holly Taylor) is understandably freaking out over the revelations of her parents, Elizabeth and Philip Jennings (Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys).  She is unsure what to do or how to take all this information, and she's not the only one unsure as to what to do.  Elizabeth's unwitting dupe Lisa (Karen Pittman) is being pushed by her husband Maurice (Thaddeus Daniels) to get more money for the work Lisa is being asked to do.  Elizabeth seethes at Maurice's interference, but there is not much she can do on the subject.  Martha (Alison Wright) is unsure how to proceed when it comes to her husband "Clark".  She is also wary of the growing investigation as to who put the bug in Agent Gaad's office.  She did, of course, but she also knows that her motives were good, but who really is going to believe her true-but-outlandish story?

Having learned from Yousaf (Rahul Khanna) that a meeting of mujahedeen leaders is being arranged by the CIA, the Jennings start casing the hotel they are being put up in.  To do that, Elizabeth has to use her feminine wiles on the hotel manager, Neil (Bill Heck).  She doesn't go to bed with him the first time, but she is tempting him, flirting and teasing.  Elizabeth, learning that her mother is dying, wants to see her but wouldn't ask for the privilege.  Instead, it is Philip who goes to Gabriel (Frank Langella) asking she be given special permission to do so.  Paige, for her part, is also upset to learn of her grandmother's impending death.  She thinks that it is unfair that Elizabeth cannot see her mother, but at the moment, what can she do.


The main story involves Nina (Annet Mahendru), who is working to get the trust of Anton (Michael Aronov),
the scientist whom the Soviets want to get work out of.  He misses his son terribly, and with some work on her part, by not pushing, she slowly gets him to give her his trust.  Trust is a dangerous thing, for we know not where it will end up. 

What was great about ODITLOAB is that the stories didn't collide with each other or overwhelm one over the other.  They blended well and took just the right amount of time.  The main story of Nina and Anton wasn't short-shrifted or made the dominant one.  Instead, it worked well, and the slow and steady method Nina is taking I hope will reap rich rewards, but it does put one in a quandary.  Part of us doesn't want her to succeed if it means it will cost Anton something dear, but we also don't want her to spend either ten years in prison or worse, executed.  She has a great deal of pressure on her, and how this story will turn out will be fascinating to watch.

We also have great acting, particularly between Russell and Taylor, who is really coming into her own as both Paige and as an actress.  The scene they share in the car where they talk about the dangers of the Jennings' work and about Elizabeth's mother (if memory serves correct) is raw and real and wonderful to watch. 

About the only thing I really didn't care for and still don't quite get is this entire storyline of Martha, who seems if not all too willing to go along with Clark's ideas, but who doesn't seem to wonder about who he really is.  Maybe I am missing something, so I'm not going to belabor the point, but I still find it all a bit confusing. 

Apart from that I think The Americans is simply a fantastic show, and this Day is a wonderful one.

8/10

Next Episode: I Am Abassin Zadran

The Americans: Stingers Review

THE AMERICANS: STINGERS

I remember well when my parents and I had "The Talk".  The only thing I learned was that I was going to get 'feelings' and that I was going to grow hair.  Given by the time we had "The Talk" I had a mustache I figured this was a particularly odd revelation.  I'm sure though, that whatever discomfort I had when we had "The Talk" could not top the discomfort of Elizabeth and Philip Jennings when they told their daughter Paige what they knew they had to eventually.  Stingers is interesting that what was built up as the big turning point in the series was handled quietly, oh so quietly.  This was handled so well that it not only defied expectations, it elevated them.

There is a Cold War between Philip Jennings (Matthew Rhys) and Pastor Tim (Kelley AuCoin), the hippie-drippy pastor Paige (Holly Taylor) seeks out in time of need.  Pastor Tim is pushing Paige to get her parents to be more open about who they are, and she too has tired of the strangeness of her life.  She wants to know about why they have no relatives, why they get phone calls and rush off at all hours, of all the things going on.  Philip and his wife Elizabeth (Keri Russell) apparently aren't noticing that their son Henry (Keidrich Sellati) is bonding with their neighbor, FBI Agent Stan Beeman (Noah Emmerich). 

Their big mission is Yousaf, the Pakistani ISI officer who is panicking.  He is coming to America, causing the Jennings' minder Gabriel (Frank Langella) that Yousaf "only has eyes for Philip".  Beeman for his part is still working to find out if Zenaida (Svetlana Efremova) is a double agent, and after watching Tootsie, she secretly leaves a message.  At the Rezindentura, Head Official Arkady (Lev Gorn) worries over the fate of Willow.  She's been recently targeted at her hotel room by an unknown assailant, and he fears that the Soviets' left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing.  In other words, because of the super-secret nature of Willow's work, the Soviets may think Zenaida really has betrayed the  Soviet Union and is being pursued. 

At long last, Philip and Elizabeth tells Paige the whole truth about who they are.  She doesn't become hysterical, but she also doesn't leap for joy. 

Stingers is perhaps the most intense and quiet of The Americans episodes so far.  We get the big revelation of Philip and Elizabeth's true identities, but neither them or Paige go all crazy or intense.  There is no screaming, no big dramatic moments.  Instead, everyone is quite quiet and still, which makes them all the more intense.  This is the moment Philip has dreaded and Elizabeth has pretty much been looking forward to, but both find the actual exposing of their lives much more traumatic and unsettling than they thought.  For Paige, it seems an unreal situation, as if the entire gravity of the situation is not fully registering in.

All three of them (Rhys, Russell, and Taylor) were so excellent in the scene that they elevated the whole episode to a higher register.

We get a perverse sense of foreshadowing when Paige comes into the travel agency front unannounced.  She sits at their desk and wonders aloud if they plan to make a travel agent out of her.  The double entendre is simply brilliant.

We also get movement on two fronts, one foreseen, one not.  The Zenaida plotline finally has confirmation, showing that Stan's instincts were right.  However, we get a bit of a laugh when Zenaida observes after leaving Tootsie that a man dressed as a woman wouldn't be acceptable in the Soviet Union, and Stan says the same goes in the U.S.

WANNA BET?

Stan plays a role in a storyline I wasn't expecting: that of Stan finding a surrogate son of sorts in Henry Jennings.  Stan brings a confiscated VHS copy of TRON for Henry (so 80s), and they hang out together.   

If there was any flaw, it is when Elizabeth slips into a bit of speechmaking when revealing her truth.  However, when they speak Russian in an odd effort to comfort their daughter, it is so heartbreaking and played as real as possible.

Stingers is a brilliant episode, and one gets a positive impression of how good The Americans is.

10/10

Next Episode: One Day in the Life of Anton Baklanov

The Americans: Do Mail Robots Dream of Electric Sheep? Review

THE AMERICANS: DO MAIL ROBOTS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP?

Obviously, Do Mail Robots Dream of Electric Sheep? is a rip-off of Philip Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which was the basis of the classic Blade Runner (and as a side note, I am on the record opposing a sequel).  Maybe that's why I thought it was a little too cute for my taste.  That, however, is the only 'cute' thing about DMRDOES, for it is a quiet episode, one that is haunting, dark, and has us see that the leads in The Americans can be quietly monstrous, even if it is duty to the State.  In short, DMRDOES reminds of the ugliness of their business, starting at the opening of the episode and ending with it.

Philip and Elizabeth Jennings (Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell) have been instructed to plant a bug on the mail bot that Agent Gaad smashed in a fit of fury.  They aren't convinced this is the best use of resources, but like all workers, they have to do what Upper Management tells them.  As the mail bot has been sent to repairs, they go to the repair shop to install the device.  They hear that someone may be in the building, so Elizabeth goes to investigate.  There, she discovers Betty Turner (Lois Smith), the widow of the family company's founder who checks the books at night, preferring the silence in the night she says puts her 'in tune').   Elizabeth holds her hostage while Philip continues working on the device, but both know that Betty cannot be allowed to live.  Accepting this, Betty soon starts talking about her late husband, his war record, and her son.  At least Betty knows that her son will not be targeted, so that puts her at some ease.  However, Elizabeth has to kill her, but in a perverse act of mercy, she allows Betty to overdose on her heart medication rather than flat-out shoot her.  In a way, Elizabeth gives her fellow Liz an honorable way out.  They keep talking as Betty takes more pills, eventually succumbing to the overdose.  While she doesn't say anything, Betty's slow death affects Elizabeth, while Philip remains unaware of what has gone on.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth had to dump her protégé Hans (Peter Mark Kendall) since she thinks Todd (Will Pullen) might have spotted him.  Hans takes care of things personally, in a brutal way...he finds Todd working at a storage facility and slaughters him (stabbing his eye at one point as Todd makes a desperate bid to escape).  Facing death is Zenaida (Svetlana Efremova), the defector FBI Agent Stan Beeman (Noah Emmerich) suspects of being a mole.  He cooks up a scheme with Rezidentura officer Oleg Burov (Costa Ronin): Burov, in disguise, will break into Zenaida's hotel room and threaten her for being a 'traitor', then 'attack' Stan as he comes in with her dinner.  Philip, for his part, confronts his minder Gabriel (Frank Langella), and the rage he has towards him for interfering with his family is barely contained.

I think Do Mail Robots Dream of Electric Sheep? is a shocking and sad episode, one that forces us to deal with things we haven't, or at least haven't for a while.  The bulk of the episode is between Russell's Elizabeth and Smith's Betty.  For my part, I think Lois Smith should earn an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama for her performance.  It is simply pitch-perfect: heartbreaking in the fact she knows she will die, mournful as she remembers her family, and even brave when confronting the Soviet agent.  It's been about a week or so since I saw it, and it still haunts me, particularly her final moments. 

Russell herself might consider submitting this episode for Emmy contention.  It is difficult to act quietly as you kill someone, to attempt not to show emotion when you know the character is herself tortured regarding her act.  As Betty slips away, we see that she doesn't want to react, doesn't want to feel, but she does, and for someone who is dispassionate about executing others (versus her more sensitive husband), at least this time we see Elizabeth can be just as overwhelmed by things as he can. 

The subplots involving Hans and Zenaida are equally effective.  Hans' brutal act is shocking (and yes, graphic) and I figure it was done to keep Hans working, but I also wonder whether in the future Elizabeth doesn't put two and two together.  It would be extremely convenient if Todd just happened to die, and die in a particularly vicious way, and NOT have her wonder.  Will she approve?  Will she be angry that Hans overrode her promise to Todd to let him live?

Regarding Zenaida's story, it is interesting that Oleg managed to spout off revolutionary gibberish so easily, as if by rote.  It's as if even he doesn't believe it and knows it to be nonsense.  I like how well Ronin and Emmerich work together, forming the strangest double-act in espionage, all for the sake of saving Nina. 

Perhaps my only dislike is how quickly Martha is dispensed with.  I felt so sad for her when she got a call from the foster agency and told them she wasn't going through with it.  Martha has wanted a child so badly, and knowing that she had to turn down perhaps her only chance must have been heartbreaking.  Yet that, and the fact that she is a bit of a ticking time bomb are kind of just hanging there. 

Do Mail Robots Dream of Electric Sheep?, however, has brilliant acting all around (PLEASE GIVE LOIS SMITH AT LEAST A NOMINATION!) and some brutal bits of dialogue.

"You think doing this to me will make the world a better place?", a calm but slowly dying Betty asks Elizabeth.
"I'm sorry, but it will." is the reply
Betty isn't buying it.  She quietly tells her assassin,  "That's what evil people tell themselves when they do evil things."

Chilling. 

Betty Turner: In Memoriam

9/10

Next Episode: Stingers

The Americans: Divestment Review

THE AMERICANS: DIVESTMENT

Apartheid is evil.  American segregation was already bad enough, but despite the immoral legal boundaries placed on the African American population blacks were able to still achieve greatness in the world of science (George Washington Carver), business (Madame C.J. Walker), and the arts (seriously, you have to ask?).  As much as one loathes 'separateness' in South Africa, Divestment doesn't make a case for justifying a particularly brutal act of retribution.  It does however, give yet more standout performances and a chance to see just how things are breaking for our favorite spies.

We have at least three stories going on today.  There's Elizabeth and Philip Jennings (Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys), who are holding the two South African anti-anti-apartheid operatives hostage to get information out of them.  The black South African Communist agent, Reuben Ncgobo (Dwayne Alistair Thomas), decides that there is no mercy for the enemies of the movement.  He takes the older and more fierce of the two, Venter (Neil Sandilands), finds him guilty of crimes against the people, and gives him a tire necklace as a parting gift.  To the horror of Elizabeth, Philip, and the other South African, college student Todd (Will Pullen), Ncgobo put a tire over Venter and set it on fire.  Elizabeth and Philip, highly disturbed by this act, decide that once they get Todd to reveal his information, to let him go, over the loud objection of Ncgobo.

Meanwhile, daughter Paige (Holly Taylor) starts looking into their old friend Gregory, having some consciousness awakening apart from her sheltered world.  If only things at the FBI were that calm and confident, as the investigation of Walter Taffet (Jefferson Mays) continues, and Martha (Alison Wright) continues to be evasive in her answers.  She finally confronts Clark, her husband who is suppose to be doing Taffet's job, wondering who he is.  Finally, our favorite traitor Nina (Annet Mahendru) reaps rewards for informing on her cellmate: a reduced sentence from death to a mere ten years.  However, there is yet more hope.  If she can get Refusenik scientist Anton Baklanov (Michael Aronov) to work by gaining his confidence, her debt to the State will be considered paid in full.  Essentially, she will be released.  However, it does mean having to work under Vasily (Peter Von Berg), whom she betrayed.  The creepy old guy she slept with to get information isn't happy about this either, but work is work.

I think that Alison Wright's work on The Americans is coming into its own, and its a wonder to watch.  The confusion, the hurt, the terror of this, yes I'll say it, poor woman, duped in love and now having betrayed her own boss Agent Gaad (Richard Thomas) is overwhelming her.  She may not be putting all this together, but she knows that something just isn't right.   Sometimes Martha appears to be lost in the shuffle of the great work of the others, but recently we see that Wright has been given something wonderful to work with and she makes the most of her opportunities.

Thomas for his part does excellent work too, beating up the mail bot in an unspoken rage about the whole situation. 

The setting of Venter on fire is shocking, surprisingly graphic, and a sign that for even as someone as committed to the Cause as Elizabeth, some things are just beyond.  One feels for Philip's insistence that they let the younger Todd go, a boy who fears being necklaced in the same way that his 'mentor' was.  You see that Philip is starting to really have his conscience weigh on him, and it is tearing at him. 

It's interesting to see how ethics play a large part of the work The Illegals do.  For Nina, it is a question of survival.  She is desperate to live, and with no one to serve as her advocate, not her FBI agent lover or the son of a powerful Soviet official to help, she must do whatever it takes, even if means betraying her trusting cellmate.  Better her than me is the motto.  For Philip and Elizabeth, two people used to killing, the immolation of Venter shocks and horrifies them (and let's face it, it takes a lot to horrify the highly loyal Elizabeth).  Perhaps Reuben had a reason to do so, but I couldn't help think what the difference is between Ncgobo setting his opponent on fire and ISIS setting that Jordanian pilot on fire. 

Perhaps because I am having trouble understanding why Martha is not more concerned about what is going on with Clark I think this episode isn't as strong as others.  However, particularly with regards with Alison Wright's performance, Divestment is, and I never tire of saying it, another great The Americans episode.

7/10

Next Episode: Do Mail Robots Dream of Electric Sheep?

The Americans: Walter Taffet Review

THE AMERICANS: WALTER TAFFET

All the carefully laid-out plans of Clark's are about to come undone thanks to a bug.  Walter Taffet gives the hour to a character we see basically either at home or at work, and at long last, The Strange Love of Martha Hanson starts coming apart.  The fact that Martha is one of the most innocent victims of the Jennings' master plan makes it all the more heartbreaking. 

Things keep getting worse and worse for Philip Jennings (Matthew Rhys).  Not only is he highly upset that his wife Elizabeth (Keri Russell) took their daughter Paige (Holly Taylor) on an excursion into the ghetto, but the bug that Martha (Alison Wright) planted long ago in her boss Agent Gaad's office (Richard Thomas) has finally been discovered.  Martha, worried about what this means, quickly destroys the recording device she has.  All this time she has thought that Clark was working as some sort of investigator to keep tabs on the FBI for any potential traitors.  Now she sees that Walter Taffet (Jefferson Mays) is the actual agent, and she wants to know who Clark really is.

Philip and Elizabeth, however, have to deal with taking two South Africans who are working to discredit the anti-apartheid movement.  This means having to kill a poor redheaded woman who was seeing Todd (Will Pullen), the student, whom the SA agent Venter (Neil Sandilands) was coordinating with.

There were a couple of things about Walter Taffet that puzzled me.  Why would Martha not be more persistent about the issue of Clark?  Here was this man whom she loved and whom she thought she was working with as a covert agent for the U.S., only to find he isn't whom he said he was.  Clark, for his part, now has this potential time bomb on his hands.  Will Martha fall apart?  Will she crack under the impending investigation?  Will he have to reveal all?

He has revealed his secret son to Elizabeth, which is extremely interesting.  Less a sign of his desperation, or even of his trust in his first/current wife, it could be reciprocation for her admitting that she should have told Philip about the field trip with Paige.  In her own way, Elizabeth is admitting that Philip has a voice in their daughter's upbringing.  He is in danger of losing two of his children, and add to that his complicated life colliding all over the place.

Noah Emmerich, who plays FBI Agent Stan Beeman, directs this episode, and he does such a masterful job one wonders why he doesn't direct more.  The final scene, the abduction of the two South Africans, is set to Fleetwood Mac's The Chain, and I don't know a current television series that edits music and visuals to such a brilliant degree as The Americans.  I still tremble at how last season's finale Echo made Golden Earring's Twilight Zone into both an intense ride and descriptive of the plot.  Fleetwood Mac's The Chain similarly does the same for Walter Taffet.    

Each moment in Walter Taffet is brilliant: the discovery of the bug, Martha's silent terror as she destroys the recording device, Philip and Elizabeth's dual confessions, and especially the final plan of abduction (complete with the killing of an innocent bystander).  I think it helps to remember that The Americans is made for adults by adults (in this case, Emmerich) versus something like Franklin & Bash's fourth season episode Honor Thy Mother, which appeared to be made for horny teen boys by horny teen boys (and seeing Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Breckin Meyer, two men in their forties, in that was beyond sad).  Sorry for the digression, but I'm finishing up my Franklin & Bash retrospective.

It will also be the last time Franklin & Bash are mentioned in the same sentence as The Americans.  My apologies to The Wig Shop.

If only for my confusion about how Martha took the discovery of Clark's not really being part of the U.S. government, I probably would rate Walter Taffet higher.  As it stands though, the episode is still a knockout, giving us more to worry about when it comes to the Jennings' lives. 

8/10

Next Episode: Divestment

The Americans: Born Again Review

THE AMERICANS: BORN AGAIN

ONE thing I'll say about Born Again, the brilliant The Americans episode that pushes the show to greater levels than its already achieved: like Elizabeth and Philip Jennings.

I don't like Paige's church either, with their hippie-drippy lefty liberation theology.  I'd accept that Paige could fall in with a conservative evangelical church.  That seems more accurate given how the Religious/Christian Right was a powerful political force in the 1980s (and whose power has dimmed in the ensuing years, thanks to the rise of such things as transgenderism and same-sex marriage virtually replacing heterosexual marriage as the norm).  What ARE the chances of Paige therefore, finding this church that has the trappings of religion but thinks that the Lord's work involves nuclear freeze and anti-apartheid protests? 

They MUST be Episcopalians...

Born Again has the standard The Americans brilliant acting, brilliant script, and sets up more of the stories that will be part of the season that is already turning out to be one of its best.

As stated, Paige (Holly Taylor) got baptized, which didn't please her parents Elizabeth (Keri Russell) and Philip Jennings (Matthew Rhys).  At the moment, though, her turning to the opiate of the masses is just one of the issues they have to face.  Philip still struggles with the pressure his minder Gabriel (Frank Langella) is putting on him to sleep with Kimberly (Julia Garner), the girl who is close to Paige's age, to get to the recording device in her father's briefcase.  Gabriel also has some more news for Philip: his former love Irina, whom we met in Season One's Duty and Honor has been captured and sent back to the motherland.  Gabriel also tells Philip that the son they had (whom he didn't know he had until he and Irina reunited) is serving in Afghanistan.

Gabriel also has a task for Elizabeth.  Hans (Peter Mark Kendall), her protégé, has inadvertently stumbled upon a major player for the South African government, here to discredit the anti-apartheid movement.  Getting at the SA agent would be a way to strike at President Reagan and the American government, so she is ordered to follow up on Hans' investigation. 

Elizabeth for her part does a little follow-up of her own, this time with Paige.  She takes our girl to the ghetto to talk about her old friend Gregory, their involvement in the civil rights movement, and to show that they are more alike than they realize.  It is also Elizabeth's way of slowly working into conversation the fact that Paige's parents are Soviet spies.

It's interesting how despite their atheistic worldview, faith has a powerful hold on the Jennings.  Elizabeth is a believer...in the Soviet system.  Philip's faith is more ambivalent, brought down by the acts his faith requires of him.  He, a decent man whose conscience plagues him, knows he has chosen this life.  He, however, struggles much with all the things coming at him: sleeping with minors, seeing his daughter both slip into something he believes to be wrong AND being dragged into their sordid lives.  The war that his country is involved in might end up killing the son he does not know.  Add to that that unlike Elizabeth, Philip doesn't dislike America (he seems rather fond of the place, having become a country music fan). 

This is the real Cold War: between Elizabeth and Philip.  It isn't overt: they don't hate each other by any stretch.  However, they now are coming into conflict on many issues, particularly when it comes to their children.  Both want what's 'best' for them, but they don't agree on what is 'best'.  To Elizabeth, doing work for the Great Soviet cause is what's best.  For Philip, doing what they want is what's best.  All that the Jennings have seen and done is causing that rift: Philip's fears for Paige and Henry, Elizabeth's hopes for Paige and Henry. 

We see this in how both of them attempt to silently influence Paige.  Philip goes to her room and tells her to be herself, to not let others take her down roads she doesn't want to go.  Elizabeth takes her down those roads, to the ghetto to begin a slow indoctrination.  It is almost as if Paige is now just another American Elizabeth has to lure to work for the Soviet Union.  The tug-of-war between them is a highlight of Born Again.

We see Russell and Rhys give really great performances, particularly when they take a few hits from the marijuana Gabriel gave Philip to use with Kimmie.  As they talk and find Philip's excuse for not sleeping with Kimberly amusing (he had to pray first, using Paige's methods of prayer), one got the sense that they were saying more than what the words were.  In fact, one wonders whether Philip wishes there were a God to absolve him of his sins.

This isn't to say that the other subplots are short-shrifted.  Nina (Annet Mahendru), still rotting in the gulag, has her own moral choice, one that is easy for her.  She sells her cellmate out and is rewarded with a good steak dinner...and a chance to live and outwit the death sentence she is under for having worked for the Americans.  Her scenes are brief and pop in and out quickly, but they didn't interrupt the flow of the story.  Instead, they serve as an opening to what I hope will be more stories on Nina, since Mahendru is an underused and unsung aspect of The Americans. 

I will say, given how she is in a rotten place, how can Nina still look so good?  Granted, she doesn't look glamorous, but she still is a knockout despite being locked up.  No woman looks that good on Orange is the New Black. 

We also got brief scenes of Stan Beeman (Noah Emmerich) slowly moving on with his life: he brought a date and slept with her, and he seems to figure that there really will be no reconciliation.  I think it's a bit of a set-up for the rest of his personal story this season, but it works.

I was really impressed with the acting all around.  The various teams (Langella/Rhys, Taylor/Russell, Rhys/Russell) all work so well that there is a great pleasure in watching this ultimately tragic story of families caught up in realpolitik.

10/10

Next Episode:  Walter Taffet

The Americans: Salang Pass Review

THE AMERICANS: SALANG PASS

I jump back into The Americans, one of the best shows on television which I hope is (re)discovered now that Breaking Bad and Sons of Anarchy are no longer on the air.  For too long The Americans has lingered in the shadows, like the spies the show focuses on.  Now that school has ended, I go back to the twisted, sordid, sad lives of Philip and Elizabeth Jennings, seemingly normal, average Americans who are really Soviet spies determined to bring down America...while raising two kids.  Salang Pass was a bit of a breather for me, an episode that is setting up other stories that I figure will have shocking or sad conclusions. 

Philip Jennings (Matthew Rhys) has major women trouble.  "Clark" is getting pushed by his wife, Martha (Alison Wright) to take on a foster child if he won't have children himself.  The Center wants him to become intimate with Kimberly (Julia Gardner), the fifteen year old not much older than his daughter Paige (Holly Taylor), whom the Center also is pushing him to get to join them in espionage for the Soviet Union against his determined wishes.  Paige, for her part, wants to get baptized, which doesn't thrill her atheist, Communist parents. 

Philip's other wife, Elizabeth (Keri Russell) is determined to get Paige to turn against the country of her birth, but she has her own issues.  She needs to get Lisa (Karen Pitman) to start getting information from her employer, Northrup.  Of course, this means getting rid of innocents who are getting in the way of Lisa getting a promotion.  Meanwhile, across the street there's FBI Agent Stan Beeman (Noah Emmerich), still pining for Nina, the Soviet he turned and fell in love with.  In what can be called the strangest joining of East & West, Stan goes to Oleg Burov (Costa Ronin), Nina's Soviet lover/coworker to come up with a secret scheme to discover if an alleged defector is really a double agent.  Stan believes that if the FBI can confirm the defector's duplicity, they can make an exchange for Nina.

All these plans are slowly coming together, but at a very high price, particularly for Philip, who in the end flashes back to his KGB training of seduction.  He recalls having to have sex with young and old, women AND men, and now he finds himself struggling with his conscious about sleeping with a minor.  Their minder Gabriel (Frank Langella) gives him these words of wisdom, "Conscious can be dangerous".

I think that Salang Pass, in fact, The Americans as a whole, could use that as their theme.  Philip and Elizabeth Jennings are actually good people.  Tragically, they are also good in their profession, which involves murder, deception, seduction, blackmail, and did I mention, murder?  Salang Pass is really Rhys' hour, and he does so well that one wants to shake the Emmy's collar and say, "ENOUGH WITH BRYAN CRANSTON AND JOHN HAMM...TAKE A LOOK AT THIS!"  In his regrets, in his fears, in his love for Paige, we see that Rhys brings all these complexities to the forefront.  It is a great performance, one of many that Rhys gives again and again.

Russell too excels as the more cold and committed Elizabeth, but we see that there are twinges of remorse in her actions.  When she kills a Northrup employee by removing the jack as he was fixing his car, it is a shocking sight, in the coldness and ruthlessness of it all.  However, we see a flicker of what could be horror at her own actions, how someone died to move the Directive's plans but who was totally innocent. 

Garner too was a standout as Kimberly.  She had a great moment when she talks about her lost garden, one that she had as a child but which her stepmother removed.  Stephen Schiff's script gives her monologue about that lost garden a brilliant double meaning: both the literal loss but also the loss of her childhood, and when she talks about how she wouldn't be surprised if her parents had 'another family' somewhere, it must have hit Philip especially hard.  It's already bad enough that his conscience is gnawing at him over having sex with a girl who could be his daughter, but to hear that and imagine Paige could say that too must have been agonizing.

Schiff's script also gives us brilliant foreshadowing when Yousef (Rahul Khanna), the Pakistani intelligence officer they're blackmailing, tells Philip that the Soviets are fighting barbarians.  It will be a mere twenty years before the real Americans find themselves fighting the same antagonists that bedeviled the Soviets.

Salang Pass is really a brilliantly acted episode all around.  Perhaps because it is just setting up for the stories that are coming at us full force, which is why I don't rank it higher.  However, on the whole we see that the cast and crew can do so much with so little. 

7/10

Next Episode: Born Again

The Americans: Dimebag Review

THE AMERICANS: DIMEBAG

It's all about relationships and marriages on The Americans' episode of Dimebag: marriages falling apart, marriages already apart, and marriages troubled by such things like children.  More than any episode that I've seen so far, Dimebag starts exploring the moral complexities of 'doing the right thing'.  Even something as baptism, the ritual washing of sins to become new, seem almost dangerous and calculated.

Philip Jennings (Matthew Rhys) is now being tasked to cultivate Kimberly Breland (Julia Garner), daughter of a CIA Afghan Group member.  He integrates with her group, even going so far as to get them fake IDs.  It's clear that Kimberly is developing the hots for Philip's false identity, and Philip senses this.  That, and the fact that Kimmie is around Paige's age, must play on his conscious. 

Not playing on the conscious of Elizabeth (Keri Russell) is the idea that Paige be recruited to join the family business.  They have a fierce argument involving Paige's birthday gift.  Philip, getting an informal tip from Kimberly and her friends, gets Paige the newest album (it IS 1982) from Yazoo (see previous note).  Elizabeth thought they'd agreed to a necklace.  Philip snaps that the album wasn't a birthday gift, but it really is just the catalyst for another blowup as Philip seethes against the idea of Paige being turned, which Elizabeth is now actively supporting.  As it stands, Paige (Holly Taylor) wants only one thing: to have her hippy/liberal pastor Tim (Kelly AuCoin) and his wife over to dinner.  There, Paige drops a bomb of her own: she wants to get baptized. 

This obviously thrills her Communist parents.

Meanwhile, both FBI Agent Stan Beeman (Noah Emmerich) and his former lover Nina (Annet Mahendru) face problems of their own.  Beeman is growing suspicious of Soviet defector Zinaida (Svetlana Efremova) of being a double agent.  He has nothing but his suspicions towards the Milky Way-loving intellectual, but he can't shake the idea that Zinaida is really dangerous.  He faces more trouble on the home front: finally confessing to his soon-to-be ex-wife Sandra (Susan Misner) of his affair and finding the EST business all nonsense.  Not finding Stan nonsense is Tori (Callie Thorne), a fellow EST attender who obviously has the hots for Stan.  Even Philip, who joins Stan at EST, tells him as much. 

Nina for her part has been told that if she can get information out of her cellmate Evi Sneijder (Katja Herbers), the Soviet state may find a way to reduce her sentence from death.  Slowly, Nina opens up to Evi in a calculated plan to have her open up.  It's a desperate gamble to save her life.

Dimebag hits all these great points about morality and family.  Is it moral: for Nina to cultivate an unsuspecting Evi?  For Philip seriously planning a teenage girl's seduction to get her to spy on her own father?  For Elizabeth to turn her own daughter into a KGB operative?  Each character has his/her own reasons for doing/not doing what they think they should, driven by things outside their work.  It's a thrilling thing to see.

It's particularly good of Dimebag to showcase two actors who rarely take the spotlight: Emmerich and Mahendru.  Both of them gave absolutely brilliant performances.  Mahendru's greatest moment in the episode is when she is opening up to Evi.  We figure it's because she sees this as an opportunity to save herself, but Mahendru shows us a deeply wounded vulnerability in Nina, someone who has been beaten up all around and is desperate to survive.  Maybe she is opening up to get Evi's trust, but maybe she's opening up because she needs an outlet.

Emmerich is simply great throughout Dimebag.  When he tells the EST instructor that the entire thing is bull****, he taps into Stan's rage, hurt, confusion, and inability to be vulnerable so openly.  The fact that he gets applause from the cuckoo group lends it a touch of comedy.  He also is excellent when quietly turning down Toni (which I think is a mistake) and when he opens up to Sandra, it just about breaks your heart. 

Emmerich even has gets a few funny moments.  We have his EST blowup, but also when he goes after hours to search the diner bathroom for clues about Zinaida's activities.  Earlier, he asks the waitress about the burgers.  "How are the burgers here?", he asks, to which the waitress replies, "Beer."

"That's not a ringing endorsement," he says.

"You want a ringing endorsement or you want to know how the burgers are?", she cracks. 

Obviously, I'd avoid the burgers at this joint.   

When he does go in to investigate, we get that Stan is intense, but we also get that he is also a bit clumsy.

One of the highlights is how The Americans uses even the most apparently innocuous of period music to heighten the scene.  It did this last season when it used Golden Earring's Twilight Zone in Season Two's finale Echo to great and intense effect.  Who knew they could do something similar with Yazoo's Don't Go?   You'd think this New Wave number would be pretty tame, but not in the hands of The Americans, who make it an intense battle of wills between Elizabeth and Philip for their daughter's future (especially since Philip is an unabashed fan of country music, as deeply Reaganesque as a genre can get). 

It works because we can imagine that the music is coming from Paige's album, but it fits within the entire scene of Stan in his desperate hunt for evidence against Zinaida.  It's so brilliant and tense.

As I make my effort to catch up with all The Americans episodes, I found Dimebag continues the excellent quality the series has created.  Truly, The Americans is one of the best shows on television, its combination of action, espionage, and human tragedy creating a fascinating story that draws you in and causes you to almost empathize with two Soviet agents.

Almost.  I DO remember Ronald Reagan, you know...

9/10

Next Episode: Salang Pass

The Americans: Open House Review

THE AMERICANS: OPEN HOUSE

Open House contains what I think will be known to The Americans' fans (a suggestion: Rezidenturians?) as THE SCENE.  It's one that even before viewing had become pretty well-known (and which I'll talk about later).  I'll get into what I think is a point of logic as well, but in terms of acting and overall story, Open House keeps building on what truly is not just one of the best series on television, but one that is shockingly not as well-known as it should be.

Philip and Elizabeth Jennings (Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell), along with their mentor Gabriel (Frank Langella) are looking for the weakest link in the CIA Afghan Group.  They zero in on Ted Paaswell (David Furr).  He is facing financial difficulties due to a divorce, having lowered the sales price on his house twice.  The Jennings take advantage of an open house to plant a bug, but from this a whole night of terror comes.

The CIA has been keeping tabs on things, and one night the Jennings discover to their shock that they are themselves being tailed.  Philip manages to roll out of the car, but Elizabeth can't shake them off.  It requires a lot of skill and coordination to get the CIA off their tail.  Elizabeth is also finally ready to do something about her painful tooth, which has been causing problems since she faced down the FBI.  She can't go to the dentist, fearing they will tip off the FBI.  Instead, in good American tradition, it is do-it-yourself (THE SCENE).

The FBI wanted desperately to get the figures the CIA had been following, but lack of cooperation prevented that.  One FBI Agent, Agent Aderholt (Brandon J. Dirden), who had been beaten up by Elizabeth, wants them captured.  He also flirts with Martha (Alison Wright), who signals to her husband 'Clark' that she, unlike he, wants children, at the very least a foster child.  Philip has his own child problem: the Center wants desperately to have Paige (Holly Taylor) join the Program, but unlike Elizabeth, Philip is adamantly opposed to the idea, period.  He does not want Paige, at fourteen, have her entire life altered, knowing this will be a shock to her system. 

At the end, the Jennings find that Isaac Breland, the head of the Afghan Group, has a daughter who is babysitting Paaswell's kids...and who is flirting with the recent divorcee. 

When it comes to THE SCENE, I am of two minds.  On the one hand, I think it is absolutely brilliant.  AMAZING credit should be given to the editing, among the best of the series and I think that I have seen on television.  The intercutting between Russell's eyes and Rhys' eyes reveals so much between Elizabeth and Philip.  We see trust, we see fear, we see perhaps revenge (I kept getting the sense that Philip was getting back at Elizabeth for her insistence on Paige becoming a second-generation spy over his loud objections).  It's quite gruesome and intense, and with THE SCENE alone Russell and Rhys prove a brilliant combination.

ON THE OTHER HAND, I kept wondering why Elizabeth simply didn't contact the Rezidentura and say, "I need a dentist desperately", and have some willing quack come pay a visit to the travel agency and do a little on-site work.  Maybe there was a reason Mrs. Jennings didn't tell the Center the extent of her injuries, but one thinks that if they were so capable of engineering a distraction through a car accident to get the CIA off their trail, they could similarly get a Red or Pink DDS for such a time as this. 

Just a thought.

Rhys and Russell are still hitting it out of the park.  Her genuine terror after escaping the CIA is silent, but her face expresses so much.  Rhys' silent joy at her returning is equally brilliant.

Regarding other aspects, Open House is still the top-level episode that has become the rule for The Americans.  Guest star Langella continues to be effective as Gabriel, always a calm figure even with Rhys' Philip is raging against the Center for attempting his daughter's 'seduction'.  The fact that Gabriel is always so calm I think makes him more dangerous.  We get what is going on in the opening, when Gabriel and Philip are playing Scrabble.  Gabriel provides the word "Stygian" (related to the River Styx).  It is the river of the Underworld, the dead, meaning extremely gloomy, dark, and forbidding. 

Oh, the subtle undertones of what is being said.  Thank you, The Americans, for trusting my intelligence to get it...

We're also getting nice, subtle nods to future stories, such as Elizabeth's new protégé, Hans (Peter Mark Kendall), a German kid who takes a shine to his mentor, the Aderholt/Martha story, the Martha as Mother story, and the Svetlana story.  In fact, when we hear the Soviet defector tell her William F. Buckley-type interviewer (who is secretly working with the Soviets) about how the Soviets are wasting time, treasure, and lives in Afghanistan.  She might just as well have expressed a view on American involvement in Afghanistan and/or Iraq.

The using of the past to speak about the present is a benefit of period pieces, and The Americans takes full advantage. 

I still wonder whether THE SCENE made since in a strict sense.  Still, the overall effect is one that lingers, which will be remembered by The Americans fans for as long as the series continues (it's already been renewed for a fourth season...will they get to the fall of the Soviet Union?).  This is simply a brilliant, brilliant television series, and while not for family viewing, The Americans is simply too good to remain in the shadows.

8/10

Next Episode: Dimebag

The Americans: Baggage Review

THE AMERICANS: BAGGAGE

It is true: we are all in some ways prisoners of our pasts.  Baggage gives us such wonderful ideas about the things we carry and the things we leave behind to make our own lives (and mistakes).  We get a great double meaning that shows the intelligence The Americans has, and best of all, we find that Annet Mahendru's Nina is not dead (at least not yet).  Could our favorite double agent still have some hope?

Nina is in prison, apparently waiting for her execution, when she gets a new cellmate, Evi from Belgium (Katja Herbers).  Nina flat-out doesn't care, knowing that she will die very soon.  She does meet with Oleg's father, the Minister of Railways, who tells her his son begged the Minister to help Nina somehow.  She tells him to give Oleg a message: she never faked her feelings when with him.

Back in the States, Oleg (Costa Ronin) tracks down Nina's ex-lover, FBI Agent Stan Beeman (Noah Emmerich), and threatens to shoot him.  Beeman tells him that if he's going to kill him, shoot him in the back while he walks away.  Oleg couldn't do it.  The incident does rattle Stan, to where he seeks comfort from his ex-wife Sandra (Susan Misner), who rebuffs Stan's offers of love.  Beeman is the lead agent in the extraction of Soviet defector Zanaida (Stevlana Efremova), an analyst with a fondness for Milky Way candy bars.  She is smuggled via a crate.

Philip and Elizabeth Jennings (Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell) for their part have to take the body of their agent Annelise out of the hotel room where in a fit of rage Yousaf (Rahul Khanna) murdered her.  Now in their hands, Yousaf is pressed to provide information of the CIA Afghanistan Group which is working against the Soviets.  He does give them access, but when Yousaf goes off to a bar with one of them, Elizabeth follows over Philip's objections. 

This is bringing a great crisis for the Jennings.  Elizabeth is working to get Paige (Holly Taylor) to join the family business, but Philip is dead-set against it.  Complicating matters is that Elizabeth insists Annalise would not be dead if she had handled Yousaf, but Philip uses Annalise to say that Paige could meet the same fate.  Elizabeth, for her part, shows little wavering: her mother approved when she broke protocol to tell her she was joining the KGB.   Why could it not be the same here?

Baggage has wonderful visual and verbal puns.  The most overt is in having to stuff poor Annalise into a valise (a particularly gruesome sequence that is painful to watch).  We also have the arrival of Zaniada, who arrives via crate (in baggage claim).  Then there is the more subliminal baggage. Elizabeth's 'baggage' of her father's desertion of the Red Army and subsequent execution as well as her mother's endorsement of joining the KGB.  There's Stan's baggage of his lost love Nina and the failure of his marriage to Sandra.  Oleg has his baggage of not being able to rescue Nina.  Philip's own baggage of keeping his daughter out of this sordid business, and Yousaf's murdering someone he had feelings for.

Each character has their own burden, and they can find no one to help them carry it. 

Every performance is excellent, even in the smaller work like Mahendru's Nina, who has a few brief scenes but is so effective as this woman who has given up on life because she knows she has nothing left.  Seeing Russell and Rhys fight it out we get the idea that it isn't just about methods, but about raising children.  Here is where the brilliance of The Americans comes through: we don't just get the intense espionage bits, but we get a story of family.  Just how much should one know about one's parents?  Is it right to make our children follow in our footsteps or should they follow their own path, even if it diverts from our worldview?  The Americans tackles these issues wrapped in an exciting tale of espionage, which lifts it above so much other television fare.

We even get a bit of comedy through Zanaida's growing obsession with Milky Way candy bars, which she devours at every turn.

If I have a complaint, it involves Yousaf.  It isn't with Khanna's performance, which is quiet and effective.  Instead, it is with the character himself.  For a bright man, one with power and influence, I thought he was rather dim if he wasn't aware that these two figures were playing him, placing him in a trap of his own making.  I also don't get why Elizabeth can't see that her mother is not her daughter.

Oh well, such is life.

I'm just so glad that Nina is alive and, well, alive.  Baggage is a strong episode, which is par for the course in The Americans.   

#PardonForNina

7/10

Next Episode: Open House

The Americans: EST Men Review

THE AMERICANS: EST MEN

The Season Three opening of The Americans wasn't as intense and/or wild as the Season Two premiere, but it still has some wild moments.  EST Men, however, also has surprisingly soft moments within the violence and sex, and surprisingly enough for me not that much on EST.

Stanley Beeman (Noah Emmerich) is trying to rebuild his marriage, especially now that his mole/mistress Nina has been sent to Moscow and convicted of espionage and treason (pretty much dooming her).  With that in mind, he attends an EST meeting as his wife Sandra (Susan Misner) has become deeply involved with it.  He takes his neighbor/friend Philip Jennings (Matthew Rhys), and both find it idiotic. 

Philip's wife Elizabeth (Keri Russell) appears to have found something of religion as well, accompanying her daughter Paige (Holly Taylor) to church to help out at an anti-nuclear rally (these damn liberal churches...thank Heaven I always attended evangelical churches).  Paige's interest in religion displeases Elizabeth, but the pink nature of the congregation pleases her enough to consider the suggestion of the Centre, which wants Paige turned to an agent.  Philip is still stubbornly and fiercely against it, but Elizabeth tells Gabriel (Frank Langella), their former handler whom both are fond of, that Paige is open to Soviet ideas. 

Elizabeth and Philip have their own issues, as Agent Gaad (Richard Thomas) comes across Elizabeth after an angry female CIA agent slips her a list of Afghanistan operation members.  In the ensuing fight Elizabeth beats the crap out of Gaad and another agent, but loses the list.  It's decided to use Annelise (Gillian Alexy), who has been sleeping with Pakistan ISI Covert Operative head Yousaf (Rahul Khanna) to get the list.  Annelise has fallen in love with the secular Moslem, but when she tries to tell Yousaf of what she is doing, he becomes paranoid and strangles her.  Enter Philip, who offers to help him out of this most difficult situation.  Philip knows a little about wild sex, having shocked even himself when as 'Clark', he and Martha (Alison Wright) tried out the Kama Sutra.  Unbeknown to the Jennings, Leonid Brezhnev has just dies (setting this in November 1982).

I noticed first that both Costa Ronin (who plays Oleg, the Rezidentura officer who has fallen for Nina), and Thomas are now listed as cast regulars rather than guest stars, which really should have been done earlier.  It does indicate that Oleg and Gaad will play larger roles in The Americans, which is a good thing.  EST Men also has the benefit of having Langella as a guest star, and when you have someone of Langella's stature among the cast, you already have an already strong series become more intriguing.

Langella is excellent as Gabriel, almost a grandfatherly type to the Jennings.  He is calm and pleasant to them, offering them traditional Russian food.  However, he shows through the gentle demeanor a coldness as well, for he quietly pushes them to start Paige on the ways of the Motherland.

Here is where Russell and Rhys really show how strong they are as actors.  With the latter, we can see in his face alone just how angry he is about the mere concept of turning Paige to an agent.  You can tell he is seething as Elizabeth tells Gabriel that their daughter is open to 'new ideas'.  He is infuriated at all this and what appears his inability to get people to see things his way.  Rhys even has a bit of comedy when he appears stunned at the sexual intensity of the Kama Sutra. 

For her part, Russell never lets us see whether she truly agrees with Gabriel (whom she is extremely fond of) or is merely playing for time.  Her ambiguity regarding Paige extends to Philip, because as she argues with him about Paige, her words are open to interpretation.  She also gets some real action moments as she takes down Gaad (with Thomas lending some comedy with his bandages, especially as he was taken down by a smaller woman).  Russell also has nice soft moments as she and Paige work at the church, and we see the mother within her as she observes Paige's hesitancy with a young boy at the church.

Elizabeth has just learned that her mother is dying, and here both Russell and Rhys have a brief and quiet moment, and it says so much without saying much.

Other actors both regular and guest featured well.  Emmerich sometimes got stuck with just being either all-work or all-Nina.  However, here his domestic issues with Sandra are a major subplot which doesn't intrude.  We see that Beeman is a man struggling to find love after losing the two women who loved him (or at least that he thinks love him). 

Of particular note is Khanna as Yousaf, who is shocked by both his mistress' words and his killing.  We know it is a set-up for future episodes to put Yousaf in cahoots with the KGB, but one wonders what would have happened if either he hadn't killed her there or Philip wasn't around to 'bail him out'.  Then again, Yousaf wouldn't have been in this situation if not for Annalise, and her murder elicited a mix of sadness and horror at her own mix of naivete and stupidity.

It's interesting, though perhaps unintentional, that EST Men has a lot of parallels: Beeman tries EST, Elizabeth tries Christianity, 'Clark' tries Eastern sexual mysticism.  It's as if everyone here, who knows their job and does it well, is searching for something else.

If I had something to criticize about EST Men, it is the somewhat cliché 'strangling mistress at the most opportune time' that didn't strike me as original.  I know it had to be done to get Annalise out of the way and put Yousaf in a vulnerable position, but still...

However, apart from this EST Men had some wild action (Elizabeth's takedown of Gaad is a standout) and the conflict of whether the Paige will turn is a sign that it will be one of the ongoing stories.  We are very interested in seeing how it will play out.

Elizabeth and Philip are a fascinating couple: the parent who wants her progeny to follow her footsteps and has never fully integrated into American society versus the parent who wants his child to follow his/her own path and is more American.  Their parenting styles, their world views are always in conflict, and while they are united in taking down the United States, in the more important things, they have their own Cold War. 

8/10

Next Episode: Baggage