COLD WARRIOR: Keri Russell plays a Russian spy, half a couple living undercover in Reagan-era Washington, who must grapple with loyalty. (
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When “The Americans,” the 1980s Cold-War spy drama on FX concludes its first season tonight, you may be as confused about who’s zooming who as you were after watching the premiere episode.
And that’s a good thing. A very good thing.
Unlike most network TV shows that spell everything out as though we were morons, this high-wire drama’s intricate balance of counter-counter-intelligence still has me guessing.
If you haven’t watched the show, the Americans in question are actually a very typical all-American couple — Elizabeth and Phillip Jennings (Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys) — who have a nice house, a decent travel agency business and two lovely kids.
Only thing is they aren’t Americans. They are born-and-bred, pinko-commie Ruskies who were sent here years before to live and work, kill and spy on the government in Washington, DC.
While they live as a married couple complete with family, the truth is that Elizabeth and Phillip have never married, though they have dutifully procreated for the party.
Living on the edge and in the shadows, the Jennings were happy to see a new family moving in across the street from their suburban home.
They are even happier to find that the new neighbors aren’t just any old suburbanites.
In fact, dad is a top FBI agent, Stan Beeman (Noah Emmerich), who is fresh off an assignment infiltrating Southern white supremacist groups.
Dumb luck or a deliberate placement?
Turns out to be dumb FBI luck which we learned because Stan is chasing them without knowing he’s chasing them.
Meanwhile, they know who Stan is because he inexplicably announced it upon meeting them.
Giving new meaning to open (or maybe that’s closed) marriage, Elizabeth, as part of her job, doesn’t hesitate to sleep with whomever the commies need her to sleep with — as does husband Phillip.
Only thing is, Phillip ends up having to marry his uninformed FBI informant.
Yes, it is very tough to separate the zoomees from the zoomers.
On tonight’s tight-as-Jane-Fonda’s-leotard finale, Stan the FBI man’s Soviet double-agent girlfriend double crosses him — or does she?
In the meantime, Elizabeth and Phillip come thisclose to being killed, maimed and exposed, while dealing with their ever -deepening feelings for one another.
And oh yes, their kids are almost kidnapped by a pervert who has nothing to do with the Cold War.
Unlike other retro shows, “The Americans” is not style-over-substance.
In fact, they keep the fashion/decor so simple that you get to focus on the real drama without any of the “I remember those leg warmers!” moments.
As a wonderful bonus tonight, the Soviet spies learn that President Reagan’s Star Wars threat was not really real — and if it were, it would still have been decades away.
Russell pulls off the impossible on TV. Her Elizabeth has hardly any maternal instincts, but we like her anyway.
Best of all?
What other series would dare to have Margo Martindale, an overweight, middle-aged woman as the toughest dame in town?
But if you’ve missed the show, you’re out of luck (unless you have Hulu). There are no plans to rerun.
Positively un-American!