Thursday, March 14, 2019

american squirm

This past week I watched the final episode of The Americans. Per a discussion with a friend at work (whom I shall call Peter in the remainder of this post), I am sharing my thoughts about the show. Before I do, let me remind that there are spoilers here. I have a generic warning up top that any entry may contain spoilers. But it's easy not to notice that. This post has spoilers. If you plan to watch The Americans and want it unspoiled, don't read this. I also note that I assume the reader is familiar with the show and its characters. So I am not going to spend words on background exposition.

The Amazing Antiheroes

One of the things I really like about this show is the fact that the protagonists are antiheroes. They're Russian spies living in the U.S. and posing as Americans. And they do all sorts of spy stuff. Like killing people. And stealing state secrets. And killing people. And betraying trusts. And killing people. And ruining lives. And killing people. And yet, because the story is told from their point of view, I still root for them; I want them to succeed. Peter had a different feel about the show. He wanted the Jenningses to get caught and arrested. Peter likes to have heroes who are...heroic. Good and pure. I like my heroes flawed. Peter has speculated on why he and I have such differences in what we want in our heroes. It would be interesting to know what psychologists have to say about this.

Beeman the Good
I suppose Stan, the FBI agent neighbor is as close a thing this show has to a real hero. Meaning, a "good guy." And, as much as I wanted Philip and Elizabeth to get away with their shenanigans, I also wanted Stan to succeed -- even though they couldn't both come out on top. Of course, Stan isn't unadulterated good. He does cheat on his wife (who leaves him and gradually disappears from the show. He also considers betraying his country for the woman he's having the affair with. I kind of liked the fact that he had these flaws. Peter didn't. That, of course, is in keeping with the way he and I differ in what we want of our heroes.

The Breaking Bad Concept
The Americans copied one important concept from Breaking Bad -- the proximity of its protagonist to the authorities who can ruin them. In Breaking Bad, Walter is a drug kingpin whose brother-in-law* works for the DEA. In The Americans, Philip and Elizabeth are Russian spies whose neighbor is an FBI agent working in counterintelligence. In both cases, it contributes to the drama and suspense (and occasionally the sense of irony).

The Lost Years
This is something that irked me. There is a gap of several years between the penultimate and final seasons. And there are several story lines that were ongoing as season 5 ended. For example, Philip and Elizabeth have to keep working their contacts in Kansas. And Oleg is suspected by the KGB of being a traitor -- a crime for which he could be executed. Sure, we kind of learn what the ultimate outcome was. But I wanted to see them play it out. I felt cheated that I didn't get to watch it. Boardwalk Empire, another favorite of mine, had the same flaw.

And in the End

The ending strained credulity. Stan has finally figured it all out, and has the Jenningses trapped in a garage at gunpoint. And somehow -- through sentimentality, I guess -- he decides to lower his gun and let them go. No. I don't buy it. And they just leave Henry behind? Maybe they think Stan will take him in? Come on. That said, I still found it to be a very powerful and moving climax. The last half hour brought out all the feels.

The Victims
So who is the biggest victim? I'd have to say Henry. He's totally innocent. And what happens to him? He's 17 or 18, away at boarding school. He gets a call from his folks and they sound a little off. But no biggie. He says goodbye and runs off to a ping pong tournament. Afterwards, he's gonna find out (from their neighbor) that his folks were spies, that they ran off to Russia, and he's never going to hear from them again. That's gonna have a big impact on his life.

And what about Paige? She got off the train and stayed in the US. She may have started out innocent, but she spied for Russia. And she did it when she was an adult. She can't stay in the safe house with that bottle of vodka forever. Maybe she can claim that it was all under duress and get some sympathy from the court.

Martha's another victim. Like Paige, she's not completely innocent, since she continued working with Philip even after she knew he was a spy. But the saddest part of the show (other than the end) was the sequence when she was in the safe house, with Philip/Clark. He's telling her about what will happen once she's in Russia. She asks about when he'll join her, and he tells her he won't. And still, somehow, it doesn't sink in that he was just using him. As a viewer, I csan take some comfort in the thought that maybe in Russia she adopts that little orphan girl. She needs someone in her life.



Oleg Burov, last seen under arrest in America, is another victim. He's one of the more decent characters, and doesn't deserve his fate.

Oh, hell, let's just acknowledge it. Everyone is a loser.

Location, Location, Location
The show is supposed to be set in Washington, but they did a lot of filming in New York. So the architecture and the street signs all look like New York. I suppose I wouldn't notice it if I lived in Des Moines and had not grown up in New York. But I live in New York City (albeit one of the more suburban parts of the city), in the neighborhood I grew up in. There are many places where I recognize the part of the city that something is set in. In fact, there was a scene in the fourth episode that was filmed down the block from me. Of course I recognized that. And in the last episode (or maybe second to last) there's a scene on the Washington Metro. But as a New Yorker, I recognized the subway car as one of ours. It was an R-44 or R-46. Of course, all this concern over location is unimportant. It didn't really detract from the show.

*Technically, his wife's brother-in-law.

1 comment:

  1. Hi Folks,

    This is Marc's friend "Peter". Marc and I know each other for nearly 30 years and I'm flattered that he incorporated some of the many hours we've spent ruminating about life in his post. I'd like to offer a little slice of my mind on the topic of anti-heroes. My preference for more traditional "white-hatted" good guys isn't because I was placed in suspended animation in 50s having just watched an episode of the lone ranger.Marc and I are actually of almost identical age (born three days apart) and we both grew up in and era when "Father Knows Best" type idealized TV figures were already a distant memory (albeit still available in syndication :) ). I loved the Americans, but I guess for some combination of reasons I would prefer if my entertainment still offered us heroes who could inspire us to be something better rather than validate our flaws. And I don't think it's because TV is no longer capable of producing such characters. My wife and I have watched several such series in recent years where many characters while sometimes bending the rules for the "greater good" manage to avoid ever being personally rotten to the truly innocent or those they supposedly care about. I often wonder if such character development devices are a bit of an autobiographical reflection of the producers own life experiences.

    Who knows. But watching this show, as entertaining and well acted as it was. I would have liked it that much better if Stan Beeman didn't have an unnecessary affair. His sympathies and conflict over the female Russian agent he ultimately threw under the bus could have easily been developed without him sleeping with her, as the writers did later on with the Russian couple who ultimately were killed after trying to work with Beeman. But most of all, I wanted those %*@#$ commie spies caught.

    Why does Hollywood seem to be alergic to that? Invariably bad guys get away, or - at least ever since a pattern repeated a thousand times since it was introduced by the first Die Hard movie - they are messily dispatched. What we are almost never treated to, is them being taken away in cuffs to the satisfied smirk of the person who righteously pursued them. Maybe I'm just hopelessly out of step with the times.

    Marc's comments on the Americans plot weakness are on the "Marc". Thre are others. I found the shows overall tone a bit of a surprise in that even being produced in 21st century Hollywood it seems to be sympathetic to the idea that moral high-ground of the cold war belonged to the Americans. I actually find that to be the case with a surprsing number of recently produced series.

    All in all a good watch.

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