The Americans on FX

And ... don't think this is a spoiler ... Margo Martindale will not be entirely absent from the show. Big standing O for that one.

 

Not to mention the return of Annet Mahendru: big thumbs-up to that.

 

To paraphrase Al Pacino, Keri Russell's got a "GREAT AAAAASSSSSSS!!"

Great episode, too.

 

Wow, big leap indeed.

 

Yeah, I was not disappointed in the slightest, and my expectations were sky-high.

 

Also, I think that's got to be the first 69 on a basic cable TV show in American history.

 

I can't remember which informant the $500k guy who attacked the colonel was ... I don't remember the colonel, either. But echoing others, great start. Would've thought Phillip would have distracted the son long enough or at all and kept him from seeng his family dead.

 

That was compelling. Regarding the 69, MTV counts as basic cable, and Undressed had to have featured 69.

 

I wish we would have met the other spy couple once or twice last season. Would have made what happened a bit more jarring emotionally. Still, a minor complaint. This show really does a great job of making is understand the conflict Elizabeth and Phillip feel between their jobs and being parents to their American kids.

 

I don't know how much more jarring that scene could be when the kid walks into his hotel room. That's gonna stick with me for awhile.


The informant who killed was the gambling addict that Elizabeth bailed out from the mob (she went into his bookie's office and kicked him in the balls). Then when he was arrested for unpaid child support, Stan Beeman used his magical intuition to know there was something up and got him to admit everything.

The colonel was the one in the finale last year who told Phillip that the missile defense program was a non-existent program designed to get the Soviets to bankrupt themselves trying to catch up to technology the Americans didn't really have.

 

That's amazing. How do you follow minor characters like that?

 

The Season 1 DVD came out a few weeks ago and I've watched them all about three or four times.

I love the 1980s, Soviet-American history, spy drama, and great television. This existence of this show is basically the universe's love letter to me.