Season 1 (2013)
Created by: Joseph Weisberg
Starring: Keri Russell, Matthew Rhys, Noah Emmerich
Rating: TV-14
Watch The Americans
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| The Americans TV Series |
Two Soviet spies, Elizabeth (Keri Russell) and Phillip (Matthew Rhys), pose as a married couple with kids in Washington D.C. during the Cold War.
Verdict:
I like the Cold Ward and '80s setting in general, so that alone had my interest. I was completely hooked after the first episode. The pilot episode is fantastic, weaving espionage and family drama together. Where does the line between business and pleasure end when your job is to pose as a married couple with kids? At some point theater become reality. The pacing and development is great, moving the plot forward while still telling self contained spy stories and developing characters in each episode. This series was created by a former CIA agent.
Watch it.
Season 1 Recap
Episode 1 - Pilot
The pilot episode was excellent. It starts with espionage in full force. Then it reveals that these two spies not only are posing as a married couple, but they have kids. This is deep undercover. The kids have no idea.
We get a couple of flashbacks to before the agents went undercover. The KGB defector selling secrets that they detained and locked in their trunk is Elizabeth's (Keri Russell) Captain that trained her.
Phillip (Matthew Rhys) drives an '81 Camaro. Awesome.
How does a marriage like this function? I assume it's purely business, but wouldn't you fall for that person when you fake being a couple for that long AND have kids just to sell the lie? How do you keep business and pleasure separate? They become one and the same. I like the potential of exploring that. I would assume it would be like Donnie Brasco, you become the persona.
Phillip looks distraught when he hears a tape of Elizabeth seducing a mark for information. He looks hurt and disappointed, so this is obviously more than just business for him. She wasn't happy about doing it, but the mission is top priority.
This pilot overlays home and family drama on top of being a trained assassin spy. It's a crazy, awesome concept. This is a great introduction into what this series could be. On top of that a counter intelligence FBI agent moves in next door. Is he on to them or is it coincidence? Noah Emmerich plays their neighbor, himself a former undercover operative in a white supremacist group. Will that make him sympathetic if he ever learns their true identity?
Phillip mentions defecting to Elizabeth. She's against it, but you also see how fierce their love for the kids is, even if they don't love each other.
Great pilot, and a big first episode. How do they keep their fighting skills up? That's not something you can train at the gym exactly.
Episode 2 - The Clock
The actual espionage is a lot of fun with the missions and the subtle differences in the disguises. Beeman (Noah Emmerich) does what he wants, shaking down a store owner they find suspicious and threatening a beat down if he doesn't cooperate. The store owner is linked to Russia.
Phillip and Elizabeth get a new assignment where they need to plant a bug in an official's office. They work multiple targets for the goal. Phillip seduces a woman to get pictures of the office, then they both work the official's maid to swipe a clock so they can install a bug. The heightened risk of this mission causes Phillip and Elizabeth to consider the risks versus the danger to their family. Beeman gets an employee of the Russian embassy on his side.
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| Elizabeth and Phillip Jennings |
Episode 3 - Gregory
The spy network is big. The cloak and dagger unfolding is fun to watch. This expanded network includes Gregory (Derek Luke), an American citizen Elizabeth recruited and a former relationship she wanted, but couldn't pursue. I love the implication of how seedy the government is. A missing child search, is to track down a KGB spy's wife. Nothing is as it seems.
Phillip and Elizabeth secure the wife and turn her over to their handlers, told the woman will be relocated. She is instead killed. Phillip and Elizabeth had to assume that. In a business that deals in secrets, that is the only way to maintain security.
Episode 4 - In Control
Reagan has been shot! Phillip and Elizabeth are growing closer, but it seems like a plot point just for the show. I get why they are doing it, adding another layer to the show. They have two kids, one a teenager, and only just now they are growing closer? They would have grown close over having a child together and being parents for over ten years. I get why the show does it. It's a good way to add drama and depth to the characters while exploring the job versus passion aspect of their relationship. Stan Beeman and his wife are dealing with him being back in their lives. She's been without him for years. It isn't smooth sailing.
Phillip and Elizabeth have an arranged marriage. It looks like a plot point this season is them developing a romantic relationship.
Elizabeth is seducing a crazy guy that likes to beat women with a belt, wow.
Beeman is working a woman in the Russian embassy. Phillip is working a woman in the FBI that works with Beeman, while also working Beeamn at the same time.
All of these confidences result in the Jennings getting an encryption card from the FBI due to Elizabeth's intel, which is soon reprogrammed due to the intel from Beeman's contact. The KGB realize they have a mole.
Part of the disconnect, and related to Phillip and Elizabeth falling for each other, is Phillip going full force when Elizabeth gets home bruised. The show is trying to bolster their burgeoning romantic relationship. She says bruises happens, which means he should have seen it before. His overreaction seems strange. They've been working for over a decade so this shouldn't be anything new.
The show could argue that since the spy game has had to step up and move quickly, they can't take as many precautions or as much time, but it's still a story line that doesn't hold up to scrutiny. I get the show wants a layer of romance on top of the espionage, but they could handle it better.
Episode 6 - Trust Me
Phillip gets abducted and then Elizabeth is attacked in her home. Phillip is interrogated and tortured, his captors know he is a spy, but he refuses to divulge any information. The abduction was a test to see if Phillip or Elizabeth were the mole. Since the encryption codes were changed so quickly and they were the first to know about the codes, they were targeted by their own KGB. They passed, but they aren't happy. Phillip surmises that Elizabeth told their handler he thought about defecting since his torture was a higher magnitude than hers. She denies it before admitting she told their handler he likes America too much. As spies they have to trust each other, and this doesn't help. As absurd as it is, they were beginning a romance. It's absurd because that would have happened years ago. They will be fighting wars against each other and for their country it seems
The kids are stuck at the mall while the parents are abducted. They hitchhike which seems like a tragedy waiting to happen. The man that gives them a ride makes a detour, and they subdue him before anything happens. Is this going to come back at some point? Whenever the story shifts from Phillip and Elizabeth, it never quite works.
Beeman seems to like his contact Nina too much. Is she going to have anything but a tragic ending? He's going to keep pushing her for more information. He doesn't like how she gets the information, but he doesn't want her to stop.
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| KGB Handler Claudia and Elizabeth |
Phillip's mission is to work with an old flame from Russia, Irina, to discredit a Polish resistance leader. They make it look like the resistance leader beat Irina.
Irina later tells Phillip that they have a son together. She claims guilt over their mission, but Phillip questions whether the son is really his. Does he think this is another test, or is he loyal to his children?
Elizabeth misses Phillip and doesn't want to give up on their marriage. She asks if anything happened between him and Irina. He says nothing happened which is not true.
Beeman likes his informant Nina too much. They sleep together, and she says she won't blackmail him. We'll see how long that lasts.
Episode 8 - Mutually Assured Destruction
Phillip and Elizabeth are tasked with watching fourteen scientists. The KGB ordered a hit, but now can't call off the hitman after changing their minds.
Phillip and Elizabeth get the U.S. to work for them, in a neat twist. We see them watching a scientist, and when his car doesn't start we assume it's the assassin. The scientist gets out of the car, sees the bomb under the hood and flees. It's then revealed that Phillip set the bomb. The FBI assumes it's the KGB that attacked the scientist, which it is. This saves Phillip and Elizabeth from trying to protect fourteen people.
Phillip's lied about his relationship with Irina and Claudia is pushing Elizabeth to not fall in love and focus on the job.
Phillip uses his FBI contact to track the assassin. Phillip and Elizabeth find the assassin at a hotel in a great sequence. A gun fight ends in Phillip ripping a shape charge off the wall, throwing it to Elizabeth who throws it into the bathroom as the assassin is scrambling to detonate it, unaware of what's happening. It explodes just as it enters the bathroom. The assassin is neutralized, but not before he got one scientist.
Elizabeth is upset, declaring their mission a failure. Phillip considers it a success, blaming the KGB for hiring an assassin, then changing their mind. Phillip and Elizabeth had no information at all, but still tracked the guy down.
Elizabeth claims their attempts at a deeper relationship is distracting her. Phillip counters that if she wants a divorce, the agency would agree.
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| FBI agent Stan Beeman |
Phillip is moving out for a while. He and Elizabeth tell the kids it was a joint decision, though the children don't take it well. Henry shuts down and Paige has a lot of questions.
Beeman's partner Amador has been following Martha, his former girlfriend and Phillip's FBI contact. Amador confronts Phillip, who is undercover, after he leaves Martha's apartment one morning. The fight ends in Amador getting stabbed with his own knife. Phillip stuffs him in the trunk.
I wondered if Amador was going to discover that Martha is a mole, but I guess not.
Beeman thinks the KGB targeted Amador, so now he's in with his bosses plan to assassinate a Russian off the books. They form their own little posse, and when the intended mark doesn't show, Beeman orders the group to take another Russian instead.
Amador dies from his wound and Beeman kills the Russian. Seems like the show is gearing up for the run up to the season finale. Russian and FBI hostilities are as high as they've ever been, Phillip and Elizabeth are separated, and their kids are distraught. With a traitor on each side and Beeman on a potential rampage, things could get dangerous.
Episode 10 - Only You
Elizabeth drops Phillip off at his hotel, commenting that it doesn't look so bad. He replies that he's happy to switch with her. I'm glad he didn't let her get away with that. It's a strange line he crossed. It's okay to sleep with someone for the job, but not for pleasure. He did it for pleasure and she kicked him out for it.
Beeman shows up at Phillip's hotel late at night, musing about life and marriage. He vows to get whoever killed his partner Amador. That person just happens to be Phillip.
Nina asks Beeman about Vlad, and Beeman states he doesn't know what happened, but he is the one who killed Vlad out of rage.
Amador hid his ring in the trunk of the car which gets the FBI a lead on one of Gregory's Philadelphia boys. Beeman is still dealing with the murder he committed and opens up to his wife, through cryptically talking about how dark the world is and how he has shielded her. Killing Vlad is weighing on him. The series could conclude with Beeman snapping.
Gregory is framed for the murder of Amador, but refuses to go to Moscow, instead opting for suicide by police.
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| FBI informant Nina |
Beeman's wife and Elizabeth go out dancing. When Beeman works late yet again, his wife unloads all of her frustration on him. She called the FBI and they said he had left. Beeman denies it, but his wife doesn't believe it.
Martha invites 'Clark' to meet her parents, blindsiding him.
Tensions increase between Claudia and Elizabeth. Elizabeth goes after an FBI director who ordered the death of Zukhov. Elizabeth plans to kill the agent, going against orders. She relents and lets the FBI director go with Phillip's help.
Claudia states she had a relationship with Zukhov and revealed the FBI director's identity because she knew how Elizabeth would react. Elizabeth is not happy about the deception. At some point Claudia and Elizabeth are going to have another fight.
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| KGB mark Martha |
Beeman's contact gets a promotion at the embassy. It's good for FBI, but bad for the Soviets.
The maid from episode 2 is brought back. It seems like a mistake. We need to keep the story moving forward, not going back. The maid is guilt stricken over planting the bug and tells the FBI the same story. This corroborates the theory of a couple working together based on evidence from the kidnapping of an FBI official in episode 11. I'm not sure the maid was necessary.
Elizabeth has a contact that tells her he's recruited a high ranking Air Force Colonel
Phillip as 'Clark' goes for broke, asking Martha to marry him. He then asks her to plant a bug in her boss's office.
It's weird to see a scene from the daughter's point of' view. The show has hinted at her and Stan's kid liking each other, but it's never had a scene focused on that. It's not what I want to see and strays from the main plot.
Where do they get all of the disguises? Do they have a bunch of disguises on tap? How do you get a new disguise without looking suspect? Does their handler provide it? Where do you keep them where the kids won't find them? Is there a safe house?
This thing with Martha won't last. She'll get wrecked and that's sad. It's one thing to play with someone's job, another to play with a life and expectations. Martha's in for a rude awakening at some point, and it really is a tragedy. Beeman's contact Nina becomes a double agent, admitting to her Russian Embassy boss she's been the mole.
Episode 13 - The Colonel
Claudia is getting reassigned. She and Elizabeth trade barbs.
How can the Jennings run out at night as spies? What if the kids need them?
Despite their suspicions, Claudia is on Phillip and Elizabeth's side, wanting to abort the mission with the Colonel.
Claudia is hard nosed with Elizabeth, but their instinct in the same. The mission is compromised Claudia pushes Arkady to abort, but he won't without new info.
When Nina tells Arkady how happy Beeman is about an FBI mission, Arkady aborts, but can he abort in time?
Claudia stops Philip's meeting, but when no FBI don't show up, they realize Phillip's meeting with the Colonel wasn't the setup, Elizabeth's pick-up was. Phillip races to stop Elizabeth and picks her up, but the FBI is in pursuit. With the old parking garage trick, they elude the FBI, but Elizabeth is shot. When she wakes up she asks Phillip to come back home. Nina gets the profile of Stan Beeman for Arkady. That's a wrap for season 1.
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