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The FX series is the best drama on television — not one of the best, the best — and the Golden Globes have given the Emmys a golden opportunity.
The Television Academy is about to have its hour of redemption.

I say this while admitting that my knee-jerk reaction is to follow that sentence with “although it may not be aware of that yet.” However, last year the Emmy voters took a huge step forward in both self-awareness and action, so I’m choosing to believe that the Television Academy is keenly aware of the position it now finds itself in at long last.

When nominations are announced in July, it is, positively, the moment when the Television Academy can snatch back its importance, reputation and relevance.

There are two things needed for the Emmys to matter again, and one of them is already in the books: The Golden Globes had to implode.

Or, if you prefer, the Golden Globes had to revert back to being the Golden Globes -— ridiculous, scattershot, influence-free and pointless (other than being a fine and fun party that can be entertaining when you point a camera at it).

After a number of years where the Golden Globes actively tried to out-influence the Emmys and calculatedly attacked the weakness of the Emmy voters (rubber-stamping the past, refusing to honor many channels or series and the actors in those series and steadfastly refusing to see what was both new and excellent in the rapidly expanding industry), the Globes flat-out gave up in 2016. Continue reading Critic’s Notebook: How the Television Academy Can Save Itself By Nominating ‘The Americans’

We say goodbye to Martha without saying anything at all.

In a mesmerizing silent opening, this episode of The Americans walks us through the departure (for now) of a character who has become the beating heart of this show: Martha Hanson, the FBI secretary who became an unwitting pawn in the cat-and-mouse, counter-espionage game between the Soviet Union and the United States.

Now, her role is clear — both to herself and her supervisors at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It is time to run.

A clock ticks. Faces are washed. She reads the peanut butter jar label with interest during a quiet, furtive breakfast. Then she and her “husband” Clark/Philip/Mischa drive to a woodland airstrip before dawn, and she is flown off to…somewhere. Nowhere. Continue reading The Americans recap: ‘The Magic of David Copperfield V: The Statue of Liberty Disappears’

Calling this episode “The Rat,” is a little mean to Martha, but okay…

The feds are close on her trail, and Philip is the only one in the KGB who is convinced her cover has been blown. “I brought her into this,” he tells Elizabeth. It’s fascinating to see how much she means to him. This “fake” wife is not so fake after all.

Martha packs her handgun and turns off a Today show broadcast featuring a woman talking about how she no longer feels the need to be married. That has never been the case with Martha. Throughout this series, we’ve gotten the sense that this unwitting KGB asset was something of a lonely heart.

When Stan Beeman and Agent Aderholt go through her history back at the office, we get confirmation: Only child. Never married. Engaged to a high-school sweetheart, but that was long ago. “He dumped her after she got pregnant,” Aderholt says. Continue reading The Americans recap: ‘The Rat’

“Clark” owes Martha an apology. “Where have you been for the last two days?” she asks.

He can’t tell her he was holed up in his handler’s apartment with his wife undergoing antibiotic treatment to stave off a potential bio-weapons infection. So he gives her the typical, vague “something came up” excuse.

Martha clues him in to Agent Aderholt’s dinner and the fact that the FBI knows the counters on her office copy machine are off. She thinks she is under suspicion. She felt alone and abandoned when she couldn’t reach him.

Clark gives her an operator number for the Center, who can contact him any time, day or night. “I will need that back tomorrow morning,” he says — so she needs to memorize it.

“Of course,” Martha says. “Why would I expect to keep anything?” Continue reading The Americans recap: ‘Clark’s Place’

“My husband and I need to postpone deliveries for this weekend.”

That’s Elizabeth’s way of telling the Center: DO NOT KILL PASTOR TIM AND HIS WIFE. She and Philip are trapped, having discovered Gabriel overcome by the weaponized glanders, and they can no longer participate in the family trip to EPCOT that would have served as their alibi.

Instead, they’ll be spending the weekend in Gabriel’s apartment being administered the antibiotic that gives this episode its name: “Chloramphenicol.” Their reluctant doctor: William (Dylan Baker), the asset who is trying to deliver these chemical and biological weapons to the KGB.

Elizabeth also calls home and breaks the news to Paige that the trip is canceled due to unforeseen circumstances. Paige panics — she’s sure this has something to do with Pastor Tim leaking their family secret. Continue reading The Americans recap: ‘Chloramphenicol’

So much for that Epcot trip.

After getting exposed to the deadly Glanders pathogen in Gabriel’s (Frank Langella) apartment on The Americans, Philip (Matthew Rhys) and Elizabeth (Keri Russell) have to stay quarantined for 36 hours on Wednesday’s episode for the antibiotic to take effect. That means their family trip to Epcot — aka their cover so the KGB can kill Pastor Tim — needs to be called off.

That, however, is the least of their worries. They may have come too late to save Gabriel, who’s wheezing away on his (death?)bed, while Elizabeth’s body has a tough time handling the antibiotic William (Dylan Baker) has given them… or is that the symptoms of Glanders? She fears the worst and has that “If something happens to me…” convo with Philip.

Meanwhile, in Russia, Nina (Annet Mahendru) awaits word on her appeal now that she’s subjected to “exceptional punishment” after trying to send a note to Anton’s son. Oleg (Costa Ronin) asks his father, Igor (Boris Lee Krutonog), to pull some strings, and he proposes a deal to his son in exchange for his help. Does he come through? Nina’s fate will be revealed by the end of the episode.

Source: http://www.tvguide.com

This episode is all about the way we project a future for ourselves, existing in possibilities, imagining destinations, and then slamming face-first into the inescapable present.

Titled “Experimental Prototype City of Tomorrow,” it involves a plan to visit Walt Disney World’s futuristic EPCOT Center near Orlando, Fla., but you know what happens to best-laid plans, right?

The hour opens with “Clark” waking up beside Martha on his fold-out sofa. She’s staring at him, and it’s easy to read her eyes: This is not my beautiful house; this is not my beautiful spouse. “Still not used to it,” she says when Philip wakes up and catches her staring.

Elsewhere, Elizabeth is undercover, apparently infiltrating a Mary Kay makeup sales meeting. A Korean-American woman named Young Hee (Ruthie Ann Miles) is talking about how most store makeup counters don’t know how to apply foundation that matches Asian skin tone, making them appear green. But, ah, Mary Kay has the personal touch that solves that!

“I tell my friends they don’t have to look like Martians,” Young Hee says. “We are all Americans now.” Continue reading The Americans recap: ‘Experimental Prototype City of Tomorrow’