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USA! USA!

FX has renewed The Americans for a fourth season. The Cold War thriller will get another 13 episodes next year, EW has learned.

FX is enthusiastic about the show’s critical acclaim, noting The Americans currently has the top spot on critic aggregation site Metacritic, with a 92 out of 100 average (including EW’s review). “Remarkably, this season of The Americans has achieved even greater acclaim than that of its first two seasons,” said Nick Grad, programming president at FX. “The series has cemented it status with critics as television’s best current drama and arguably the best show on TV, and we couldn’t agree more.”

Ratings are another matter. The show has continued to struggle to find a big audience. Last week’s episode had only about 1 million viewers and a 0.3 rating among adults 18-49 in the overnight returns, ranking below repeats on other basic cable networks of King of the Hill and Full House. Yet FX points out that after you add in repeats, DVR playback and video on demand, the show improves to 4.2 million weekly viewers.

Source: http://www.ew.com/

Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys, the lead actors on FX’s slow-burning spy series The Americans are gorgeous, sexy individuals with undeniable chemistry. I know it, you know it, and the FX marketing team certainly knows it. But in this most recent season, FX has turned down the sex on their leading lady, Russell’s Elizabeth Jennings, and it all paid off in last night’s devastating episode.

Especially in its first season, The Americans leaned in somewhat to certain gender stereotypes of the spy genre, with Elizabeth far more likely than her partner, Philip, to put her body into service for Mother Russia. (Comedian Amy Schumer recently said that watching the first season of The Americans inspired her to create her popular “Operation Enduring Mouth” sketch.)

In Season 2, when comely satellite assets like Aimee Carrero’s Lucia (R.I.P.) and Gillian Alexy’s Annelise (R.I.P.) stepped in to shoulder the sexual burden in their spy games, Elizabeth’s body was often on display for a different person. Elizabeth used sexuality as an olive branch as she and Philip transformed their marriage of convenience into a true and loving relationship. Continue reading How The Americans Subverted Worn-Out Sexist Spy Tropes to Bring Us Its Most Disturbing Episode Yet

“You think doing this to me will make the world a better place?”
“I’m sorry. But it will.”

“That’s what evil people tell themselves … when they do … evil things.”

These are the dying words of a stranger, but they have wounded Elizabeth Jennings like no bullet, knife, or punch has yet. Tonight’s episode of The Americans, “Do Mail Robots Dream of Electric Sheep?” steals its title from Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, the Philip K. Dick novel that inspired Blade Runner—another story that questioned what it means to be both human… and inhuman.

The old woman who utters these words (played by a charming and riveting Lois Smith) punctures a hole in Elizabeth’s otherwise impenetrable devotion to her grim life’s work for the KGB. Until now, Elizabeth has seen herself as a spy, a saboteur, a soldier—but overall an agent of equality. In this moment, forcing an innocent elderly woman to commit suicide for the crime of catching up on warehouse paperwork when she and Philip break in to bug the FBI’s mail robot, opens her eyes to a different reality: Maybe she’s just a murderer, a thug, an oppressor. Maybe she is the enemy.

We’ll get into the mother-issues that allow this particular victim to strike such a nerve with Kerry Russell’s usually stoic character, but let’s dive into how the episode starts: With Elizabeth breaking some unfortunate news to Hans, her young South African KGB recruit. She says that he may have been spotted by Todd, the pro-apartheid college student and would-be bomber she spared in the previous episode. After the fiery death of his terrorist handler, Todd confessed everything Elizabeth, Philip, and their South African revolutionary Reuben Ncgobo wanted to know.

Given what Elizabeth has to do to poor, heartsick Betty, the purely innocent bystander, later in this episode, the mercy she showed to potential mass-murderer Todd seems out of place, no? When she tells Hans that his, um, KGB internship is being scrapped because this Todd guy caught a glimpse of him… something else rang false, at least for me. I actually went back to the previous week’s episode to see if this really happened, if Todd really did see Hans, and sure enough, yes, he did. But, but—remember that Todd spent a lot of time not only looking at her, Philip, and Reuben, but talking with them and begging them for mercy. Surely those are some faces he’ll never forget. The kid he saw briefly at a distance, scurrying away—so what? How is that a threat?

Still, she tells him: “Hans, it’s over. Us. This.”

I’m no mail robot, but … this does not compute. Especially for a woman who is eager to draw her own daughter into this life. It’s never stated explicitly, but my theory is: This is a test.

The next scene has Matthew Rhys’ Philip delivering Elizabeth a one-two hit of more troubling news:

1. The FBI found the bug they embedded in the desk pen of Special Agent Frank Gaad (Richard Thomas.)

2. Gaad’s secretary, and Philip’s “other” wife, Martha Hanson (Alison Wright) knows he’s not the internal affairs investigator he claimed to be.

“The person they brought in to investigate isn’t me,” he explains.

But there’s a silver lining: Martha hasn’t ratted him out, and he doesn’t think she will. Elizabeth is incredulous. “How can you know?”

I loved Rhys’s hesitation here, and thought he was going to say: “Because she’s my wife.” I think that’s what the character was actually thinking, although what he tells Elizabeth, his “real” wife, was somewhat softer.

“Because I trust her.” Continue reading ‘Do Mail Robots Dream of Electric Sheep?’ TV Recaps

It feels strange to call an episode where so many things happen “slow,” especially on a show like The Americans, where slow is very much the point. But that’s how “Divestment” feels, mostly because it spends its time moving a number of this season’s plots forward just the slightest bit, without much in the way of that fraught tension the show is known for. Nonetheless, the moves made tonight are important ones—all things to add to the powder keg at the end of a very long fuse.

The episode picks up immediately after the end of “Walter Taffet,” with Elizabeth, Phillip, and Reuben taking Eugene Venter and his student accomplice Todd to an abandoned warehouse for interrogation. At first, they’re kind to Venter–Phillip offers him cash and a chance at a new life if he talks. Venter refuses. So he resorts to pain.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth goes to work on Todd—all he does is tell her that Venter had him monitoring campus anti-aparthied groups. She then takes him outside, and sits him in front of Venter. They’re going to make him watch Venter die. But Reuben stops Elizabeth, and refuses to take her gun when he expresses that he wants to do it himself.

“You already have your country,” he says. “You can’t understand.” Continue reading ‘Divestment’ TV Recaps

As we cross the halfway marker in this season of The Americans, the show puts a few of its storylines on hold to spend some time with a few plot threads it has left largely unattended thus far: namely, Martha, and the student that trainee Hans has been suspicious of. But mostly Martha.

The man who this week’s episode of The Americans is named after is barely in it. In fact, if you’re not listening closely (The Americans is not kind about this—it demands that you always listen closely) you might even miss his name entirely. But Walter Taffet’s presence tugs at the thread named Martha, and it could potentially put the Jennings one step closer to being caught.

The trouble starts with Agent Dennis Aderholt. Stan doesn’t like him—over beer and pizza with Phillip, Stan says it might be that he asks too many questions, like he’s trying to show off or something. So when he spots Aderholt in Gaad’s office the next day, he comes up with a bullshit excuse (grabbing a random paper that he says needs Gaad’s signature) to get inside and see what they’re talking about. However, the pen that Gaad uses is out of ink, and after a good shake the cap falls off—with a much heavier thud than a pen cap should have. Continue reading ‘Walter Taffet’ TV Recaps

It starts with a baptism.

Television shows, even good ones, often struggle when it comes to incorporating Christianity into their stories (hi there, Friday Night Lights season 2) because Christianity is deliberately constructed in a way that’s in direct contrast to the way we traditionally build narratives. The sources of tension and conflict are all very different and don’t always sync up. It’s also all too easy for individual characters to lose their unique voice once they take the plunge.

But using Christianity as yet another lens with which we can examine Phillip and Elizabeth, while still being wholly genuine about Paige’s investment in her faith? The Americans is having its cake and eating it, too. In the final moments of the cold open, which takes place during Paige’s baptism, the camera focuses on her parents, trying their best to look pleased. Phillip seems to be having the hardest time of it—which is ironic, given that faith is going to take him some interesting places in this hour.

In fact, the entire episode revolves around characters taking some sort of stand or another, making for one of the most cohesive episodes in the season. In a Moscow prison cell, Nina has made her decision to betray her cellmate, feigning vulnerability and opening up to her so she would admit to being an accomplice to her treasonous boyfriend. Stan decides to try and commit to honesty, admitting to Tori that he still considers Sandra his wife after a dinner at the Jennings home. Since this is in perfect alignment with the radical honesty of EST, Tori is appreciative, and the two sleep together. Continue reading ‘Born Again’ Tv Recaps

Tonight’s episode of The Americans gutted me. Not in the way I expected it to, though.

All the way through, I was bracing myself for what last week prepared us for: Phillip’s potential seduction of the teenaged Kimberly. I worried that for a number of reasons, namely that I wouldn’t be sure what to make of it—I can’t see very many scenarios where it isn’t a bridge too far—and because the idea of sitting through it made me squirm.

The Americans is a smarter show than that.

Phillip, as Jim, meets up with Kimmy early on at an outdoor rager full of other teenagers—it wasn’t what he expected, and when some jock friends of hers spot him, things immediately get uncomfortable. Jim/Phillip tells her that her age is an issue, that they can’t be seen in public like this. So she tells him they can meet in private. Her folks were going to be out of the house soon. She’d see him then.

The next time we see Phillip with a female, it’s with his daughter, Paige. They are—much to Elizabeth’s chagrin—shopping for a dress she can wear to her baptism. Phillip exhibits spectacularly bad taste for a bit before settling on a very expensive dress that Paige frets over him splurging on. He tells her not to worry about it, and she loves it. Continue reading ‘Salang Pass’ TV Recaps

Despite making a strong impression with its use of Fleetwood Mac’s “Tusk,” music has never really taken a prominent role so far in The Americans’ three-season run—so when music is featured at all, you can’t help but notice. Music is a big deal in “Dimebag,” at first lingering around the edges, then creeping its way directly into the plot, before finally dropping in to bring home the episode’s themes in a sickening final moment.

However, this episode isn’t just about music. It’s about a bunch of other things. Like weed.

“Dimebag” opens, appropriately, with Elizabeth incognito in a park, watching Kimberly—CIA Afghan Group leader Isaac Breland’s daughter—buy a dimebag of pot from a dealer. The Jennings, with no other way in to the Afghan Group left, have decided to make her an asset. This, of course, makes Phillip uncomfortable—they have to seduce and exploit a teenage girl. That’s a line they’ve never crossed before.

The Jennings aren’t the only ones crossing lines this week, either—in a Moscow prison, Nina is told that her new roommate Evi was caught leaving intelligence for a spy boyfriend. If Nina can get her to talk, then the government will make an effort to pass a more lenient sentence on her. Of course, this requires Nina to be more cordial than she has been since Evi’s arrival. She takes on the task in earnest, slowly opening up to Evi throughout the episode, coldly manipulating her into becoming close.

Meanwhile, Paige is blurring the line between Church and State in her home—when her parents ask what she wants for her birthday, she tells them that she’d love to have her Pastor Jim and his wife over for dinner. This, of course, sets Phillip and Elizabeth on edge—privately, they wonder to each other if she did it just to get to them—but they’re all smiles in front of Paige. Continue reading ‘Dimebag’ TV Recaps

The spy life is hitting home for the Jennings in a huge way this season on The Americans, as embedded Russian/KGB agents Elizabeth (Keri Russell) and Philip (Matthew Rhys) debate what to do now that their leaders want their teenage daughter Paige (Holly Taylor) brought into the fold.

I sat down with Keri Russell to discuss this huge turn of events on the show and the struggle between Elizabeth, who wants to tell Paige, and Philip, who is incredibly against it, and how it develops.

We also chatted about the newly-introduced Gabriel (Frank Langella), the rare times she and co-star Matthew Rhys get to work with their fellow castmates and a certain recent scene involving a body and a suitcase…

I should note I spoke to Russell right before I saw last week’s episode, in which Elizabeth barely avoids capture and has to go through a very painful bit of tooth-related procedure, or I would have brought that up too! Continue reading The Americans: Keri Russell on the Battle Over Paige’s Fate