When I bought this first season of "The Americans", I was fully expecting it to fill a little bit of a "show-hole". I had heard great things about the show, and it seemed to consistently rank high on "best of" lists. Unfortunately, I made it through just six episodes of this first season before deciding that it not only wasn't for me, but I wasn't really even enjoying it all that much. So, though unpopular, this review will be a bit of a counter-perspective to all the four/five-star rankings here.
The basic setup of "The Americans" is that Philip Jennings (Matthew Rhys) and wife Elizabeth (Keri Russell) are spies for Russian living on American soil. They have the perfect cover as the seemingly all-American family with children Henry (Keidrich Sellati) and Paige (Holly Taylor). However, as the show begins, Ronald Reagan is now the U.S. President, signaling a much more difficult time for Russian spies. Oh, and Stan Beeman (Noah Emmerich) has just moved in next door. Stan is a government agent who, along with boss Frank Gaad (Richard Thomas), work specifically on counter-intelligence.
While the setup for "The Americans" seems dynamite, the plot and characters don't fit the bill. The main problem is that there is absolutely no background given on the Jennings coupling. In order for this show to work, viewers really have to care about their cause, and that isn't even touched on here. In terms of character-development, I also found things to be rather stale, if you will. I was hoping for complex motivations and angles, and instead I got a relatively simple spy thriller.
I feel a little bit bad giving up on the show so soon, but never once in the six episodes I watched did it ever grab me as "anything special". Again, this is mainly because I wasn't sucked into the main tensions of the piece like I should have been. I usually will give a show a bit more slack then this, but I felt I had reached the point where I understood what the show "was going to be" going forward. Even just six episodes in, it felt like a chore to watch, and that's when it was time to re-evaluate. Perhaps we are spoiled by the current binge-watching atmosphere and expect shows to hook us in right away, but I just didn't see where this one was going.
If someone comments on this review and talks about how much the show improves as it goes along, I would be willing to stick with it a little longer. However, as it stands right now, it was a failed experiment in my book. I'm doubly confused: 1. I was so sure I would like it; and 2. I ended up almost being bored by the episodes I did watch.
The closest "comp" I can give "The Americans" is "Homeland" (both shows start off with incredible premises), but the latter blows the former out of the water in terms of investing viewers into the characters/plots right away.
3 out of 28 found this helpful.
Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink