The American's is about to return for it's 4th season on FX in March. FX has been one of the best cable channels for a while now. With shows like The Shield, Archer, Fargo, Louie, Justified, Son's of Anarchy, American Horror Story, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and so much more, they've been pretty much knocking it out of the park for years now. These shows have pushed the barriers for telling a narrative in long form. I could do a whole entry just on how amazing their programing is but for now I want to focus on a show called The Americans. If you aren't watching this show, you're missing out on one of the best things on TV.
The show is set during the cold war and follows Elizabeth and Phillip, husband and wife, who have an average American family. Except that they're secretly Russian spies who have been in the US since they were teenagers. They've been playing the role of American Citizens for so long that their own two children have no idea that their parents are Russian spies.
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| At the party |
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| After the party |
The show goes into all of the moral ambiguities and the stresses living a double life and how hard it is to keep killing for a cause they are becoming more and more disillusioned with. It's a fantastic show with a stellar cast.
However one of the most amazing things is how strong all of the lead female characters are. In fact I'd say that their character arcs, and storylines have been outshining the male character's storylines on the show for a while now.
Let's take Nina for example.
She never signed on to be a spy. She was forced into bad situations one after the other. Her character is from a poor Russian family, and she has to steal to support them. When American FBI agent Beeman finds out, he blackmails her into spying for the US government.
Nina doesn't have any spy training. She can't fight like Elizabeth, nor does she have any powerful connections. Her only tools are her wits and her looks.
Nina basically has to use her charm and sex appeal to outwit those around her in order to survive. At the end of the day her character doesn't hold any trump cards or real means to save herself other than manipulating the people who try to manipulate her.
That has actually been a constant for her character. Different men, pushing her to do things that she doesn't want to do, and she ends up getting the people she works for to work for her. Seducing them, guilting them, or even appealing to their sense of honor.
Another unique thing about her character is she's the only one who never asked for any of this. Every bad situation that she's put in is due to someone else coming in and complicating her life. From the American's to the Russians to double agents.
What's amazing about her is through it all, when her situation keeps going from bad to worse, she always endures, and she always finds a way to survive.
She's intensely tough mentally, emotionally, and physically. Elizabeth differs from Philip being the harder edged and of the two. Philip wears his emotions on his sleeves and has adopted the "fun dad" approach to family life. Elizabeth seems more business like, cold and cunning. but she's shown again and again that this life emotionally compromises her.
While she started the show as the "bad cop" of the duo, she's again and again asked that they're sometimes merciful. She's also proven to be as deadly as her husband if not more so.
She proves that in the pilot by going toe to toe with a male agent. And she's also shown she can take as much as she can give. Season 3 of the show seemed to keep outdoing themselves in how much cringe worthy violence they could show us without really getting to graphic. Those of you who are all caught up will probably never forget the suitcase scene. But we see her resolve again in one of the hardest to watch moments in television, when Elizabeth has some dental work done... with pliers.
She's a character who I didn't like to much in the beginning but I admired more and more as the show went on. She's dedicated to the mission, willing to sacrifice her life if she needs to. She has to be physically threatening, sharp as a tac and able to think on her feet, all while being able to be sexy to seduce anyone she can use to complete her missions. There's not much of a grey area with Elizabeth, she's all for her country and her cause.
She's fiercely loyal to her family, and she's shown again and again that under that hard outward appearance, she's got huge emotional depth.
I also admire just how sharp she is. Not just being clever, but she's able to read people and situations. Assessing danger, and keeping herself and her family one step ahead of the danger at all times. No matter what disguise she's in, Elizabeth is a badass through and through.
Lastly we have Martha.
Not the character that people would have expected to see in a list of strong female characters. But lets look at the facts. Martha was put into an increasingly dangerous position because of her relationship with Philip.
She's got to deal with the impossible situation of being in love with someone who's compromising her safety. She could have caved, she could have given him up, but she didn't. Without spoiling too much I'll say that she began the show as a lovestruck woman who's looking to get married. But as time goes on she finds herself in more dangerous situations and is able to manage them without help, while keeping a straight face so no one recognizes that anything's wrong.
She is able to keep Philip's secret and without guidance from him she's protected him. At the start of the show, I'd have guessed that she's the type of person to buckle under pressure and to just give in. However over the course of the show she's shown not only can she be crafty, but she can think on her feet, and while she may have a brief panic attack in the ladies room when the shit hits the fan, she still pulls it together and handles her business.
What I love about Martha is that she keeps surprising me. She may have started the show as just another tool that Phillip and Elizabeth are using as a pawn but she shows that she can and will stand up for herself. She can be very outspoken. and there are times when she's shown that she knows a lot more about what's going on than she lets on.
Not everyone may agree with my choice of Martha but I'll ask you this. If it weren't for her actions and quick thinking, wouldn't Philip have been caught by the police and their operation would have been destroyed?
Overall it's a great show and if you're missing out, you definitely owe it to yourself to check it out.
