Comparative Thought: The Americans and Homeland

[This is the second in a series of posts regarding FX's The Americans. The first dealt with my general impressions of the show. There are no spoilers here nor there.]

A lot of television shows have done the spy thing. And wanting to compare The Americans to something like Alias, 24, or Homeland is easy. In fact, I have encountered many brief comparisons to Homeland. Which I find to definitely be warranted. Both shows are quality programs taking place in Washington DC, dealing with counterintelligence and characters hiding in plain sight. And to further align these two series, I found The American's first season to be the best first season of television since Homeland's freshman run on Showtime. So yes, they're comparable. However I believe where Homeland falters, The Americans excels wonderfully.

I would say the main difference between The Americans and Homeland is that Homeland is all soap. Listen I love Homeland, particularly that first season (and the first half of the second), but the show lives on the brink. Stakes and emotion are always high. Scenes are regularly tense, putting me on the edge of my seat. And it's great. It's fantastic television and amazingly well-acted to boot.  It deserves all the recognition it has gotten. But I still think Homeland would have been better off as a one-season show-- I simply don't see them successfully keeping up that pace. They're going to burn themselves out at some point. And while the stakes on The Americans are also high, the characters aren't as extreme. They are just as damaged and just as complex, but more quietly so. The show exhibits beautifully balanced restraint. The characters have quiet moments of tension that I find just as compelling as a manic Carrie Mathison jazz freakout. And seeing a show strike that perfectly soft cord of complex emotion is incredible to witness.

Related to the idea of restraint, is how The Americans is far more nuanced. There are actual themes and motifs happening throughout the season as well as within individual episodes. Symbolism and foreshadowing and mirroring help us arrive at points in an episode in wonderfully artistic ways. And so the show resonates more deeply than the star crossed lovers of Homeland. One fantastic episode of The Americans involved the necessary death of a minor, yet compelling character. But the show never feels the need to spell it out for us. We arrive at that point of realization together with the characters. Seeing no other way out, we have to come to grips with what is about to transpire while the characters are doing exactly the same. And that makes the emotion of the show feel so much more earned. It feels more visceral and relatable. The Americans doesn't feel the need to race to the rooftops and shout out its frustrated darkness. It plays out much more subtly. And it is just as satisfying as anything on Homeland. This isn't to say that I don't love some of the over-the-top Carrie Mathison freak outs or her incredibly compelling cry-face. Because I do. I'm not bashing Homeland. There's just something to be said for a slower build up and letting your audience arrive there themselves.

The American's season finale was one of the best episodes of television I have seen all year. They nailed every aspect of that episode, from the plot, to the story of these characters, to the waves of emotion rippling throughout. And the final sequence utilizing that perfectly chosen Peter Gabriel song brought it all together amazingly well. (In fact, Emily Nussbaum of the New Yorker has a nifty theory regarding that song choice). The Americans has quite an artistic eye. And I find it to be unique to the show. But like the plot and story, it is never over the top. You settle into it and learn to appreciate its little nuances along the way. Meanwhile I can't remember loving a song choice on Homeland (maybe I'm just not into jazz) or a particular camera angle or series of shots. I mean, Homeland is shot well and still remains great. And I'm not saying some cinematic flourish is what makes a show good. But it definitely helps. I mean, just look at Breaking Bad. (No. Seriously. Look at it. That show is visually stunning.)