2014 Honorable Mentions

Since we are living in an era of so much superb television, I decided to once again make a companion post to my Best Of list. Some of the following shows didn't make the Best Of cut for various reasons, but if you ask me, they are all worth checking out:

Boardwalk Empire- A shortened final season of this show brought most of the characters' stories to a satisfying close without sacrificing quality or craft. The use of flashbacks could be tiresome, but were also powerful and crucial to the show's thematic finale. The quality of Boardwalk Empire got much better towards the end of its run and I for one will miss its impeccably tailored costumes and send up to Prohibition Era accents and culture.

The Comeback- Oh my goodness this season of The Comeback was so darn good that if I hadn't made my Best Of list before the final episode aired, it certainly would have been included. I loved everything about this nine-years-later second season. Like its first season, The Comeback manages to capture the television landscape of its time while commenting on the price of fame and the treatment of women in Hollywood in often poignant and distressing ways. The meta-ness of the show never ceases to surprise me and Lisa Kudrow is doing amazing work. Lisa Kudrow for all the awards!

Fargo- Fargo was all at once an homage to the Coen Brothers' filmography and something of its own entirely, toeing that line expertly with craft and quirk. And it did it all with a smirk on its face. I think what held it back was it's pacing as it took me a few episodes to actually get into the story. But once I did, I enjoyed it as much as the best shows on TV. A time-jump mid way through the season helped on every level. And the characters kept you guessing as they embraced the sometimes heightened reality of the world they lived in. I need someone to give Allison Tolman a new role ASAP.

Homeland- Oh, what to say about the see-saw that is Showtime's Homeland? It will never live up to its zany first season, but the reset of this most recent season was the best the show has been in a very long time (since the second season episode, "Q & A" if you ask me). Yes the show remains uneven: One second I'm thrilled to the edge of my seat and the next rolling my eyes at the improbability and 24-tinted plot points. But I very much enjoyed these most recent episodes, finger-guns and all.

The Mindy Project- The Mindy Project tends to get a lot of hate, especially from the males of the world (which I guess I can understand, although I do believe there's humor for everyone). The first season and a half of the show was okay, yet always comedic. But the later half of its second season and the first half of its third have been firing on all cylinders. The ensemble work is spot on while the one-liners and wordplay keep me laughing for days.

Orange is the New Black- I didn't love OITNB's second season as much as its first and I think it came down to the season's villain. Vee was just such a cartoon villain with no real motivation behind her lust for power/control and her subsequent manipulation over the entire social system. I guess later episodes made her out to simply be a psychopathic egomaniac, but that felt like a disservice to a show that normally has fantastic character work. Aside from Vee, I have no complaints about the season (except for Larry continuing to be The Worst).

Orphan Black- Orphan Black keeps so many balls in the air and while it could be more successful at it, its impressive all the same. But I'm just waiting for it all to fall apart. Tatiana Maslany carries the show on her shoulders by playing all the major characters with such nuance that you can always tell who she is (even when she's one character pretending to be another character). The science of the show can be wonky, but that is what sci-fi is all about. And the end of one episode in particular was so beautifully thrilling that I think I stopped breathing.

Parks and Recreation- Parks and Rec is a forever favorite of mine. The show hasn't gotten stale per say, but it has definitely plateaued in its humor, momentum, and general story. However, the final minutes of this year's season finale was a much needed shot of adrenaline and humor. Jumping ahead three years avoids bogging the show down with pregnancy (again) and other story lines the show has already explored. For the first time in a while, I'm very much looking forward to next season. Filling in the gaps between timelines will hopefully be hilariously fruitful.

Silicon Valley- I found the pilot of this new HBO comedy lukewarm, but as the show found its characters and general story, the show gained a lot of comedic momentum. It all lead to a season finale that happened to be one of the funniest episodes of television I've seen in a while. The show is smart, silly, and cutting. One character in particular, Peter Gregory, was a standout of amusing eccentricity, which only makes the passing of actor Christopher Evan Welch, that more tragic.

Veep- I simply love Veep. I think Julia Louis Dreyfus, Matt Walsh, Tony Hale, and Timothy Simons are all hilarious people. I'm a fan of politics. I'm a big fan of creative cursing. As long as this show is on, I'll be watching it. And like Parks and Rec, I suspect it will be a forever favorite.

D's Best of 2014

At this point, most of my posts start off with an apology for infrequent updates. And I know no one is coming here for excuses. The fact of the matter is that the summer months come, my television habit dwindles, my writing suffers, and its hard to get back in the swing of things. Next thing I know its December. And December comes with a gimmie: do a Best Of list. So here we go.

As I’ve said in years past, Best Of lists are arbitrary and kind of silly, but I still enjoy creating ones as an exercise in writing and to reflect on what I enjoyed this past year. It’s also interesting to look at my past lists and see how my tastes and affection for certain shows have changed over time. This particular "list" isn't ranked per-say. But it does flow from favorites at the tops to lesser favorites towards the bottom. Whatever that means.

That being said, without much fanfare, I present to you: 

D’S BEST OF 2014

BROAD CITY

Executive Produced by Amy Poehler with awesome guest stars and a killer supporting cast, you better believe Broad City is hilarious and perfect on every level. I rarely rewatch seasons of shows (and if I do I’m more likely to do it years after first seeing it). But I’ve rewatched Broad City’s first season at least four times this year alone. And usually it’s because I feel such an intense need to share it with others, that I’ll force them to watch it and next thing I know we’ve finished the season together. Abbi and Ilana are the new Lucy/Ethel, Mary/Rhoda, Tina/Amy and I can’t wait for them to breakthrough. And while I find Broad City way more relatable than Girls, listen to me when I say this show is absolutely for the boys as well. Come for the 90s R&B, stay for Hannibal Buress.

THE AMERICANS

The Americans is one of the best shows on television and the fact that it gets no awards love just goes to show how useless awards are. The acting, directing, writing, and feel of this show is all so damn engaging and superb. I loved The Americans its first season out, but its sophomore season was easily just as good and at times even better than the first. While the first season was a take on marriage and partnership amidst the Cold War and a world of espionage, the second season was about commitment, parenting, trauma, and coming of age. The season finale was a gut-punch of a twist on top of a harrowing season of intensity and heartbreak. If any show deserves recognition and viewership, it is certainly The Americans. Screw the nonbelievers. Come for the wigs, stay for the 69.

THE KNICK
Let me start off by saying The Knick’s writing is certainly lacking. While many people find it hard to look past the clunky dialogue, I never took much issue with it because everything else about The Knick is so damn good. Stephen Soderberg not only directed every episode (a la True Detective’s Cary Fukunaga), but he is the show's cinematographer, camera operator, and editor. On every single episode. It’s incredible because not only is it such an impressive work load, but because it is all so completely beautiful and subtle. There are dozens of “stealth-oners” (AKA one take tracking shots that are far less obvious than ones on showier programs) that had me writhing in delight. Every episode was lit and blocked to perfection. The camera took its time to focus on characters without cutting away to dozens of other angles. And the Cliff Martinez score pulsed through the season, giving The Knick its beating heart. So yes, while I’m normally the first person to point out shoddy writing, when it comes to The Knick it almost doesn’t even matter. The show could be in Dothraki and it’d still be great. Come for the liquid cocaine, stay for the liquid cocaine.

MAD MEN 

I’m sure at this point people are tired of hearing how good Mad Men is. But fuck them. Mad Men is fantastic. For the first half of its final season, Mad Men definitely hasn’t let up. The 1960s are coming to a close, times are changing, and while some are thriving in the times, others are struggling to keep their heads afloat. While Mad Men is certainly artistic, incredibly well written, and detailed at every stage, what keeps me coming back are the characters and the dynamics they’ve created. My favorite episodes of the series tend to involve Don and Peggy and this past season had plenty more of those little moments. From a dance, to a passing of the torch, to an Edward Hopper-esque pan-out of Don, Peggy, and Pete eating dinner together, I grew even more attached to these characters and their pseudo-family. You come to Mad Men for those moments, but you stay for the severed nipple.

LOUIE

What I love about Louie is the artistic free-form the show takes. From a mini-movie, to a serialized six-part episode, to a one-and-done candid plea from a full-figured gal, Louie has so much to say and so many different ways to say it. When I turn on Louie, I love that I don’t know what I’m going to get, that I don’t know which reality we’re living in, which characters are going to get a poignant or hilarious monologue, or where the episode is going to take me. A look at Louie’s adolescence felt like an episode of Freaks and Geeks in all the right ways. An episode where Louie bags a model is closely followed by an episode where Louie rejects a hilarious/sweet overweight waitress which manages to say tons about society and double-standards. The end of the season had even more to say on the matter as Louie attempted to force himself on a familiar woman. Serialization is more of a suggestion than a reality when it comes to Louie and it may seem like a season isn’t leading anywhere, but by the end of this latest run we explored so much about Louie, Louis CK, and the absurdity of love and humanity. This past season explored Louie’s relationships with all the women in his life (from his daughters to his mother to his Hungarian neighbor) and how those relationships reflect back on him. Which was ultimately a commentary on gender and society. I am continuously amazed at Louis CK’s pathos and diminished ego. Come for the model, stay for the fat lady.




TRANSPARENT 

Somehow Transparent is full of the most selfish characters you will ever encounter, yet you can’t help but engage in their story. What I appreciated about this show was how it portrayed the blatant messiness of families—something creator Jill Soloway picked up from the Six Feet Under writer’s room, no doubt. Inspired by her own father coming out and transitioning to a woman, Soloway wrote this show about a family with fluid sexuality/gender--and oftentimes a destructive relationship to sex--as they reel in the aftermath of their own father becoming a woman. Much of it was hard to watch and characters were hard to root for, yet a yearning for homecoming hung over the season. And I’m curious to see how they all grow together. Come for Jeffrey Tambor’s amazing performance, stay for Maura's outfits.

GAME OF THRONES

I hesitate to keep Game of Thrones on this list simply because of its distasteful use of rape and sexual peril. But then I’d be doing a disservice to a show that only manages to get better and better. Having read the books, I know what to expect from upcoming episodes. But David Benioff and DB Weiss have certainly diverged from the books by tweaking one or two narratives while completely fabricating story lines. It’s not always successful (Craster’s Keep, anyone?), but it keeps this book reader on her toes. From very well-choreographed battle scenes to the transformation of the remaining Stark children, the show knows how to land every moment, big or small. It manages to bring one-dimensional book characters to life on the screen as they crackle with charisma (only to die horrible deaths…valar marghulis). Come for the nudes, stay for the Dinklage.




TRUE DETECTIVE

Something about True Detective almost hasn’t aged well with me since it aired earlier this year. At the time the mystery and craft of the show pulled me in and was incredibly engaging, atmospheric, beautiful in its back-swampy ways, and thoughtful in its emotional and spiritual journey. But months later, after its effects have worn off, I find myself slightly annoyed at is pretentions, its rote philosophical pontificating, its disregard of female characters, and its highly praised yet unnecessary and overworked six-minute long tracking shot. (Look, I love me an impressive tracking shot, and True Detective’s was fantastic. But think about that episode and what anything in that shot had to do with anything whatsoever. Cut those last six minutes out of the show, and it would have no effect on the story or season. Which is certainly a waste in its showy, self-aggrandizing presentation.) That being said, True Detective deserves a place on this list and all/any lists due to its solid direction, solid acting, and what it has to say about life and existence. Come for Rust Cohle, stay for The Yellow King.

Some Brief Thoughts On The Americans

“Echo” might be the most appropriate title for an episode of television in quite some time. Not only because much of The American’s finale revolved around Echo—the stealth computer technology developed by the Americans and that the Soviets are desperate to acquire—but because so many little details and lines of dialogue reverberated throughout the entire second season to reemerge at intermittent volumes in this final hour. A lot happened in this episode—heck, a lot happened this season—with various plots intertwining and coming to a head in spectacularly assured and quiet fashion.

In the wake of the finale, I immediately thought back to a moment from the first episode of the season: when Philip tells Emmett, “We never use our kids,” before he reluctantly agrees to use his own son Henry as an identifier to quickly and harmlessly pass along information (unbeknownst to Henry, of course). Compare that to the final scene of “Echo” and the look on Philip’s face when he realizes Elizabeth is actually considering bringing their eldest daughter Paige into the espionage fold at the Center’s request. “It would destroy her,” he says. “To be like us?” Elizabeth asks before sitting down to family dinner. And in that ending you can’t help but think back to everything we know about Paige. The first season ended with her snooping through the basement, convinced her parents were hiding something. This season started with her continuing this detective work and taking secret trips to Pennsylvania to further investigate her parents, only to eventually give up and rebelliously join a church. As Elizabeth mentions, Paige has been yearning for something to dedicate her life to. Paige explicitly says she is attracted to the church because Jesus gave his life for something greater than himself, and that it inspires her. This chick has passion and you can almost hear Paige’s conviction echoing in the silences between Philip and Elizabeth at episode’s end.

Now also take into account what Philip and Elizabeth saw happen to Jared within this same episode. As we found out in this finale, Jared was contacted by the Center, began training behind his parents' backs, and when his parents, Emmett and Leanne, found out and disapproved, Jared killed them along with his younger sister...all for “the cause.” We spent an entire season trying to find Emmett and Leanne’s killer but it was their poor surviving son, Jared all along. Bleeding from the neck of a gunshot wound he spills his guts in a very well-acted yet frustratingly long moment. But the truth he reveals and the worst case scenario he represents for the path Paige could take rings loudly in every interaction Philip and Elizabeth have thereafter. And I’d hate to admit it, but Elizabeth may have a point. We saw what sacrificing for the greater good did to Jared, turning him into a ruthless and stoic monster with nothing to anchor him as his parents rejected this chosen path. But if Elizabeth and Philip nurtured Paige, their own daughter who is relentlessly looking for a purpose and something larger then herself to commit to, they will not only be training her for espionage, but teaching her how to survive on her own if/when the inevitable arrives.

I could probably write a whole essay about how almost every poignant moment this season succeeded because of the echoes of past events and realities. From Elizabeth using the details of her own rape as a young cadet to wholly manipulate a Navy seaman in Virginia Beach, to Philip’s growing existential despair bleeding into his treatment of Martha, the Jennings are such calculated manipulators because they use honest details to provoke dishonest emotions. They're method actors who use their marks to work through their own personal and marital issues, even if they don't realize they're doing it. The audience sees all this in the space between the Jennings reality and fabrication. Which further relays how the best thing about The Americans, and “Echo” in particular, is everything that is left unsaid: the realities and realizations that the audience is left to connect on their own during the many silences and 80s montages.

Every action has a consequence and oftentimes we are simply waiting for the other shoe to drop. Like Elizabeth said last week, “It’s coming.” And she’s definitely not referring to winter (we’re in the midst of a Cold War filmed during the Polar Vortex of 2014, winter has already arrived), but simply the inevitable. And not just the inevitable conclusion to a life lived as a spy on foreign soil, but the inevitable conclusion to an unsustainable life. (Which would naturally bring me to the Stan/Nina/Oleg storyline and all of its silent goodbyes that echoed of past promises and impossible futures, but that could be a whole separate essay as well). Philip knows their reckoning is inevitable and that his current situation is unsustainable as much as Elizabeth. He has struggled to psychologically and emotionally handle the consequences of his actions in the wake of a rising kill count and dwindling belief in his cause. And he never says it but we see it in his demeanor, his after hours visit to Paige's church, and how he takes it all out on Poor Martha.

Yes, I found flaws in this final episode of the season. The anticlimactic end to Larrick as well as Jared’s  exposition laden death scene come to mind. But to be honest, I could nitpick any episode of television to death. And when I think back to what this finale says about the season as a whole and how assuredly it is put together, it’s easy to look past those lesser moments in favor of the larger picture. To make sacrifices for the greater good. 

And dammit, this show is so much greater than good. It's by far one of the best things on television.

D's Top TV of 2013

Its about that time of year when you will see many Top Ten lists of The Best TV or Films or Books or Whatnot of the year. I am personally ambivalent when it comes to such lists. Maybe blame it on Buzzfeed fatigue but I just find ranking and comparing series that are so different from one another to be slightly arbitrary and meaningless. But I find value in dissecting what I've responded to in the past year, as it helps me to further understand my personal taste. And I like doing these year end recaps as a way to recommend programming to anyone who may trust my judgement or share my preferences.

So I'm not ranking these programs. I'm just spotlighting ones that I found to be the best of the year. But please take all of this with a grain of salt as I have clearly not watched everything on television. I gravitate towards certain types of programming and so it is from those heavenly bodies that I judge the landscape before me.

Enlightened (HBO)
I wrote about Enlightened earlier this year when its fate was still uncertain. Now we know that this excellent program was not picked up for another season. There is nothing else like Enlightened on television. It was earnest, existential, spiritually provocative, and refreshing in ways no other program is. I am beyond disappointed that such a fantastic program has been denied the chance to continue to grow and bloom. But I am grateful for the few beautiful episodes we were afforded this past year. And I hope creator Mike White is given the opportunity to run a similar show in the future.
Season Highlights: Episode 2.5 "The Ghost is Seen" was one of my favorite episodes of any show this past year. It opened with such melancholy and closed so quietly hopeful that you'd have to be heartless not to emotionally respond to such superb storytelling.

The Americans (FX)
I straight up loved the first season of this show. I don't know what I was expecting going into it, but The Americans ended up being the best freshman season of a program since Homeland. I don't understand how it could get overlooked by both the Emmys and the Golden Globes, but good riddance. As much as it deserves recognition, I don't need award pressure and blowback surrounding this program. I mentioned The Americans a couple of times this year but all you need to know is that the performances are great, the writing is great, the directing is great, the spy games are fun, the characters are dimensional and sympathetic, and the costumes/wigs are awesome. And above all, it easily has the best soundtrack on television. Forget Glee. Forget American Horror Story (as much as I love all the Fleetwood Mac this season). The Americans uses pop music like no other. Just ask The AV Club.
Season Highlights: ALL OF IT Episodes 1.3 and 1.10 "Gregory" and "Only You" are essentially companion episodes revolving around the introduction and fate of a compelling supporting character.

Top of the Lake (Sundance)
Before I get into Top of the Lake, may I mention how Sundance has been killing it? The Sundance Channel introduced its own scripted programming only this year and every single show has been right up my alley. Top of the Lake happens to be the first of these scripted programs to air and its quite a hard act to follow. Directed by Jane Campion, this miniseries was confident, beautifully shot, deliberately paced, fantastically acted, and reached Twin Peaks level of quirky. Elisabeth Moss led the cast and put in a spot-on performance. Keeping in mind her work on Mad Men along with her work on this miniseries (not to mention her fake New Zealand accent), its easy to recognize the immensity of Elisabeth Moss's talent. The rest of the cast also did top notch work as Top of the Lake delivered in all the ways AMC's The Killing never could. Sundance followed up Top of the Lake with Rectify and then the excellent French series The Returned (which I am currently engrossed in). Each show has the same feel proving that with only three series, Sundance Channel already has its own style of programming and I can't wait to see what else it has in store.
Season Highlights: As it is a miniseries it is hard to pin point one episode over another, but the final two installments are suspenseful, heartbreaking, and revelatory. Which essentially makes the whole series worth watching.

Game of Thrones (HBO)
Listen, I just love me some fantasy/sci-fi. And Game of Thrones is an epic fantasy whose grandiosity increasingly entertains as it continues. But what makes the show so good has nothing to do with its fantasy elements and everything to do with its ballsy, earned, and robust storytelling. This past season was the first time I watched the show after having already read the books and it certainly didn't take any of the enjoyment away. Yes, on some level I robbed myself of a doozy of a television experience, but knowing it was coming didn't diminish the shock in any way. (Just ask anyone who hasn't read the books but has rewatched the season). My only real criticism is probably the very cheesy, kind of racist, over-the-top scene that closed the season finale (but this amazing gif-set, which is cheesy in its own right, made it all better).
Season Highlights: Episode 3.9 "The Rains of Castamere," duh. It was quite possibly one of the most talked about television events in recent history and a huge game changer.

Mad Men (AMC)
When it comes to Mad Men, either you love it or you don't. The latest season definitely wasn't the best of the series, but when it comes to such a rich show, does that really even matter? This past June I wrote an impassioned post about Mad Men's most recent season and I honestly don't have much else to add except that regardless of season, Mad Men is one of the most engrossing and well-crafted series on television. Period.
Season Highlights: As I've said in the past, an entire season of Mad Men is like a good novel and so choosing a favorite episode is sometimes like choosing a favorite chapter of a book (which is kind of an awkward thing to do). It'd be easier to pick out various moments. But Episode 6.6 "For Immediate Release" was absolutely a highlight as it captured a sense of exhilaration reminiscent of the show's classic third season finale.

Orange is the New Black (Netflix)
Basically all summer all anyone talked about was this show, and with good reason. Because holy cow, what a fantastic program. As I mentioned in July, it was incredibly hard for me to shake Orange from my system (not that I wanted to). Something about Orange stuck with me. Beyond its tight structure, great writing, and celebrity directing (Jodie Foster, people!), it was the dimensional characters that made this show what it was. And I admire Orange for its large and diverse female cast, the likes of which we rarely seen on television--especially not in such an enriching format. I'm counting down the days until we get more.
Season Highlights: When you binge-watch a show, episodes tend to bleed together. But episode 1.5 "The Chickening" was a particular stand out in its zaniness. And the end of Episode 1.11 "Tall Men With Feelings" with its fantastic nod to NPR, the montage that it involves, and the circumstances after, is another favorite.

Breaking Bad (AMC)
What is there to say about Breaking Bad? I never wrote a post regarding this series last season as I found it hard to parse out my thoughts on the finale. Months later I find that the final episode doesn't necessarily hold up as well as I would like, but thats fine because everything that came before it was absolutely amazing and expertly executed on every single level. And as for the finale I can't fault it for tying things up so neatly after the explosive episodes we got before it. Walt basically moving like a ghost throughout the final episode, entering and leaving scenes without notice as he calmly tied up lose ends, offered a moment to catch our breaths right before the end. I loved the creepy aspect of Walt prowling about with such ease and confidence as compared to the clumsy fool we met years ago. And how we got there was a crazy wild journey, so far beyond anything else on television. I always said no one does intensity like Breaking Bad, and that was absolutely true from the get-go in this final half of season five. This was one of the best series of television to ever grace our screens. Every season somehow improved on the one before it leaving us with this gem of a final season.
Season Highlights: Forget everything I just said about the finale. Because that was the epilogue. Episode 5.14, the explosive "Ozymandias," was the true ending to this show. Not only was "Ozymandias" arguably the best episode of Breaking Bad, but it was one of the best episodes of television I have ever seen. Everything great about Breaking Bad was expertly exhibited in this one hour of television and everyone watching was left with their jaws on the floor, their hearts pounding, and their minds reeling. The emotion, the performances, the pace, the writing, the directing...every single thing was spot on. And its why Breaking Bad was arguably the best thing on television in 2013.


But wait! That not all....

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.)

The Americans: Games Without Frontiers

Oh boy, where do I begin with The Americans? I've been wanting to write about this show its entire freshman season. Every week there was something new and exciting to mention. This is a show I wouldn't mind doing weekly recaps for. If it wasn't for my great Game of Thrones project, I probably would have. Just trust me when I say it is fantastic television. I already know it's going to make my Top Ten at the end of the year. And I have been recommending it to everybody and anybody in ear shot.

At various points throughout the season I went as far as to actually write notes, which would typically evolve into proper posts. But I failed to follow through. Instead I have decided to compile and refine my rough notes and update with a series of posts about the show. So here, my friends, is the first installment of my mega-series regarding FX's fantastic freshman program, The Americans.


First Impressions
The Americans stars Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys as Russian spies living in the United States during the 1980s. Right away, just based on that, I was interested in the premise of the show. A few early reviews seemed to imply that the pilot might be worth my time...and it sure was. The Americans isn't about spies per se. I mean yes, spy things are happening (to an amazing soundtrack of Fleetwood Mac, Phil Collins, and Peter Gabriel, by the way), but there's SO much more to it. There are elements of loyalty and duty to these characters' actions--as you would expect coming from a spy drama--but that loyalty and duty is about marriage and family just as much as it is about commitment to home and country.

From the beginning, one of the most compelling aspects of The Americans wasn't necessarily the time period or the spying, but rather the idea of partnership and marriage. Not only the one between Phillip and Elizabeth Jennings (Rhys and Russell, respectively) and how it is a faux marriage of necessity--a commitment to the motherland via each other. But also the marriage of FBI agent Stan Beeman (Noah Emmerich) and his civilian wife. Both couples are neighbors. Both couples have children. And both couples have secrets within their own family. The Jennings' children, Paige and Henry, have no idea that their parents are Russian, let alone spies. And as the season continues, the dynamics of their relationship comes into sharper focus. Elizabeth comes across as cold, committed, and serious while Phillip appears to take to American life a little too well, and this obviously all affects their marriage. Throughout the season Phillip and Elizabeth navigate the ups and downs of their relationship while also managing to engage in some extremely entertaining espionage.

All the characters have damage and past experiences that others, including spouses, don't even know about. This is made clear in the pilot episode and comes back again and again throughout the season. Stan is still a mess from his past undercover jobs and it is negatively impacting his home life. Meanwhile Phillip and Elizabeth are partners who have been spying together for well over a decade. They have children and they depend on each other in all aspects of their lives. But there's still a distance between them, and individual pasts and relationships the other knows nothing about. The entire season deals with Phillip and Elizabeth recognizing this distance, coming to grips with their feelings for one another--how deeply they may or may not run--and doing something about it. It's a delicate yet fascinating relationship. Especially when they are encouraging the other to seduce a target and gather post-coital intelligence.

Emotions run strong throughout this entire season. To the point that the season finale was so much more emotional than a show about Russian spies in America has any reason being. And that's what makes The Americans such a fantastic program. Not just the fact that I'm sitting here at home with my baby-boomer mother rooting for these Russians and worrying about their safety, but because the characters are so well drawn, the dynamics of their relationships so delicately laid before us, that it elevates every action on the show to another level. And its not cheap or soapy, but rather genuine and relatable.


And Did I Mention Spies?
The show is about spies! Russian spies! In America! During the Cold War! In the 1980s! The clothes! The technology! The cars! THE WIGS! It's all fantastic, really. There are great action sequences, and sexy times, and costumes to keep the most shallow viewer entertained. But there is also a compelling story and an intricate plot with wins and losses and actual stakes. And woven throughout is the dynamics of the main characters' marriage.

Just know that The Americans is one of my favorite shows at the moment. And for damn good reason: because it's a damn good show.