Kinky sex, romps in car backseats to the so-very-'80s funky sounds of Phil Collins, BBQ butt-kickings, bad-ass Russians locked in car boots. How could you possibly not have loved the first episode of ITV's new US spy thriller The Americans?
Starring the brilliant Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell as two awesome Soviet spies, this series looks set to be our new weekly TV addiction.
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Rhys and Russell are hard-as-nails Russians posing as the perfect suburban couple, Philip and Elizabeth Jennings. They've been doing it so long, they've got fully-grown kids (not their own) and are fully integrated into apple pie American life. However, neither of them know each other's true past, they are not allowed to speak Russian, they don't sleep together and they're not entirely sure they even totally trust each other.
After a botched attempt to deal with a KGB defector, the pair end up taking the traitor back to their garage, bound and gagged, and leave him in the boot of their car.
Philip is tempted by the option of handing over the defector to the Americans and taking a $3 million bounty and ditching the Cold War espionage lifestyle. Elizabeth, on the other hand, wants to give him a serious ass-whooping because it turns out this nasty piece of work defector raped her during her KGB training years.
In the end, it is Elizabeth's revelation to Philip about the sex attack that ends up costing the traitor his life as her 'husband' responds by choking him to death. To celebrate, the duo dump the body and finally get down to some hot action in their car to the tones of 'In the Air Tonight'.
The back and forth between Philip and Elizabeth's personal relationship looks like it will run parallel to the their cat-and-mouse game with the FBI and the background noise of Ronald Reagan's battle with the Soviets. For the time being, the couple are strong and their cover is secure. It's episode one. It can't possibly last.
These themes of patriotism and family and the double-crossing spy action will inevitably draw comparisons to Homeland, but the tones of the two shows couldn't be much more different. Even though some critics will inevitably pit the two shows against each other in discussions about quality, The Americans stands up in its own right and is worth investigating by those rare few who who never fell in love with the Carrie and Brody saga.
I can't end without mentioning Noah Emmerich, who has been brilliantly cast as FBI agent Stan Beeman. The Jennings' new next-door neighbour is happy to lend a cup of sugar and try their home-cooked brownies, but a counter-intelligence specialist isn't the ideal chap to have move in when you've spent the last 20 years disguising the fact that you're pesky Russians.
Emmerich was fantastically believable as the overly-but-rightly suspicious neighbour, and thankfully the writers have layered Stan with several shades of grey. Played with restraint, he's neither an all-American hero or a stereotypical, cold and calculated FBI agent. His role in the series may well be just as intriguing as that of Philip and Elizabeth.
Spy Files
- Fleetwood Mac's 'Tusk'. Collins's 'In The Air Tonight'. We're loving the '80s choons. Next week we want some Dire Straits and Kajagoogoo.
- "You never had someone stick a finger up your ass?" Elizabeth Jennings truly is willing to go all the way for her country.
- '80s kitchen decor was pretty naff.
- I know I said that I didn't like the idea of Homeland comparisons, but I already feel like we know more in an hour about the Jennings kids - Paige (Holly Taylor) and Henry (Keidrich Sellati) - than we've learned in two seasons about Brody's offspring Dana and Chris. Bonus points to The Americans.
- Philip using a BBQ kit to beat the crap out of the slimeball who leered at his 'daughter' is the winner of the best 'Punch The Air - Hell Yeah!' TV moment of the year so far.
- How many wigs does Philip have? And where can we buy one?
The Americans continues on Saturday nights on ITV.
Did you fall in love with The Americans? Let us know below!
