I recently got season 1 of The Americans from the library and binge-watched it. Now I’m catching up on season 2 on ‘On Demand’.
Meanwhile, looking for another binge-watch, I saw season 1 of Homeland at the library. Just finished it.
Watching the two shows together, they’re kind of getting conflated in my mind. Even though the periods are different, the two shows are very similar: they’re both action dramas about America in a constant background conflict with an enemy; they both weave fiction and actual historical events together; they both have characters that pretend to be loyal Americans but are actually enemy agents; and both have female leads formerly known for starring in angsty teen dramas.
On the whole I think I like ‘The Americans’ better. It just seems more layered and complex. Plus, the idea of making an entertainment out of the events of 9-11 and the aftermath don’t seem quite right to me. It’s not just that it’s too soon; maybe it’s the plotline where, toward the end of season 1, being sometime in 2011 the very non-Biden-like Vice President is getting ready to run for President…in 2012? 
Sure, plenty of shows use fictional presidential administrations. But when the show is trading off a very real and very tragic situation, to play so fast and loose with recent history kind of takes me out of the fiction. I know Abu Nazir is fictional also, but there could be someone like Abu Nazir, so I don’t have a problem with that plotline.
Plus the plotline with Carrie constantly warning that there’s something wrong with Brody but her bosses totally dismissing her instincts is annoying. It seems pretty reasonable to suspect that a man held in enemy captivity for 8 years could be compromised in some way. That whole plotline reminded me of poor Big Bird on Sesame Street when I was a kid-- only he saw the Snuffleupagus and no one else believed Snuffy was real. 
What do you guys think- Homeland or The Americans?