Always an issue, especially in dramas like these :). Like I said up thread, I’m wondering if they can keep up the current pace without it getting cartoony. Kidnapping and assassinations really shouldn’t be everyday activities for a deep cover sleeper cell. I’m hopeful, but not at all confidant they can pull it off.
For me it comes down to whether something is reasonably plausible - I obviously have no trouble fan-wanking away minor problems. But that line is always there. Even if it crosses it a bit too often if a show at least gives as many entertaining moments as eye-rolls I’ll give it a qualified pass ( hell, I still think Lost was worthwhile for the ride, if not the finish ), but that is always tougher with dramas than comedies.
I enjoyed it. Looking forward to more. The interaction between the “couple” is a great part of it. The one thing I did find strange was the “beauracratically arranged marriage” trope. IIRC and please correct me if I am wrong, in the actual illegals program me and otherwise, they selected spies who were already married to each other instead of arranging marriages.
What was the spies jobs, both as a cover and as KGB officers. “Phillip” does not appear to be in any sensitive post and “Elizabeth” is a housewife. I think the Soviets used long term agents for access to sensitive information rather than for killing annoying detectors.
Phillip mentioned something about “accounts” when he was talking to his son. Would Phillip have a “real job” at a normal business or would he work for a front of some kind? Elizabeth of course doesn’t need a job; in fact it’s better if she’s a housewife. Most of the women in her neighborhood are probally housewives (thus working would be abnormal & attract comment), and it gives her more time to concentrate on her housekeeping and espionage.
Agreed. I though he was supposed to be a travel agent.
I also liked the idea of him being a huge fan of America, while she’s not and quite upset at how Americanized her children are becoming.
I also thought the sex scene between the two of them was genuinely touching.
It occurred to me that Elizabeth was a woman in her late 30s and this was probably the first time she’d ever genuinely made love.
Also, it’s got to be quite affecting to be discover that your husband of 16 years whom you probably have really mixed feelings regarding and whom you’ve reported to your superiors actually loves, or at least deeply cares for you.
BTW, please tell me that I’m not the only who really enjoyed the scene where Phillip was doing the country line square dance in the mirror while his daughter looked on absolutely mortified.
To me that rang so true though it’s also a bit traumatizing to realize I’ve reached the age where I identify with the parents in such scenes in instead of the kids.
The second part and also it demonstrated that he has a lot of repressed anger in him.
I’m interested in his backstory(I.E. the picture he tore up) and the fact that his English was more advanced than Elizabeth’s(notice how in the flashbacks she had a Russian accent while he didn’t).
Yeah re the accents, I think that is due to the actors respective abilities, not the storyline. Elizabeth OTH was from Smolensk, her daddy died at Stalingrad. She has many good reasons to hate foreigners.
I think you’re overthinking it. Suppose you’re a trained killer with excellent abilities at disguise. Some creep makes a pass at your 13 year old daughter while you’re watching. What are you going to do?
Nothing, of course. The risks far outweigh the rewards… not sure what the reward even would be there, except a hamburger. OK, maybe the rewards might be worth it. . . Hm
No, but I go into a show, especially a pilot, thinking that the directors and writers have a meaning behind their scenes. I take it you think the purpose behind this scene is to make the character resonate as a father with the audience?
I hardly thought anything of it. When Phillip picked up the guy’s name off his credit card, I thought it was obvious he was going to track him down and give him some vigilante lovin, and I thought it was well within his established character up to that point. He’s already let the mission take a back seat to “taking care of his own,” multiple times. He’s also displayed a very cavalier attitude regarding his abilities as a spy (re: how easy he thought it would be to evade the KGB should they defect). I don’t think he shares the same risk vs reward calculus that you do.
Long term question about the show. Why should any of us be rooting for this monster? I mean besides the fact that she’s one of the best-looking women on the planet and the rule in entertainment is always to root for the most beautiful person on screen. Doesn’t she have to fail every week? No matter what you think of Reagan’s America or the FBI, you can’t really want her to score any points against them.
He is. I rewatched the scene and he told his son “Anyone can book travel, but you have to keep the executives happy. That’s how you keep accounts”. I also noticed taht Phillip and Elizabeth were introduced in 1962, but didn’t make it to the US until 1965 (and Elizabeth still wasn’t ready to have sex). One imagines the KGB would’ve been them spend most of those 3 years living together as a couple even if they didn’t insist on consumation. Are they even legally married? I don’t think there’d be any point in them getting married before they left the USSR; would they have made a stop at one of those quikie wedding chapels after arriving in the US? It would be one less document they needed to forge.
shrug Why not? It’s historical fiction essentially and as long as she is shown as a real human being and not soulless villain, I have no problem rooting for her in a limited way. We already knows who wins and it isn’t the USSR ;). Twisted and fucked up as that system was, to me it doesn’t quite fall into the same category as rooting for a Nazi or a Klansman - she’s just a fervent, misguided nationalist.
I suppose the patriotic ending would be her turning and becoming a double-agent or just selling out. But that might compromise her likeability in a way - usually nobody likes traitors, even if they are traitors for your side. The happy ending would be for them to quietly disappear with their family into the American mainstream, turning their back on the destructive life they once had. The melancholy ending might be if she just buys it, probably the sad ending is if her family is seriously hurt. But who knows where they’ll end up.
But no, Keri Russell being a commie assassin/spy doesn’t really bother me, as long as they explore the ramifications of her choices ( or relative lack of them ). So far, so good at this point.
To add to what you’re saying she comes across far more as a Russian nationalist than as a committed communist.
People also seem to be ignoring the fact that she’s not THE main character, but one of two and at this point Rhys appears to be far more pro-American than pro-Russian.
I’ll be interested to learn more of their backstories to explain why he’s so much more open to the idea of loving America and all it represents than her who was the victim of a rather brutal assault by a representative of the Soviet authorities.
She’s hardly a monster. She’s a product of her country and her KGB training. Good television characters should be flawed and complex, otherwise they’re boring. Look at a character like Tony Soprano. He was far more brutal than Elizabeth, and yet plenty of people found themselves rooting for him.
I don’t think there’d be any point in them getting married before they left the USSR; would they have made a stop at one of those quikie wedding chapels after arriving in the US? It would be one less document they needed to forge.