Been on a bit of a cold war drama binge over the last couple of months. Watched the first series of The Americans - which I really liked - and then Deutschland 83 came on, which I really loved. I wasn't completely sure I was going to continue with The Americans but felt a bit bereft after Deutschland 83 ended. So, tentatively began watching series 2 of The Americans, which I thought in the early episodes upped its original standard somewhat. By the end of series - and what an ending! - I tried to talk myself into having a break and persuade myself that I would begin to watch series 3 in a couple of month's time. I tried. I failed. Watched the opening 4 episodes of series 3 over the weekend. Wow! This literally gets better with every passing episode. The tension, the feeling of jeopardy the two leads find themselves in, the brilliant and jarring juxtaposition between family life and the needs of The Centre. The wonderful ironies - especially the Russians experiencing what contemporary Americans are feeling to this day, as the Afghan war escalates in 1983. Brilliant and very subtly done in my opinion. It's hard not to witness the seeds of America's (the West's) current enemies being sown in the early 80s. Intriguing political subtext throughout.
This also has a wonderful, understated and completely unobvious soundtrack throughout all I've watched so far, as well as a truly memorable opening title sequence and score.
I love everything about this show. But most of all, this shows succeeds or fails on the performances of its two leads. They are pretty remarkable. We are totally immersed in their world. The extent of the disguises, the 'other' characters they must inhabit - beyond their everyday fake ones! - is incredible. You believe them when they are not being who we think they are. We believe them even more when the are just being plain, old Elizabeth and Philip Jennings, boring travel agents. Their characters are truly Matryoshka dolls! My current favourite is the Clark/Philip dichotomy. Rhys pulls this off incredibly well. I'm at the point where I no longer see Philip when he's being Clark. His relationship with Martha is riven with tension; its duplicitous nature hidden in plain sight. Martha, sympathetic and pitiful in equal measure. Amazing. Gripping. Horrible.
But Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys are at their very best in the scenes in which they are together - intimate or estranged, suspicious or jealous. When they are simply being Philip and Elizabeth. Parents, not only with the everyday and mundane worries about how to raise their kids, achieve work/spy life balance, but also consumed with the fear that their children will discover their secret. Just writing about this makes me want to go and put another episode on!
Hope series 3 continues on the same trajectory as all that has gone before. Excellent.
