The Americans 1.04
Jun. 1st, 2013 08:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
icepixieI liked this episode a lot. The most fascinating aspect, I think, was Elizabeth's reaction to the surveillance tape from the Deputy/General/Secretary/whoever's house they bugged that suggested General Hague had the nuclear football. Her instant certainty that a coup was in the making, a certainty that obviously springs from her upbringing in the USSR, was very nifty to watch as it played out against her American persona and surroundings. This is really the first time they've shown either of them demonstrate an unquestioned assumption that's at odds with how the people they're supposed to be would really think. I like it.
We're getting a (relative) lot of background on Elizabeth. I'm curious when they'll give us some goods on Philip. I sort of think the comment Elizabeth made when Philip asked a couple episodes if she'd ever had caviar ("No, we were poor, like you") was a red herring. Either she's made an assumption based on her own experiences, and on the probability that people with easy lives don't tend to go into the spy business, or he's fed her false information for some reason. My suspicion is the former.
I feel like they're setting up something with Paige. I don't think she'll find out about her parents' real identities or anything quite that important, but I wouldn't be surprised if at some point soon she sees something hinky, goes all junior detective, and comes up with some off-the-wall explanation (such as how Joyce thought her spy husband was a drug dealer), which Elizabeth and Philip then have to play out because to do otherwise would be to reveal they're actually KGB agents. And then there will be a generational rift, angst, etc.
At any rate, they certainly seem to be setting up something between her and the neighbor kid. Yawn. I see a Romeo and Juliet story on the horizon, but maybe they'll find a way to make it interesting. (I have my doubts.)
Stan and Sandra don't interest me all that much yet, but I like the hint at the end that they'll be growing apart as Philip and Elizabeth are growing together.
Final thought: It's interesting that Philip and Elizabeth consistently use their full names to address each other, when Russian is so thoroughly infested with different nicknames for every possible relationship. I wonder what the reason for that is, or if there's a conscious reason on the writers' parts.
We're getting a (relative) lot of background on Elizabeth. I'm curious when they'll give us some goods on Philip. I sort of think the comment Elizabeth made when Philip asked a couple episodes if she'd ever had caviar ("No, we were poor, like you") was a red herring. Either she's made an assumption based on her own experiences, and on the probability that people with easy lives don't tend to go into the spy business, or he's fed her false information for some reason. My suspicion is the former.
I feel like they're setting up something with Paige. I don't think she'll find out about her parents' real identities or anything quite that important, but I wouldn't be surprised if at some point soon she sees something hinky, goes all junior detective, and comes up with some off-the-wall explanation (such as how Joyce thought her spy husband was a drug dealer), which Elizabeth and Philip then have to play out because to do otherwise would be to reveal they're actually KGB agents. And then there will be a generational rift, angst, etc.
At any rate, they certainly seem to be setting up something between her and the neighbor kid. Yawn. I see a Romeo and Juliet story on the horizon, but maybe they'll find a way to make it interesting. (I have my doubts.)
Stan and Sandra don't interest me all that much yet, but I like the hint at the end that they'll be growing apart as Philip and Elizabeth are growing together.
Final thought: It's interesting that Philip and Elizabeth consistently use their full names to address each other, when Russian is so thoroughly infested with different nicknames for every possible relationship. I wonder what the reason for that is, or if there's a conscious reason on the writers' parts.
no subject
Date: 2013-06-02 02:11 pm (UTC)And not just Elizabeth, but ALL of the Russians (except Philip). The way they all saw it through their own cultural lens was just so clever and believable.
It's interesting that Philip and Elizabeth consistently use their full names to address each other, when Russian is so thoroughly infested with different nicknames for every possible relationship. I wonder what the reason for that is, or if there's a conscious reason on the writers' parts.
Oh, wow, I don't know why I never thought of that, but you're right--that's so fascinating!
-J
no subject
Date: 2013-06-02 08:10 pm (UTC)Yes (although she definitely got the spotlight). Very cool.
Oh, wow, I don't know why I never thought of that, but you're right--that's so fascinating!
Perhaps you didn't think of it because you're not in the middle of writing what is apparently going to become a freaking novel featuring a Russian as one of the main characters? *headdesk*
;)
Maybe when they were in training, they just got so used to their new names in the full form that it never occurred to them to use nicknames, or something simple like that.
no subject
Date: 2013-06-02 09:19 pm (UTC)But yeah, I think they were introduced to each other by Zhukov (as per the pilot) by the full names, so they just kept them.
-J
no subject
Date: 2013-06-03 12:24 am (UTC)(Thankfully, my novel-in-progress is not from the POV of the Russian character, so I don't have the difficulty you're talking about in the--very interesting--linked post. It's also set in the US, which makes things even easier, and limits my frantic Googling on Russian-related material. Speaking of which, I was thrilled to see the Russian way of making tea featured in 1.5(? I've watched through 1.8 now and they're all blurring together) and see that it was done in pretty much the same way the random page on the internet I found about it said it should be done, because that kind of became a big part of the scene I just finished writing.)
no subject
Date: 2013-06-03 12:33 am (UTC)As for my own story, I have one advantage that I lived in East Germany for a year just before unification, so that alerts me to things I should at least question (one example: "wait...how rare was it to own watches? *frantically googles*")? But yeah, the research for this has been brutal (and yet fun all the same). It's involved waaaay too much use of my employer university's library for my nefarious non-work purposes.
-J
no subject
Date: 2013-06-03 02:08 am (UTC)Extremely!
I lived in East Germany for a year just before unification
That's really cool! What circumstances led up to that?
It's involved waaaay too much use of my employer university's library for my nefarious non-work purposes.
Ahaha, I also work for a university, and did quite a bit of that a few months ago. I hope they don't keep any kind of username-connected access logs. Now, though, I'm long past the point where I'm using research as an excuse to not write, so I'm trying to go not entirely cold turkey on it, but pretty close. I'll clean up what I can at the end. I figure my glaring errors in Russian culture and language will be overshadowed by the even more glaring errors in the main subject matter (figure skating), but hey, I forgive all kinds of silly incorrect details in light romantic comedies, so maybe anyone who reads this will forgive me my errors as well. :D
no subject
Date: 2013-06-03 11:18 am (UTC)I sat on this question overnight but still don't know how to answer it without filling your journal with drivel when you don't even know me yet! It's a terribly long story having somewhat to do with my work (I was a student then, but I was already doing what I do now) and somewhat to do with a friend I had back then who was East German. It was totally life-changing, though. Looking back, I can see just how much it changed my thinking and affected my future.
I have more research to do on my own story, but it's now finally to the point where it's little bits that I can do along the way, you know? Not foundational stuff that I need to understand in order to plot it out. So yeah, I'm at the writing stage too. It's going slowly, but it's going, and it's finally taking shape. I'm betting I'll be done by the end of the summer.
Do you have a beta who can do a figure-skating-culture readthrough for you once you have a draft? It might be worth finding one. I'm definitely going to try to find a Russian (language and culture) beta for mine alongside my regular betas, but I'm not quite to the point of having to worry about it. :)
-J
no subject
Date: 2013-06-03 11:59 am (UTC)I have more research to do on my own story, but it's now finally to the point where it's little bits that I can do along the way, you know?
I like that stage--really, I've been at that stage since I started, since this is RPF and I had a timeline of real events to use as my foundation--but it's also the stage where I distract myself from writing with researching tiny details that don't even make it into the story half the time. Argh.
Do you have a beta who can do a figure-skating-culture readthrough for you once you have a draft?
That would be nice, although I'm not entirely certain I can find one with the right level of knowledge. I'm a big enough fan that I'm past the point of making really obvious mistakes, so what I would need verification of are things like, "how a partner tryout goes for the ~100 people in the world who do ice dance at the international/Olympic level," which basically no one is going to have personal experience of. Of course, if no one knows, no one can be sure I just made it all up... ;)
no subject
Date: 2013-06-07 01:29 am (UTC)I was an undergraduate student majoring in German linguistics, and I had a close friend in East Germany who I'd known for years through writing letters. A bunch of things intervened, and we ended up having no contact for a while. Then I got a scholarship to go study over there for a little while at a university there, she and I took up contact and became very close again, and then all of the big changes started when I was there. By the time my uni course came to an end and my visa ran out, things were unruly enough that nobody was really in charge, and nobody cared whether there were people there without permission to be there, so instead of going home, I went and lived with my friend and her family for a while. I ended up staying until just after unification and then headed back.
I learned so much that year. It ended up steering the start of my research career, actually, and of course it was terribly meaningful for me personally. I'm so glad I had that opportunity.
Of course, if no one knows, no one can be sure I just made it all up...
Ha! Yeah, that's true. That's kind of where I am with my own story, too. I've done a lot of reading about the KGB and the illegals program, but it's pretty clear from what I've learned that while the show is very well researched, they didn't just transpose real life to the screen--they took liberties with a few things. Strangely, this doesn't make things easier, it makes things harder, because I have to research the real-life instituation and then guess at what slight changes in that institution would have produced the version of it that we know from the show, and write based on those guesses. It's incredibly challenging, but totally fun, too. :)
-J