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: 2013-06-07 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