Remember when โHomelandโ was really, really good? When Brody was still alive and Claire Danes had not yet worn out her wild-eyed welcome with her CIA colleagues? Itโs still possible to recapture that lost magic by watching โThe Americans,โ another series full of sexy intrigue and foreign-relations drama, which kicks off its second season Wednesday on.
Here are 5 reasons why you should st๐art watching t๐ฏhis show:
It has a fantastic premise
Russian spies infiltrate the DC suburbs and enjoy a seemingly banal existence as Phillip and Elizabeth Jennings (Matthew Rhys and Keri R๐ฏussell), a couple of married travel agents with two kids and a demanding espionage sched๐ฐule. Fun setup, but that could never happen in real life, right? It could and did. โThe Americansโ was inspired by real-life Russian Foreign Intelligence Service agents Lydia and Vladimir Guryev, who posed for 15 years as Cynthia and Richard Murphy of Montclair, NJ. The โMurphysโ were discovered and arrested, along with eight fellow spies, in 2010 (their beige colonial was put on the market last spring by the US Marshals Service.)
The best is yet to come
Itโs not much of a stretch to say that โHomelandโsโ best days are behind it; after all that has transpired, all the terrorists killed and plots foiled and loves lost and won and hung in a public square in Tehran, where will it go from here? Is Carrie Mathison (Danes) going t๊ฆo put a new spin on the Mommy Wa๐rs as a single mother now heading up the Istanbul bureau of the CIA? While the showโs next steps are anyoneโs guess, โThe Americansโ is just getting started, with only one exquisitely paced season under its belt. It opts for the slow burn, gathering tension as the season progresses.
The soundtrack rocks
Songs that have been long since dismi๐ssed as easy listening fare are given new life on ๐the show, from Fleetwood Macโs to by Juice Newton to Peter Gabrielโs creepy Cold War hit,
That early โ80s vibe
Set in 1982 in the DC suburbs, the decor of the Jennings house is so spot-on, youโll think you stepped back intoโ. . .โ1982 in the DC suburbs. Even more true-to-life? Most of the stuff youโll see around the house is actually from the early โ70s. โWe figured, the Jennings would have gotten โmarriedโ in the early โ70s and would have purchased their pieces then,โ says set decorator Andrew Baseman. โThen you have an added layer: [The house and everything in it] is a history that Russians are creating, Russians pretending to be Americans pretending to be m๊ง arried, and theyโre best friends with an FBI agent, so nothing can be off.โ As for the fashion, while โ1982โ and โsuburbsโ donโt exactly conjure up chic, the show does for turtleneck sweaters what โScandalโ does for white pantsuits; you know th๐eyโre not a good idea, but youโll want them anyway. Russell and Rhys make suburban domesticity look very stylish indeed.
There is life after โFelicityโ
Just as Claire Danesโ turn as Carrie has all but erased memories of her โ90s teen-angst drama show โMy So-Cเนalled Life,โ the stunning Russell is so convincing as a reserved Soviet agent/suburban mom, youโll have to remind yourself that this the same person who played wholesome college student Felicity Porter on โFelicity.โ Added bonus: Her chemistry with co-star Matthew Rhys is so great, theyโre rumored to be dating in real life, although Rhys denies it (a recent headline on read โEven My Mom Thinks Iโm Dat๐ing Keri Russell, Says Her Costar Matthew Rhys.โ)