Borders Line: Digging The Sound Of THE AMERICANS
Today FX announced that they've picked up a thirteen episode order of The Americans, a Cold War drama from Graham Yost, the creator and executive producer of Justified, and Joe Weisberg, a writer on Falling Skies and Damages. I've never seen Falling Skies but I've heard it's quite ambitious if not entirely effective, and Damages and Justified are just well-made TV.
And The Americans will star Keri Russell, an actor whose name I always feel should be attached to far more projects. She's gorgeous and has a sort of solemn but down-to-earth charm that I really like, and she's played my favorite Wonder Woman ever. Russell will co-star with Matthew Rhys from Brothers and Sisters as two KGB spies disguised as married Americans in the Washington D.C. suburbs during the escalation of the Cold War. Of course, things get hot and heavy between the two posed spouses because no one could pretend to be married to Keri Russell without actually wanting to marry her, and then complications escalate further with the arrival of their new neighbor, an FBI counter-intelligence expert played by the always rad Noah Emmerich.
I'm definitely down with this premise. The Cold War setting allows for a winning aesthetic, the stakes are sky-high right off the bat and the idea that the protagonists are KGB spies is really quite adventurous. I mean, are we supposed to root for the Russians here? Because I can tell you right now, I'm not going to root against Keri Russell; I don't care if she is the KGB.
And as EOnline helpfully establishes, this means all three points on the Felicity love triangle are in new series for the coming year, with Scott Foley starring in the sort-of-funny-looking Goodwin Games on Fox and Scott Speedman starring in the sort-of-exciting-looking Last Resort on ABC.
But from this admittedly brief summary, I think The Americans has the most potential to be a series that sticks. Great premise, terrific cast, solid creative team and a network that isn't afraid to take some risks. I'm really looking forward to this one.
What do you guys think - any interest?
