Television Thoughts: The Americans

A new television series started this past Wednesday. I had been seeing commercials for it even as far back as while watching the past season of Sons of Anarchy. Didn’t pay all too much attention at first. I thought “ho hum, Russian spies – how good could that really be with no more KGB?” But later I realized this is a period piece. It takes place in 1981, towards the climax of the cold war, just before the Soviet Union collapsed under it’s own idiocy ( or before Saint Ronald Reagan spent them into the poor house – however you want to go with that one).

The show centers around Phillip and Elizabeth Jennings. Typical suburban couple with two kids and a mortgage and jobs – everything but the white picket fence actually. Though they look and act like a married couple for all intents and purposes, they are not. They are Soviet spies. Part of the KGB S-directorate (if you remember much about the cold war, that was the rumor of KGB sleeper cells living and working in the good ol’ US of A).

Their kids (teenage daughter and pre-teen son) of course know nothing of their parents’ true identities.

The pilot was at times fast paced and at times seemed to be a bit slower. But in true FX original programming fashion, it was anything but boring or generic. From the opening scene where Elizabeth is “coaxing” information from a high-level white house employee (and not violently, I might add), to the closing scene where Phillip – dressed up as a left-over from the 70’s beats the crap out of some guy who earlier in the show made some sexual remarks about Phillip’s daughter – you never got to a point where you thought “isn’t this over yet?”

Whether it continues to be as good as the pilot only time will tell. For now though, it stays on the DVR record list.

Oh, yeah and the music was great. A very good and nerve wracking kidnap and escape sequence was set to Fleetwood Mac’s “Tusk”, and other scenes paired against music of the times made the music seem like a character all of it’s own.

Lost teaser on this week's Chuck

I had to post something about this, so I get bonus points for two posts
in one day for my 30 Days of Posts experiment. For those Lost fans out
there, there was a Lost teaser in tonight's episode. Did you catch it?

The scene was when Chuck was being shown the images by the doctor. An
image of an airplane appeared on the screen, and Chuck says "Oceanic
flight 815 was shot down by [unintelligible] experimenting with
underground warfare". This is from memory, so it might not be 100%
accurate, but both myself and the 5/8 caught it!

I know, two different networks, but I will swear on a stack of bibles that this is what he said.


Technorati Tags: Television, Chuck, Lost, ABC, CBS, Oceanic 815

New TV show review "Saving Grace"

Watched a new show on TNT last night. The show aired on Monday night, but we didn't watch it until last night. The show is "Saving Grace" which stars Holly Hunter (looking a bit older, and more ragged than I have ever seen her before).

Hunter is an Oklahoma City cop who drinks too much, sleeps around too
much and proclaims a fervent disbelief in God. It is alluded to that
she was molested by a priest when she was little. Her brother is a
priest (obviously there is tension there!) and her sister died in the
Murrah Federal Building bombing (this part isn't revealed until the
end, and I have to admit, I was wondering why they would put a show in
OKC, I mean, after all, it is fly-over country). And along comes an angel, offering her one last chance at redemption.

But don't be misled! This is no "Touched By An Angel" or "Joan of Arcadia" (both of which I enjoyed tremendously). The angel in this case, is named...get this...Earl. He is not your stereo-typical angel with good looks, with proper grammar and showing a due amount of reverence. No, Earl (played by Leon Rippy - I know, I've never heard of him either) is more along the lines of someone you might imagine inhabiting a trailer park, or working as a mechanic in that lonely, little out of the way gas station on that stretch of desert road that is 450 miles from the nearest cross road, let alone any type of civilization. His teeth are bad, he hair is a mess, he is overweight, he sounds 3/4 drunk, and he chews tobacco and spits into an empty Mountain Dew bottle.

This is not a show to watch with the younguns. Number One son watched it with us, but he was uncomfortable in parts (couple of scenes with Hunter and her partner romping around). It is rated TVMA (which is the first TVMA rating I have seen not on a movie channel). No nudity or bad language, but the opening scene where Hunter and he partner (played by Kenny Johnson) are...err...coupling came very close to showing more than I have ever scene on commercial TV.

Truth be told, I dig the angel guy. I find it refreshing to see a new take on what an angel would look like and how one would act.Another refreshing aspect is that Hunter doesn't just make a 180 degree turn out of her life, it looks like it is going to a slow and sometimes painful process for her to turn her life around.

Also in the case it Laura San Giacomo (hubba-hubba). One might remember her as the evil b**ch Nadine Cross from the TV mini-series adaptation of Stephen Kings' "The Stand", and from the sitcom "Just Shoot Me".

Personally, I give the show 4 out of 5 stars. Its portrayal of an angelic being is probably not for everyone. It is offbeat and for some will be considered heretical. But if you aren't dead set on angels having proper grammar, exceptionally good looks like Roma Downey, living in clouds and being all clean and bright and shiny, I would defiantly recommend watching at least a couple of episodes.




Technorati Tags: television, TNT, Saving Grace, Holly Hunter, Angels