LITTLE ROCK — I miss the Cold War. At least for dramatic purposes.
It was a simpler time when we were facing off spy vs. spy against the Soviets and not having to deal with those who like to blow things (and themselves) up.
In these Zero Dark Thirty days, the stakes seem so much higher. It’s refreshing to remember the early ’80s when President Ronald Reagan was hectoring the Commies.
Perhaps the folks at FX felt the same way, too, and that’s why they decided to bring us The Americans.
The adult Cold War spy drama premieres at 9 p.m. Wednesday and stars Felicity’s Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys (Brothers & Sisters).
Kudos to FX for trying something different.
The Americans works on two levels. It’s an espionage series as well as a family drama.
Russell and Rhys portray Elizabeth and Phillip Jennings, a pair of Russian sleeper agents planted in suburban Washington and passing as an ordinary white-picket fence American couple.
Their children, 13-year old Paige (Holly Taylor) and 10-year-old Henry (Keidrich Sellati), are clueless about their parents’ real identities as KGB agents.
The Jenningses’ mission involves working with a cadre of spies and informants. It can get deadly. People are killed in The Americans.
And be forewarned. There are sexual elements to the series. This is, after all, FX - the most envelope-pushing outfit on basic cable.
I try to ensure my readers are never blindsided by programs with adult themes. I tried with HBO’s Girls starring Lena Dunham, an actress who is not bashful about disrobing for the camera.
One critic called her propensity “pathological exhibitionism.”
Despite my efforts, when Girls won a recent Golden Globe, one of my readers who had missed my warning decided to check out the show and came away “shocked and stunned” by Dunham’s “vulgar” tattoos and the show’s “pornography.”
I suppose pornography is in the eye of the beholder. Girls is not pornography, although the tats are a bit much for my taste.
Which brings us back to The Americans. There are sex scenes in the series because the spies sometimes have to work under covers and use their charms to manipulate the malleable. It’s not gratuitous, but there it is. Do not be shocked.
Meanwhile, there’s a fascinating family dynamic going on between Elizabeth and Phillip.
Their marriage was arranged and Phillip and Elizabeth were sent to America and told to blend in. So they did.
However, after all these years Phillip is sort of thinking America isn’t all that bad. He likes it here. He likes the people. He likes the lifestyle.
Elizabeth remains far more loyal to the motherland and that’s a source of tension between her and Phillip.
There is also one other huge source of tension that moves in across the street.
With the new Reagan administration cracking down on Commies and seriously hunting for domestic spies, the Jenningses get a new neighbor. He’s FBI counter intelligence agent Stan Beeman, played with understated verisimilitude by Noah Emmerich.
Viewers might recognize the veteran character actor from The Truman Show or from his TV appearances on everything from The West Wing and White Collar to The Walking Dead.
The affable Beeman likes the couple at first and doesn’t suspect they are anything other than what they seem. But he’s trained to sniff out the suspicious. In short order he’s surreptitiously poking around.
Another coup for the series is signing the marvelous Margo Martindale as Claudia, a KGB agent who delivers assignments to Elizabeth and Phillip. Martindale won an Emmy for her role as Mags Bennett in FX’s Justified.
The series is not all back alleys and seedy motel rooms. There are plenty of darkly comedic moments to lighten the hard-core spy stuff.
Also, the growing intimacy of Elizabeth and Phillip adds a twist to the series as well.
The Americans was created and executive produced by Joe Weisberg (Falling Skies), a former CIA agent. Also executive producing is Graham Yost, Justified and Falling Skies executive producer.
FX has ordered 13 episodes of the highly anticipated series. I’ve seen three of them and each was better than the last.
The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. E-mail:
Style, Pages 28 on 01/29/2013