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The Americans: Spies on Fleek

I finally watched season 3 The Americans. Yes, it's time for another of my Too Late to be Useful TV reviews.

I PVRed the first episode in February, (I find it too intense to watch live; I like to sit down on the weekend, when I'm not obsessing about work, and hang with the World's Most Fetching Russian Spies).  I saved up a few episodes, but something happened along the way- my PVR got too full, or I forgot to set record, but I missed an episode.  Well, that was that.  No way I was going to watch any of them until I knew I could see all of them.


Last Saturday, FX played the whole season, and I watched it in a very productive 48 hours.  Not my most egregious waste of a weekend -18 Breaking Bads would be the winner.  It's so lovely out all of a sudden, I stopped intermittently to plant some boxwoods and herbs on my balcony, but I still managed to watch them all.



And all I can say is: wow.  Also, gross!  This show has never shied away from the brutality these characters face, but this season featured some groundbreaking grossness.  Without offering spoilers, let's just say I was occasionally very happy to have the mute button and the fast forward feature at my command.

Again, I don't do recaps, but you can find pretty good ones on Vulture here .  Not nearly as profound and poetic as Matt Zoller Seitz's Mad Men recaps , but still useful and interesting.

I'm just here to tell you to watch the show.  All of it, and in order.  You can't miss an episode.
I'm also here to wonder why this show gets so little attention during awards season.  It can't be the subject matter.  Once we all fell in love with Tony Soprano and Walter White, all bets were off.  If a mob boss and a meth kingpin can be antiheroes we root for, so can Russian spies.

Keri Russell is a revelation, and has been from the first season.  Felicity and Buttercup sure have grown up! Seriously though, Keri Russell here, and Robin Wright on House of Cards are proof of what female actors and characters can be when someone takes the time to write something with depth and complexity.

Matthew Rhys,  while very attractive (and I am provincial enough to find him speaking in his Welsh accent utterly adorable), can get a particularly murderous look in his eyes, I'm tellin' ya.  He's fantastic, as are Frank Langella, Annet Mahendru, Noah Emmerich, and pretty much everyone else on the show.

Watch The Americans.  And if you are an Emmy voter (and I'm sure if you're reading this blog, you are), give the show and its stars some love!

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