I dont always buy whatThe Americansis selling.
The FX spy drama (which returns March 28 at 10 p.m.
ET)had a hot concept, built on suburban paranoia equal-parts Cold War history andTwilight Zone.
Credit: Patrick Harbron/FX
How hip are they?
They have an open marriage, halfway between chic 70s swinging and chic 10s polyamory.
And they talk to each other about each others lovers, which feels positively Scandinavian.
They also have a son, Henry (Keidrich Sellati), raised by videogames.
But even his neglect is a secret parental success.
Elizabeth and Philip, ugh, such #CoupleGoals.
Im having some fun here, but its important to remember thatThe Americanscan be ludicrous.
And the show has an austere autumn-gray look, like everywhere is Siberia.
But I worry in its later stages,The Americansis overstretching itself, trending toward wild dramatics.
Theres a feeling in the first three episodes of final-act hyperbole that left me a bit dizzy.
After a slow-paced fifth season, the final year begins with a parade of bloody deaths.
In one episode, I swear, Elizabeth is wearing a different wig in every scene.
One character gets a mission that could decide the fate of Russia.
And one character gets a mission that will affect, well, the fate of the world.
(More on page 2.)
Last season earned some negative critiques for its gradual pace.
Butseason 5 caught a new mood in the Jennings marriage.
Philip, always exhausted by a lifetime of lying, now looked utterly spent.
Season 6 expands that mood, in thoughtful and unexpected ways.
She cant really talk about her work anymore, because Philips out of the spy game.
But not just out.
I think Im the only person with this complainthow come we never see them be travelagents??
?and Im rather stunned that the writers heard my cry.
In season 6, Philip presides over a radically rebooted agency.
Theres a whole plot thing where he gets worried, really worried, about losing a client.
Were bigger now, he explains.
I cant deal with every single customer!
Ah, the problems of scaling: What contempo capitalist cant relate?
In the montage, we catch a brief sight of a movie marquee advertisingWall Street.
So theyve gone in two directions, our Jenningses.
Their kids are out of the house, to college and a boarding school.
But the best idea inThe Americansis that every relatable marriage problem trends global and fatal.
The opening montage is set, brilliantly, to Crowded Houses Dont Dream Its Over.
That song features the lyric a wall between us, which Ive always misheard as a war between us.
Both phrases feel accurate.
Philip and Elizabeth are still together, but theres something building between them.
Henry is playing hockey and taking AP Calculus; I love Henry!
The soundtracks great fun, Leonard Cohen and Talking Heads.
ButThe Americansgets more patient when it examines the widening cracks in the Jennings marriage.
Elizabeth is smoking more, and is frankly tired of her husbands big speeches.
)The Americansmakes its ambitions clear in these opening episodes, trying to weave together the end (?)
of the Cold War with the end (?)
of the Jennings marriage.
How will things end for them?
Or maybe theyll go back to Russia.B+
