During the early 1980s, America was in the heart of the Cold War with the Soviet Union. Decades prior, the KGB had paired two Directorate S spies, planting them in the US as married couple Phillip (Matthew Rhys) and Elizabeth (Keri Russell) Jennings. The couple has two children—both of whom don’t know the truth—which helps them maintain their cover story as a normal American family. While Elizabeth is steadfast in her loyalty to the cause, over the years Philip has questioned their blind loyalty and contemplated accepting the American life his children have grown up with.
Philip and Elizabeth work at a travel agency, but this is just a cover for when they are out on missions to gather intelligence to feed back to the KGB. Over the years, The Jennings’ marriage has had its rough spots—after all they were just two strangers put together in this arranged marriage. But the couple is now starting to truly love and care for one another. Whereas before they might not have cared if one another was part of a honeytrap, but now it does. But just as their personal lives seem to be getting better, the Jennings’ find their professional lives a bit more complicated—their new neighbor Stan (Noah Emmerich) is an FBI agent, who has just been assigned to the Counter Intelligence division.
The Americans is a wonderful mix of exciting Cold War espionage and interesting character drama. As Philip and Elizabeth are out on their missions, there is this thrilling sense of danger. The series also explores how this global feeling of distrust effects not only Philip and Elizabeth, but also all of the other various parties involved in the Cold War. The series manages to do something I didn’t think was possible—I actually found myself caring about these Russian spies and was fully-invested in their lives and well-being!
The series looks beautiful—the costumes, settings and music all help the series recapture the Cold War era. What I love about the 1980s setting of the series is that things can’t be solved by simply hopping on the internet, or making a call on a cell phone. Instead, these spies must use ingenuity and hard work to get the information they need. This includes old school spy tactics like dead drops, honeytraps, short-range transmitters and tape recorders, and lots of wigs! The spy game gets much more dangerous and personal when there’s no technology to keep the sides at a distance.
Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell are amazing in their roles. They are just as believable playing the cold-hearted spy scenes as they are with the more-vulnerable dramatic scenes between their characters. Both actors portray various undercover personalities throughout the season, and these feel like fully-realized characters of their own. Rhys and Russel give all of their characters personality, adding both humor and drama. The actors also make their fight scenes look exciting but natural.
As for the rest of the cast, Margo Martindale is superb and equally believable as the kindly granny as well as the cold-hearted viscous killer. And Noah Emmerich plays the devolution of Stan Beeman beautifully.
The series looks and sounds better than ever on this Blu-ray, and the discs are loaded with extras. The bonus features include twelve minutes of deleted/extended scenes, a really fun audio commentary on the season file, a gag reel and almost 25 minutes of behind-the-scenes featurettes and interviews.
This series comes highly recommended, and a must buy. Now is a great time to catch up before the new season begins shortly on FX.
What’s Included:
Episodes:
- All 13 episodes of the First Season (572 min)
Disc 1: “Pilot”, “The Clock”, “Gregory”, “In Control”
Disc 2: “COMINT”, “Trust Me”, “Duty and Honor”, “Mutually Assured Destruction”, “Safe House”
Disc 3: “Only You”, “Covert War”, “The Oath”, “The Colonel” - 1080p / Widescreen 1.78:1
- Audio: English DTS-HD-MA 5.1, Spanish DD 5.1, Castilian
- Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French, Castilian, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Portuguese, Swedish
- Deleted Scenes (12:02)
A collection of 11 deleted/extended scenes for the pilot and episodes 101, 104, 107 and 110. Each disc contains the deleted scenes related to the episodes on that disc. - The Colonel Commentary Featuring Joseph Weisberg, Joel Fields and Noah Emmerich (47:03)
Creator/executive producer Joe Weisberg, executive producer/writer Joe Fields and actor Noah Emmerich (“Stan Beeman”) provide a really fun audio commentary on the season finale. They talk about the episode recaps, the actors, the characters and story while also providing behind-the-scenes tidbits and a lot of laughs. - Gag Reel (3:37)
Fun with the last as they crack up, flub lines, struggle with props, dance and just have fun on set. Presented in windowboxed format. - Executive Order 2579: Exposing The Americans (13:19)
The cast and creators discuss how the series came about, keeping the spy material authentic, and their own memories of the Cold War events. Includes interviews with creator/executive producer Joe Weisberg, executive producer/writer Joe Fields, producer Adam Arkin, and stars Matthew Rhys (“Philip Jennings”), Keri Russell (“Elizabeth Jennings”), and Noah Emmerich (“Stan Beeman”). - Perfecting The Art Of Espionage (6:13)
In this behind-the-scenes featurette, the cast and creators talk about the research they did for their roles, and the cast members discuss their martial arts training. - Ingenuity Over Technology (5:05)
The cast and creators talk about the storytelling advantages of setting the series in the early 1980s, when communication wasn’t so easy and spies had to rely on human ingenuity rather than technology.
Extras:
Final Thoughts:
The Americans is a beautifully-shot, well crafted spy drama that recaptures the look and feel of the Cold War era. It is an interesting look into the lives of a pair of married Russian spies who struggle to keep things together both personally and professionally. With an excellent cast and an interesting storyline, this is definitely a show worth checking out. The Blu-ray looks and sounds great and contains a lot of cool bonus features. This Blu-ray is a must-own!
