'The Americans': Don't Miss This Week's Episode
If you want to see an hour of TV that doesn’t treat death like a joke or a bloody thrill, watch this week’s episode of The Americans. This FX series is having its best season to date, as things grow worse and worse for its central characters Philip and Elizabeth Jennings (Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell).
As time has gone by for these Russian spies passing as suburbanites in Reagan-era America, it’s become more difficult to continue to spy, to commit acts of espionage, recruitment, and terror. They’ve begun to feel the full weight of potential harm such behavior might have on their two children, and on their own souls. This is what keeps us, as viewers, from being wholly repelled by them — it’s what makes The Americans compelling, because we can hold our affection for Philip and Elizabeth at their best, and our contempt for them at their worst, in our minds at the same time.
This week, the central plot includes the death of an innocent — someone who just happens to be in the Jennings’s path as they continue their devious work. There have been upsetting deaths on The Americans before this. One episode contained an awful, excruciating scene involving the disposal of a body that I thought might push Philip and Elizabeth to their limit.
That was before Wednesday’s episode, titled “Do Mail Robots Dream of Electric Sheep?.” When, this evening, one character justifies committing murder “to make the world a better place,” another answers: “That’s what evil people tell themselves when they do evil things.” You’ll have to watch to see who does the talking here, because that’s what will pierce your heart.
Related: See ‘The Americans’ Stars Kerri Russell and Matthew Rhys Transform Into Character (Photos)
“Do Mail Robots Dream of Electric Sheep?” (the title is a play on the 1968 Philip K. Dick science fiction novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?) was written by Joshua Brand, an executive producer of The Americans. More than that, he was one of the principal creators behind such excellent TV series as St. Elsewhere, I’ll Fly Away, and Northern Exposure. If you recognize the first and third titles in that list but draw a blank on the second one, let me jog your memory.
I’ll Fly Away was a show created by Brand and his writing-producing partner John Falsey starring Regina Taylor and Sam Waterston as people caught up in the 1960s civil rights movement, Taylor as woman of deep conscience, Waterston as a man of tested liberal thought. The series, which never had big ratings, lasted only two seasons — 1991 to 1993 — and won a couple of Emmy Awards. Its deeply humanistic themes resonated beyond I’ll Fly Away’s short life. In a way, the ideas that Brand explored in another historical era continue in the history that’s laid out every week in the FX series.
Joshua Brand continues to pursue his brand of humanism in The Americans this week. You’ll be a better human for watching, and listening to the words he’s written.
The Americans airs Wednesdays night at 10 p.m. on FX.
