The 80’s-style espionage story in the heart of The Cold War and set in the suburbs of Washington, DC not only gives us a hefty dose of recent past nostalgia but also keeps period drama fans in a high state of tension for each season’s arc.
Simply stated: the show is great.
But the anti-heroes are Philip and Elizabeth, spouses in an arranged marriage who live a quiet suburban life with their two kids while traipsing around our nation’s capital doing their real work: being hot Russian spies.
And current events just make me feel … what’s the word … CONFLICTED … about rooting for them now.
I mean, last year, I could suspend my disbelief for this very fictional show and want Elizabeth to really stick it to the man. Whatever shitty American man needed sticking to. I wanted Nina, the Russian consulate double agent, to get out of her arrangement with FBI Agent Beeman and get it on with the cuter, younger, taller Russian KGB officer so they could spy happily ever after together. Sometimes I even wanted Philip and/or Elizabeth to just murder sweet, unassuming FBI administrative assistant Martha (his fake wife) because wouldn’t it just be easier for them to keep subverting the dirty, evil American efforts on their own soil if she wasn’t bumbling things up?
And I’m not sure I can root for the Russian spies right now. The percolating remnants of The Cold War (a thing that was over before I got out of diapers) that have found their way to the top of our political climate have reminded me that these stories of espionage are, while not real, certainly based on real conflict and real tactics. And maybe I’ve had enough of Russian tactics lately.
Even the show runners are very aware of how relevant this particular story is right now.
But then I remember that the Iron Curtain is gonna fall somewhere in the next season, and don’t I need to see how whiny Paige is going to get in order to get tough? Is Elizabeth gonna slap her in season 5 because I’ve been waiting for that for QUITE some time. Is Margo Martindale going to continue to be everything perfect in on screen acting because I can’t ignore her. Is Keri Russell planning on wearing more chic 80s outerwear that will affect my closet for another few years?
According to the season 5 trailer, the answer to those questions is, “DA.”
So, I’ll just be over here drawing up plans for our real life bomb shelter and awaiting what bitchy comment Philip is going to have about Gorbachev when he’s inevitably introduced sometime this season.
Conflicted, but here for it.
