The nice couple down the street in “The Americans” on FX turn out to be KGB agents. They are killers more menacing than the trained assassins in the Brangelina farce “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” and they’re aliens scarier than ABC’s slimy green “Neighbors,” who hail from outer space.
“The Americans” doesn’t go in for rom-com cuteness or sitcom gags. A tense drama re-creating a paranoid time in our history, it’s more interested in wiretapping, hidden cameras and poison.
The drama is a deadly serious consideration of the political, social and marital challenges of being spies in enemy territory, namely the Washington, D.C., suburbs in the 1980s. Clearly this is rich territory: There’s a reason the International Spy Museum is one of the biggest tourist attractions in the nation’s capital.
The anxiety of that age, when Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union an “evil empire” and the feeling was mutual, comes across in “The Americans,” premiering Wednesday on FX.
Without overdoing the flashback device, the story reveals how the Soviet spy agency designed this pretend couple, planted them in suburban Washington and used them to infiltrate U.S. government offices, eliminate suspected leaks and more.
The evolution of the couple’s relationship is as engrossing as the strong-arm spy stuff.
Joe Weisberg, a former CIA agent, and Graham Yost have created a story with resonance today, sort of a “Homeland” circa 1980, where the sleeper cells are not Middle Eastern terrorists but undercover KGB spies.
Time will tell how the stories hold up, but Weisberg (“Falling Skies,” “Damages”) and Yost (“Justified”) succeed with the casting. Matthew Rhys (“Brothers & Sisters”) plays Phillip Jennings, Keri Russell (“Felicity”) plays his wife, Elizabeth. She’s an uncompromising true believer, hating the enemy and following her KGB mission goals to the letter. He’s a bit less ideological, and not immune to the temptations of the West. To see him exuberantly trying on cowboy boots at the mall and coming home laden with shopping bags is to see the dawn of a materialistic urge. You get the feeling he could go native.
As part of their cover, the couple has two children together. Elizabeth worries that they’ll grow up to be decadent capitalists, overconsuming and devoted to the culture and values (junk food and television?) of the country where they live. Phillip wonders if maybe that’s not such a bad thing.
Only when a nosy CIA officer (Noah Emmerich) and his family move in across the street does the tension have a “made-for-TV” feel. Emmerich is great, but as the neighbors tiptoe through each other’s garages and watch each other interact with their kids, the setup veers, at times, too close to Hollywood.
Having screened just two episodes (and looking forward to more), it’s just a hunch, but it seems likely the marriage will begin to resemble the Cold War standoff itself. And we all know which side won that war.
Joanne Ostrow: 303-954-1830, jostrow@denverpost.com or twitter.com/ostrowdp