I'll answer in the opposite order as well, since I like talking more about The Americans than The Assets. :-)
1. I did watch it, and it was okay, but not that interesting. It's pretty straightforward and so far neither the story nor the characters are that interesting. AA doesn't seem like he was much of a spy. It's like chasing the guy in The Americans who introduces Elizabeth to the colonel: an alcoholic who needs money and gets away with it with a lot of luck and sloppiness on the part of his handlers. Yet the handlers are being presented as big heroes, and I'm not sure how that's going to work.
The family life of the main good guy seems very cookie cutter with her daughter walking around in the type of outfit that would be used as a joke in an 80s sitcom where the teenager announces she's becoming cool and going out to the club so that mom can march her back into her room to change. (Though thinking about it now I'm not sure what Mom was supposed to be objecting to in the outfit beyond the fact it was just too much of a caricature of the 80s.)
Then later mom snaps at her daughter unfairly and within seconds the girl's deep in a phone conversation detailing exactly what's wrong with her mother's parenting ("She's never around and when she is she's obnoxious") so Mom can feel bad. So so far it hasn't grabbed me.
2. I was attracted to The Americans for spying, especially Cold War spying. I love stories about spies, but get frustrated when they do things that seem really unrealistic to me (even knowing that sometimes things that seem unrealistic are true when it comes to spies). What I mean is, I hate spy things where the spies are always telegraphing their true feelings while looking right into the face of the people they're allegedly fooling--hate that.
But these guy are perfect with the mad spy skillz (and it's frankly even better that it gets unrealistic in the other direction so they get to sneak around and beat people up) and the way the show is so interested in the psychology of spying and longterm undercover work. Not just in terms of the way the show has two very different characters in the leads that approach it very differently, but the way it's so interested in what motivates people's loyalty.
I think one of the things I like about Cold War spying is the subtle differences between cultures the characters move between--as opposed to, for instance, if someone is undercover in an organization like al Quaeda where they're have to have that religious mindset.
So I guess what attracted me was the hope that I'd get a really good spy story, but to be honest I wasn't expecting to get it. I put it on my TiVo almost feeling like I had to give it a shot. I was pleasantly surprised by early episodes but it was Gregory that made me a huge fan. I guess that episode for me really laid out where the heart of the show lay.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2014-01-06 06:03 pm (UTC)1. I did watch it, and it was okay, but not that interesting. It's pretty straightforward and so far neither the story nor the characters are that interesting. AA doesn't seem like he was much of a spy. It's like chasing the guy in The Americans who introduces Elizabeth to the colonel: an alcoholic who needs money and gets away with it with a lot of luck and sloppiness on the part of his handlers. Yet the handlers are being presented as big heroes, and I'm not sure how that's going to work.
The family life of the main good guy seems very cookie cutter with her daughter walking around in the type of outfit that would be used as a joke in an 80s sitcom where the teenager announces she's becoming cool and going out to the club so that mom can march her back into her room to change. (Though thinking about it now I'm not sure what Mom was supposed to be objecting to in the outfit beyond the fact it was just too much of a caricature of the 80s.)
Then later mom snaps at her daughter unfairly and within seconds the girl's deep in a phone conversation detailing exactly what's wrong with her mother's parenting ("She's never around and when she is she's obnoxious") so Mom can feel bad. So so far it hasn't grabbed me.
2. I was attracted to The Americans for spying, especially Cold War spying. I love stories about spies, but get frustrated when they do things that seem really unrealistic to me (even knowing that sometimes things that seem unrealistic are true when it comes to spies). What I mean is, I hate spy things where the spies are always telegraphing their true feelings while looking right into the face of the people they're allegedly fooling--hate that.
But these guy are perfect with the mad spy skillz (and it's frankly even better that it gets unrealistic in the other direction so they get to sneak around and beat people up) and the way the show is so interested in the psychology of spying and longterm undercover work. Not just in terms of the way the show has two very different characters in the leads that approach it very differently, but the way it's so interested in what motivates people's loyalty.
I think one of the things I like about Cold War spying is the subtle differences between cultures the characters move between--as opposed to, for instance, if someone is undercover in an organization like al Quaeda where they're have to have that religious mindset.
So I guess what attracted me was the hope that I'd get a really good spy story, but to be honest I wasn't expecting to get it. I put it on my TiVo almost feeling like I had to give it a shot. I was pleasantly surprised by early episodes but it was Gregory that made me a huge fan. I guess that episode for me really laid out where the heart of the show lay.