For me it was the wonderfully complex mess that was the past of Philip and Elizabeth's marriage, and the possibility for what it could be in the future. The scenario they set up had so much natural conflict, and that really attracted me to hearing more about their story. It wasn't one of those where there's a "conflict of the week" thing like you see in so many TV shows where sometimes the problems seem artificial, the drama seems forced, but rather that there were so many angles in which they were screwed up individually, screwed up at trying to having a relationship, and were living this difficult, impossible, draining, false situation that they'd gotten into for something more important than themselves.
The thing that really hooked me into the show was seeing a commercial for it about a week or so before the pilot aired that had Elizabeth's line about, "I joined the KGB when I was 17, never had a boyfriend, we didn't know each other," and then the shot of them in the motel room, which just gets your mind spinning with how crazy and compelling that idea was, all the conflict that would be inherent in two strangers forced to live together and play married so they could spy, and then to have them 15 years later as a more seasoned married couple and finally falling in love with each other just had all the ingredients of a great, messy love story. And for me, that's really why I watch. I enjoy the spy aspect of it too, and the 80's aspect of it, but what makes it different from every other show is that the relationship and the marriage is central.
And now that we're coming up on the second season and more focus on the family, I'm so excited for that too. They've done a marvelous job in creating rich characters that have so many layers to explore, and IMHO one of their biggest gold mines is the conflict of how they created Paige and Henry for the mission, and yet love them dearly, and yet continue to lie, feel guilt, and struggle to be that family.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2014-01-06 10:35 pm (UTC)The thing that really hooked me into the show was seeing a commercial for it about a week or so before the pilot aired that had Elizabeth's line about, "I joined the KGB when I was 17, never had a boyfriend, we didn't know each other," and then the shot of them in the motel room, which just gets your mind spinning with how crazy and compelling that idea was, all the conflict that would be inherent in two strangers forced to live together and play married so they could spy, and then to have them 15 years later as a more seasoned married couple and finally falling in love with each other just had all the ingredients of a great, messy love story. And for me, that's really why I watch. I enjoy the spy aspect of it too, and the 80's aspect of it, but what makes it different from every other show is that the relationship and the marriage is central.
And now that we're coming up on the second season and more focus on the family, I'm so excited for that too. They've done a marvelous job in creating rich characters that have so many layers to explore, and IMHO one of their biggest gold mines is the conflict of how they created Paige and Henry for the mission, and yet love them dearly, and yet continue to lie, feel guilt, and struggle to be that family.