Long-Overdue Essay on The Americans!

[quantumreality]

As I promised umpty months ago, I would start exploring the symmetries between the US and the USSR in the context of the show. Here is part 1!

You can comment here or at my journal, whichever you prefer.

Comments

[alisonx]

I loved this essay so much. It was a fantastic breakdown of the amazing title sequence they created and goes to show how much rich history and symbolism they made sure to include. In the DVD extra commentary they mentioned that the title sequence was almost not done in time. I can't wait to read the next part of your essay :)

[quantumreality]

:) Glad you liked it. I think the title sequence really brought forth how much the battle of ideologies as shown to us through the TV series involves people who are each committed, in their own way, to the things that they think make their nation great. And sometimes those things aren't all that different.

[soupytwist]

That was brilliant, thankyou for writing it up! It's always fantastic to get details of just how great something is, and I already thought those credits were amazing before. :D

[quantumreality]

I actually think I might do a separate writeup almost frame by frame because each image seems to have been so carefully chosen and some aren't even in the series, but give hints as to what might be portrayed in the series. :)

[sistermagpie]

Thank you so much for this. Every time the credits start I think I should really slow them down and look at exactly what they're comparing, but I missed all of this!

[quantumreality]

As I mention to soupytwist I'll probably do a detailed almost frame by frame of the opening credits and analyze why each image has been chosen. :)

[sistermagpie]

My favorite one tends to be the one doing that traditional Russian dance with the sloppy 80s aerobics!

I also only realized like a week ago that the Jennings family actors have their names written in Cyrillic writing and then English--with the kid's names only appearing very briefly.

[quantumreality]

Oh yeah! If you look at my original writeup on Journalfen, I actually transliterated them just to see what the differences were. :P

http://www.journalfen.net/users/quantumreality/37305.html

Note that I couldn't freeze-frame Keidrich's, though. They screwed up and didn't actually put his name in Cyrillic. (I fixed this now that I've actually re-watched all the first season :D )