"Paul Levinson's It's Real Life is a page-turning exploration into that multiverse known as rock and roll. But it is much more than a marvelous adventure narrated by a master storyteller...it is also an exquisite meditation on the very nature of alternate history." -- Jack Dann, The Fiction Writer's Guide to Alternate History

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

The Americans 5.1: The Theft

Well, The Americans couldn't have timed it much better for the return of season 5 tonight, what with American-Russian tensions at an all-time high since those halcyon Reagan years in the 1980s, due to the current occupant of the White House and who knows what he and his cronies have been doing the past year or more with the current Kremlin.

This backdrop makes this excellent series even better.  Lots of good new pieces of business tonight, but the most harrowing is a wrap-up of a nasty loose end from last season, with Philip and Elizabeth digging deep into the ground with some Russian comrades to fetch a piece of Willian Crandall, that germ-warfare scientist who gave his life for the cause.  The piece is literally a piece of him, presumably to get the pathogen back in the hands of the Soviets.  Ever ruthless, they don't hesitate to kill the poor guy who fell into the hole, sustained a puncture wound, and may have been infected.  I mean, what else could they do?   But it was ruthless, anyway.

Elizabeth fired the shot in a heartbeat, and so would Philip, after a moment, maybe, of reflection.  The opening scene introduces one of the new threads, with the two posing as different American parents, with a new son, on a mission to reign in, or who knows, kill if necessary, a family of Russian immigrants, or at least the father.  (Presumably they wouldn't be on Trump's immigration ban.)  Should be some tense stories lines ahead for this family.

And there's a nice Russian narrative - two of them, in fact - one involving Oleg's new job in Moscow (I was glad to see they didn't call him back home to kill him), and the other a story about Philip's son.

I'm glad The Americans are/is back.  Hey, life was a little simpler and even sweeter back then, when we didn't have to worry that our President was do whatever with the Russians to get elected.



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