Photo from FX
Whoa, who knew Keri Russell could believably kick some major ass? One episode and I am sucked back into the cold war era 1980s. Thankfully the political climate and not the music or fashion is taking center stage next to the three main characters- Elizabeth Jennings (Russell), Phillip Jennings (Matthew Rhys), and Agent Stan Beeman (Noah Emmerich). The Jennings, unbeknownst to even their two children, are Russian spies who are in deep cover as an American family. Their new neighbor is Agent Stan Beeman, who felt something was a little off about the couple upon first meeting. One episode in and we see how a thin crack is starting to show in the Jennings’ relationship. Phillip is questioning their future and the safety of the family while Elizabeth is firmly country first.
The tension is palpable and the espionage scenes quick paced and taut. The flashbacks to Elizabeth and Phillip’s early days training and coming to America blend in seamlessly with their present day life. It will be interesting to see their story unfold as their characters get to develop. What is really working is Elizabeth and Phillip are very different individually, as parents, and as a married couple. Russell and Rhys have a lot of space to explore and fill as they get to play these characters and the parts they play while spying. The focus in episode one is on Elizabeth’s past as she is conditioned to give herself wholly to her country and Phillips’s present as he is second guessing their future. The characters start to make sense as their time lines are shown going in opposite directions.
And it gets the award for best use of Phil Collin’s In the Air Tonight since Roswell. Wednesdays on FX.
The Following.
Fox’s The Following
Disgraced former agent Ryan Hardy (Kevin Bacon) is dragged back into a case involving the serial killer, Joe Hardy, who left him with a pacemaker and enough fodder to write a book, which he did. Carroll has slyly built up a following of killers and he has created a victim filled game for Hardy to play. The first episode left me feeling a little like this isn’t new territory, that Kevin Bacon was acting too melodramatically, and as someone so eloquently put it on GetGlue “Bernie Madoff made him do it.” Knowing there are only 15 episodes in the first season is a relief, but I can’t see how a show like this can make a second season without changing the storyline (and then why keep the title The Following?). At least I hope they don’t try to make multiple seasons out of a single serial killer’s game. This show is walking a fine line between sophisticated fare like Silence of the Lambs vs. the shock for shock value’s sake of Criminal Minds. I’m a little hesitant on the use of Edgar Allen Poe as inspiration for the killer, too. With both The Following and The Raven, I kind of feel bad for Poe. Would he feel these are tributes or insults?
In spite of some major misgivings, it is a favorite thing right now because the second episode redeemed the first, for now. And James Purefoy as the creepy, brilliant Carroll is a joy to watch. Two episodes in and the writers seem to know what surprises to save and what to give away early for suspense’s sake. And it has that feeling that no one is safe or guaranteed to make it to season two, including Bacon himself. And who knew Edgar Allen Poe masks could be so creepy? Monday nights on Fox.
James Joyce.
Mr. Joyce
I forgot how much I love reading Joyce. I’m planning for a third reread of Ulysses so I’ve started rereading Dubliners to get in the mind frame. Joyce was a man of letters who could take ordinary days and write them into masterpieces. I’m anxiously awaiting to get to the end of Dubliners to read The Dead. The short story takes one evening in the life of a married couple and rattles your soul, breaks your heart, and frustrates you to no end. Dubliners is bite sized Joyce, 15 stories published in 1914. I recommend starting there. And Ulysses is a modern rework of one of the first fantasy stories, Homer’s Odyssey and also the reason Bloomsday exists. But confession time, I’ve never made it through Finnegan’s Wake. One day!
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I have “The Americans” on my DVR. I am bad about that, I actually just started watching “Touch” from last season and am kicking myself for not having already watched them sooner. Anyway, I want to watch “Americans”… Keri Russell reminds me sometimes of Jennifer Morrison, and I don’t think I’ve seen Russell since the movie “Waitress” alongside Nathan “I am Captain Mal Reynolds” Fillion.
“The Following”, however, I had been waiting for and watching since it aired. No lagging for me on this one. It is quite creepy and a little disturbing, in a good way strangely… although I tend to agree I don’t know how they can get more than a season out of the plot without it becoming derivative of itself. Still, it feels like a long weekly movie. I’m very pleased, also have always been a Poe fan. I suspect Poe would actually quite like this, especially if he was properly into his opium at the time.
I heard The Following from the other room, and all I heard was screaming. Bloody, murderous screaming. But it was very well done, so I will continue to listen.
Wait, was that from the TV or your wife as she watched what was happening on the TV? Because, I could imagine it either way.
No screaming from me, and I mute the animal parts. Speaking of, can they just stop doing things to animals/insects? Please???
How about those fashionable Guess Jeans Keri Russell was rocking…
Man, I always wanted Guess jeans. Even they fell into the high-waisted trap of the 80s, however.
No way could I ever do high-waisted. Boobs and a head is all I’d be.
And the nice sweater collection.
Given the tone of the show… I wonder if it is wrong that I laugh at the start of the show when they say… “Previously on the Following”
Probably. But I tend to laugh at inappropriate moments in oh, say, Tarantino films so I won’t judge.