Keri Russell: "The Americans"

 Curtis Sittenfeld made the ultimate pitch for "The Americans": You think it might be about geopolitics. Really, it's about marriage.

This show has the great luck of enlisting two astonishing actors--Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys--who create a plausible version of a partnership under stress. She really believes in the Soviet cause; he has doubts. She wants to recruit her daughter for the family business; he does not. She has very little trouble toying with American lives; he seems (at least sometimes) haunted by the ethical implications of his bad behavior.

A brilliant decision behind the show is this: Choose a foundational belief so deep, it would seem to justify evil. If you fully believed that the Soviet philosophy was "the only way," then wouldn't you do all you could to defeat the decadent American empire?

Another thing I like is that no one cares whether we fall in love with the main characters. These two suburbanites are amazingly terrible; they are like Iago-meets-Lady-Macbeth. I'm also watching "The Pitt," which makes substantial errors whenever it wants to tug on the heartstrings. The iciness of "The Americans" is refreshing.

I did not expect to become seduced by secondary characters--but one of my main crushes on "The Americans" is the Javert figure, Stan. Currently, in Season Three, Stan is making a half-hearted effort to win back his wife, who has (wisely) chosen to jump ship. The spouse--experiencing a midlife crisis--began attending Erhard Seminars (known as EST, Erhard Seminars Training). This seems to be mostly carpe diem nonsense--but Stan has to pretend to feel enthusiastic. He thinks this is needed. His ex catches him in his lie. Delightful TV.