Adam Lenhardt
Senior HTF Member
This series, about a family of dormant Russian sleeper agents that are suddenly reactivated when the CIA starts getting too close to a plot by the SVR to "bring America to its knees", is drawing comparisons to FX's "The Americans". And for obvious reasons; in many ways this could be the sequel to that show, three decades later.
However, it is differentiated by the protagonist, the middle child who happens to be a junior analyst at the CIA and joins television's recent ranks of modern Sherlock Holmeses and Sherlock Holmes knockoffs. He is cognitively abnormal, brilliant in some areas but challenged in others. This disqualified him as a recruitment candidate.
Hope Davis gets top billing and plays the family matriarch, a Russian expatriate. Scott Cohen plays her husband, a defense contractor who wasn't an active agent but tolerated his wife's extracurricular activities. Margarita Levieva plays the oldest child and active Russian agent who is romantically involved with the family's Russian handler. Alexandra Peters plays the high school age youngest child, who appears to be in the dark about the family secret.
Davis's performance is somewhat interesting; she plays the role with a decent American accent that allows bits of Russian pronunciations to surface every so often. Levieva's first language was Russian; she was born in Leningrad and moved to the US shortly before the collapse of the Soviet Union when she was eleven. Predictably, she's the best at selling the dual roles. Gavin Stenhouse didn't really stand out to me much as the lead. It was fun seeing Kenneth Choi pop up as the New York CIA station chief; too bad he couldn't have made an appearance on Tuesday's "Agent Carter."
I mostly tuned in because the show comes from George Nolfi, and I really enjoyed his Adjustment Bureau. I confess I was bored until the end, when son figures out what his parents are up to. I'll probably tune in next week to see what happens next.
However, it is differentiated by the protagonist, the middle child who happens to be a junior analyst at the CIA and joins television's recent ranks of modern Sherlock Holmeses and Sherlock Holmes knockoffs. He is cognitively abnormal, brilliant in some areas but challenged in others. This disqualified him as a recruitment candidate.
Hope Davis gets top billing and plays the family matriarch, a Russian expatriate. Scott Cohen plays her husband, a defense contractor who wasn't an active agent but tolerated his wife's extracurricular activities. Margarita Levieva plays the oldest child and active Russian agent who is romantically involved with the family's Russian handler. Alexandra Peters plays the high school age youngest child, who appears to be in the dark about the family secret.
Davis's performance is somewhat interesting; she plays the role with a decent American accent that allows bits of Russian pronunciations to surface every so often. Levieva's first language was Russian; she was born in Leningrad and moved to the US shortly before the collapse of the Soviet Union when she was eleven. Predictably, she's the best at selling the dual roles. Gavin Stenhouse didn't really stand out to me much as the lead. It was fun seeing Kenneth Choi pop up as the New York CIA station chief; too bad he couldn't have made an appearance on Tuesday's "Agent Carter."
I mostly tuned in because the show comes from George Nolfi, and I really enjoyed his Adjustment Bureau. I confess I was bored until the end, when son figures out what his parents are up to. I'll probably tune in next week to see what happens next.
