Friday 31 May 2013

The Americans are coming .....!

How about a bit of Cold War nostalgia on TV? Forgotten what things were like when two superpowers ruled the world? Then maybe new drama The Americans (co-produced by Fox TV) will bring back some memories.

This is debuting in the UK on the ITV network tomorrow evening. The story centres on an pair of Soviet spies living as a loving American family in Suburbia at the time of the Reagan election, whose cover is potentially blown by the arrival of an FBI agent in the area. Sounds fascinating, and I'm loving the ident for the drama (see picture) drawing on the classical design of sixties and seventies era Soviet propaganda posters.

Given the recent announcement of plans to film all nine of the Game, Set & Match books, is this the start of a period of Cold War nostalgia from programme planners? I'll be interested to see the results!

If any readers in the States have already seen it, what's the assessment?

2 comments:

  1. It is very good, the FBI neighbour is a bit of a stretch but it really builds the tension.
    It is also great to root for the Soviets, again.

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  2. Given that the Berlin Wall came down some 23 years ago, in revoking the memory of cold war which only those in their late forties onward would appreciate, that too rather reluctantly as the world has moved on and the cold war for them too is in their distant memory, I wonder whether the producers of Game ,Set and Match episodes have any intention of making the returns on their investment.

    I would advise these producers to concentrate on China, the fast emerging global superpower, their Cyber space penetration (OOPs, the Skyfall has already had this Cyber theme in a way ) their industrial espionage attempts, the fervour with which China is also using top Western universities-UK and US particularly to flood their young into STEM courses, funding new campuses in these universities etc..all of which is an excellent strategy to shape the new China as the future superpower. Add to this, the Chinese insatiable hunger for raw materials, their economic subjugation of Australia in making themselves the sole big buyers for these raw materials and their ownership of real estates in this thinly populated large Island etc., are of topical interest for any number of TV episodes which will interest the young adults. Hence, forget the nostalgic cold war era.

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