The Americans

FX has been hyping this new series for a while. Quite honestly I was getting tired of seeing ads for it during this past season of "Sons of Anarchy," but I guess the saturation effect worked. I did DVR the pilot and I did watch it.

At first glance "The Americans" appears to be a Reagan era Cold War drama about Soviet sleeper agents, designed to cash in as some sort of hybrid of both "Mad Men" and "Homeland," but it's just a little bit more. As a survivor of the period, I can tell you the music is time correct, and I have to say the opening sequence using Fleetwood Mac's "Tusk" is just short of amazing. Serious props to writer and creator Joe Weisberg and director Gavin O'Connor.

The problem is my interest plummeted after that opening sequence. The characters were not engaging, and neither was the acting. Maybe if they had stuck with the slick MTV vibe of the opening, or washed us more in the nostalgia of the 1980s, this could have been good...

Notably, it was nice to see Richard (John-Boy Walton) on TV again, but even his brief presence couldn't save this. Of course there's always the possibility that FX could retool or fix this, but it might be too little, too late.