Games Without Frontiers: The Americans Season Finale

The outstanding season finale of The Americans was a microcosm of the season, where misinformation and spy game scenarios rule the day. But always shining through is our heroic KGB couple on concurrent parallel tracks with each selflessly protecting the other.

There are two missions. The riskier one is to meet with the Air Force Colonel about Reagan's missile defense program, fearing that such a high-level source could very well be a setup. The secondary mission is to pick up the tape of the secretly-recorded meeting between Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and James Baker, the White House Chief of Staff. But the Weinberger/Baker meeting is the FBI sting.

"OK so you grab the tape, pick up the kids from school, wait someplace safe while I meet the Colonel."

Phillip and Elizabeth are constantly back-and-forth about who would handle the more dangerous assignment, and who takes the kids to Canada if they're caught. Phillip does the noble thing (he thinks) by assuming the risk without permission, via Dear John note.

Meanwhile, Nina, the KGB-mole-turned-double agent, has been granted a stay from the center in Moscow. Her job now is to turn FBI Agent Beeman the way he turned her, and she's off to a flying start. She gets the information that the setup is on.

The meeting with The Colonel goes down - and the information is that there's no information. The infamous "Star Wars" program is essentially that - a science fiction fantasy, intended to make the Soviets "spend themselves into oblivion, keeping up with the technology that will never pan out."

But their meeting is interrupted by the KGB Granny (fresh from finishing off CIA middle management guy in a personal vendetta), thinking that was the sting - Phillip doesn't buy it and then realizes what the actual sting is. He heroically rescues Elizabeth and wins a massive Chevy Nova car chase with law enforcement, until he realizes she's shot.

He gets her to the safe house, the FBI is foiled, and the last words of the season are from a critically-wounded Elizabeth to her husband and relentless partner, "Come Home" (in Russian).

Then there's the music video montage updating all the players to Peter Gabriel's thumping Games Without Frontiers. While the end-of-season musical assmeblage may be a little cliche in TV series at this point, it's cliche because it works. I can't remember a David Simon season-ender of The Wire or Treme' without one. And The Americans is just about at that level.

David Simon On Real "Time"

In what was a generally unspectacular episode of Real Time With Bill Maher last night, we were treated to a visit from our national conscience, David Simon.

Simon, the creator of Homicide: Life On The Street, The Wire, and Treme, says the only way to judge an administration is over the course of history. The former newspaperman-turned-cultural storyteller thinks that "Are you better off than you were four years ago?" is the most loaded question in American politics and diminishes the election:

The (De)industrialization's been going on for 50 years, the decline of organized labor's been going on for 40 years, globalization: 20-25 years, and you're gonna sit there and argue over this month's employment report? The fact that we can't have an adult electoral process is rooted in this kind of frenzy of who can we blame, and how fast.

Whether it's Bush's mess, or Obama's mess, or even Clinton's (who got the bank deregulation ball rolling) is immaterial to Simon. There is no quick fix. Campaigns need long-term solutions, but they are handcuffed by projections and results in the prism of the 24-hour news cycle. Is it any wonder that they've reverted to lying when they can't conform to the impulsive demands that the media has forced upon the people?

That business of four years being the metric for anything? We have a political culture that everyone plants annuals, they plant pretty flowers that come up the next spring. What we need is a political culture where somebody plants a fuckin' olive tree, which doesn't even give you an olive for seven years. That's how you fix an economy...When that olive tree becomes an orchard.

And in regards to his own personal crusade, the drug war, it is too combustible a topic for any President to tackle in his first term. Half of a president's first term is about trying to fulfill missions from the campaign, while the other half is about getting reelected. Only in the second term can a president take on the nation's overwhelming incarceration rate as it relates to non-violent drug crimes. And even then, he's not certain Obama's the guy to do it:

It was Nixon that went to China, and it will be some reactionary Republican that actually looks at the drug war and says, "You know what? This isn't cost effective."

While we know on which side Simon's politics lie - it's really with an asterisk and a gun to his head. He thinks both sides are corrupt and the system is broken. You saw the evolution in The Wire of Tommy Carcetti the crusading mayoral candidate, and then the selling out of the mayor in office on his way to becoming governor.

Maybe David Simon's next project will be to portray an unconventional president. Judging by the above quotes, the dialogue alone would send Aaron Sorkin's The West Wing into TV oblivion.

What's That About Objects In The Rearview? Never Mind, They're Already Here

It's September 5th. You might have one eye on the political landscape or the start of football season. But the Yankees have had one eye over their shoulder, where the Orioles have moved from 10 games back to a flat-footed tie for first. All while the Yankees do their best September impersonation of the New York Mets.

It's September 5th. And for the last 14 seasons the O's average AL East deficit on this date was 22 games behind.

The only reason to watch the Birds late in the season was to see if they could spoil anyone else's success - which is exactly what they did September 28, 20011 - when they came back with 2 outs in the 9th against Jonathan Papelbon and knocked the Red Sox out of the playoffs. That precipitated the ultimate domino theory with Boston revamping their entire managerial structure, which led to the trading off of their most expensive players a couple of weeks ago.

1997 was the last time the Orioles made the playoffs, losing a classic ALCS to the Indians. And to lend some perspective to how long ago that was, the Indians were in that series because they defeated the Yankees and Mariano Rivera in his first season as the closer.

In 1997, the O's lineup featured a still-steady Cal Ripken, Hall-Of-Famer Roberto Alomar, would-be Hall-Of-Famer Rafael Palmeiro (whoops), and an awesome 1-2 punch at the front of the rotation with Mike Mussina and Scott Erickson.

In 1997, the O's were still the most prominent thing in Baltimore. The Wire was just a spark in David Simon's head while Homicide: Life On The Street was playing out the string. And Ray Lewis had not yet been to 13 Pro Bowl or led the Ravens to a championship.

Now in his 3rd season managing the Orioles, one-time Yankee manager William Nathaniel "Buck" Showalter III, has a team that may be ready to take down the team that had groomed him and later washed their hands of him.

Tomorrow begins a 4-game weekend set at Camden Yards. After that we'll know how real the Orioles are, and if the Yankees can get off the mat.

The Gold Medal for Confrontational Dialogue

There are some very good conceptual shows out there that really make you think, but the character dialogue is so stilted that you can almost see Joe Writer in front of a typewriter with a lightbulb over his head.

Then there are the gold standards, where the dialogue is so real you are drawn in to the show and forget that anyone ever put words down on paper in the first place. I think of The Wire, The Sopranos, Deadwood, and Justified. And it isn't too much of a coincidence that they all deal in great detail with the criminal's point of view.

So I present Exhibit A: Breaking Bad, Season 5 Episode 4 "Fifty-One." Conceived by Vince Gilligan and written by Sam Catlin. The scene involves only Bryan Cranston (Walter White) and Anna Gunn (Skyler White).

****CAUTION-SPOILERS****

Skyler's very real state of constant fear had just manifested itself in a transparent cry for help, a faked suicide attempt in the Whites' own swimming pool at a dinner party for Walt's 51st birthday. She knows what she now wants: the kids out of this combustible environment. But she doesn't know how to get there, and she finally ditches the passive aggression and strips it down for Walt.

SKY: I'm in it now. I'm compromised, but I will not have my children living in a house where dealing drugs, where hurting people, and killing people is shrugged off as shit happens! We're back at it, fine. The kids stay away and that's that.

WALT: That's that? That's what?

SKY: I got them out of this house.

WALT: To a sleepover at their aunt and uncle's. They spend a day or two, Junior stays up late watching movies, and then what happens?

SKY: We'll see...

WALT: No I'll tell you what happens. They come home to this house to their parents who love them.

SKY: No. I will not let our business endanger them.

WALT: How many times do I have to say they are not in --

SKY: I said No. I swear to god I won't have them back here.

WALT: What are you going to do to stop it?

SKY: Whatever it takes. Everything in my power.

WALT: Like what...I mean specifically? What is your next move?

SKY: My next move is maybe I hurt myself. Make it clear we need more time. Let Hank and Marie see we're still struggling.

WALT: No, more like you're still struggling. So maybe next time I have you committed. Put you in some in-patient facility while I take care of the kids myself. Is that what you want?

SKY: So then maybe I show up with bruises on my neck, give myself a black eye. Say that you beat me when you found out about my lover.

WALT: I see. So you want to involve Ted? Now that would be fun, bringing the police up to speed on all of that. But not as much fun as telling your 16-year old son his father is a wife-beater...Also not a very good plan, what else you got?

SKY: I could send Junior away to school.

WALT: Oh. Here's the conversation: "So Honey I know you've only got one year left in high school, but I would love it so much if you would drop everything, leave all your friends behind and go to boarding school in Arizona." You have any other ideas? Because I am not hearing a solution to your problem...How are you going to save our kids from this terrible environment? What are you gonna do, what're you gonna run off to France? What're you gonna close the curtains, change the locks? This is a joke, come on Skyler. You wanna take me on? You wanna take away my children? What's the plan!

SKY: I don't know! This is the best I could come up with! Okay? I will count every minute that the kids are away from here, away from you, as a victory. But you're right. It's a bad plan. I don't have any of your magic Walt, I don't know what to do, I'm a coward. I can't go to the police, I can't stop laundering your money, I can't keep you out of this house, I can't even keep you out of my bed...All I can do is wait, that's it, that's the only good option. Hold on, bide my time, and wait.

WALT: Wait for what? What are you waiting for?

SKY: ...For the cancer to come back.

Cut to Walt. Scene. Go to commercial. Perfect. And it was all talk.

But the body language made it too. Walt was stalking, menacing, and had all the answers. Skyler was retreating, even to the point of pulling her robe tightly over her chest. She was losing to the superior mind throughout, but hit him with the last word with more force than any weapon. But she's no saint here. Notice how she said "our business" but "your money?"

In the episode's final scene, Walt tries to convince Skyler that she'll come around. Because Jesse had just recently had a gun at his head and was now buying him an expensive watch. She'll come around too. Oh that'll do the trick. Keep reminding her of the constant danger he's in.

It's only the 4th episode of the season and show arcs are a lot like scene arcs, so it's not inconceivable that Walt is right - that Skyler will defy all logic and change her tune. It would be the human thing to do. And that's what separates the truly great shows from just great concepts.

Things Breaking Very Badly For Hank Schrader

The thing with the new modern drama is that the bad guys are often the good guys, and the good guys are lesser good guys.

I think about the dogged Agent Harris, always coming up short against Tony Soprano. Tony was the show's hero, but the Keystone cop feds were one step behind and hard to dislike.

Or master criminal Stringer Bell toying with the squad from The Wire for the better part of 3 seasons, until getting caught in the crosshairs of two more vicious criminals.

***CAUTION-SPOLIERS***

In the case of the new best-show-on-TV, Breaking Bad, DEA Agent Hank Schrader isn't a perfect character, but he is a top-notch investigator. Unfortunately, he can't close on the elusive "Heisenberg," the local meth kingpin - who just happens to be Walter White, his brother-in-law.

While Walt is the perfect anti-hero, Hank's personal drama has won us over as well.

Hank is the ultimate bad-ass fed, but is dealing with some post-traumatic stress after a Mexican drug cartel blew up his border task force. So now he's having panic attacks, general anxiety, and behaving very erratically. His professional life is in limbo, and he can't talk to anyone - including his wife - about it.

But he still has his instincts and is right on top of the mysterious RV, the Blue Sky meth, and ultimately Walt. But Walt has the jump on him, since he knows his enemy.

When Walt and Jesse are cornered in the rolling meth lab, Walt pulls a fast one (with a major assist from "Better Call" Saul Goodman), arranging a fake car accident involving Hank's wife, knowing it would pull Hank from the scene.

When Hank finds out its a ruse, he gets dragged down one step further toward his emotional basement.

Now not only is he aware of the problems in front of him. He doesn't even know about the relentless evil "Twin Reaper" who now have made it their mission to chop him into half-a-dozen pieces.

Whither Orlando?

There's a void right now in the TV drama rotation. Breaking Bad just wrapped Season 2. Mad Men won't return until late summer. House is taking some time to think things over. Big Love likely hasn't even contemplated it's return date.

So I was left to return back to TV gold, The Wire - Season 1. It just so happened that I was replaying the old episodes at the same time of year as I was soaking in the human drama of the NBA Finals. So I couldn't help but think how to draw parallels between the fate of the Orlando Magic after the Game 4 debacle, and that of Wendell "Orlando" Blocker, the gentleman's club owner and front man for B&B.

Both Orlando (the team) and Orlando (the would-be player) weren't ready when it was their time to step up.

Even though The Wire's Orlando had his name on the marquee and was swimming in strippers, he didn't have the rep or the cash that he desired. So he took matters into his own hands, trying to get in "the game" and start his own empire with a simple drug buy. He got busted, and then got smoked.

Last night, the Orlando Magic couldn't stand their own prosperity. They held a 12-point lead at the Half, and blew it. They came back again to take a 5-point lead with under a minute to go, and blew that too.

Not only did they unravel when it was their time to step up, but they compounded it too.

Mickael Pietrus put himself in a world of jeopardy with his dirty foul on the Lakers' Pau Gasol at the very end of overtime.

Now, one can make the argument that you don't dunk the ball with a 5-point lead with 3 seconds to go - that it's a breach of basketball etiquette.

But a 2-hand jolt on a guy's back while he's in mid-air is much worse. Pietrus' reaction was pure frustration and lack of composure. Unless he decided that this was the time to announce to the world that French was once and for all the superior language to Spanish.

It didn't really matter at that point. The Magic were busted as pretenders, and then they got smoked.