The Americans season 1

DVD Wholesale Quick Overview:

Some background, my family and I emigrated to the US right before the fall of the Soviet Union and I was old enough to remember the news coverage yet not old enough to really grasp the way of life before the move. I heard stories though, lots and lots of stories (from very disenfranchised family members). And so I grew up in the US all throughout the 90s gobbling up and loving the pop culture of the 80s and so on. At the time, all villians in everything were Russians, and while it made my parents grown, I loved it. But I must say this is the very first piece of pop culture to portray the Soviets as a worthy adversary, and not only that, it actually sets the story from their perspective.
There are no blatant good or bad guys, just shades of grey in a world where the two biggest kids on the block are too proud to work together and may just annihilate the whole neighborhood if one pushes the other too far.

The scope of the setting is amazing, early 80s… the cars, the hair, the clothes and the quaint spy gear. The show is realistic so you won’t be seeing any James Bond style shenanigans but that doesnt make it any less mesmerizing. Any spy fan will love this drama.

As for the show format, it is a somewhat outdated story telling method where not every episode ends in a cliffhanger and the episodes are not just 1/10 of a story written to span 10 hours. There is some of that, definitely but this more reminds me of the X-files years after the show hit it stride where you still had self contained episodes but an overarching plot began to develop in the background. Thats how this show works. Each episode (at least in the first season) has it’s own little crisis which the spies battle against and overcome all while building towards a larger narrative. The show starts really slow for those who are used to the way HBO or AMC does things, it took me 6 episodes to get my girlfriend interested (through much pain and suffering I got her into it). However once things start rolling, they don’t stop and the stakes get higher and higher.

To all history buffs out there, there’s lots of real events which impact the show, as they rightfully would have back in the day… ie the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan left the Soviets paranoid they’d be blamed and urged them to mobilize a first strike team just in case. If you’re a fan of period dramas, this show is a gold mine of “the way things were” and really reminds me of the first season of Narcos.

I can’t recommend this show highly enough, if you’re not getting hooked immediately, do yourself a favor and try to watch (and I do mean WATCH, this is a pay-attention type of show) the first season, guaranteed you’ll be hooked before it ends.

– Vlad

This is different from anything else to begin with. It’s storyline if not executed just so,could have gone off the rails. But this story.is compelling,tragic and frightening to digest. It grabs you and takes you to a place most tv just doesn’t go. And that must be done just so to be effective and gather a crowd of people for the ratings needed to stay in tv. This is in its 4th year ams isn’t letting up.

Th fact it is based in truth is revealing and disturbing. But the makers of this series have made it palitable and entertaining. But not for everyone. It is hard hitting and his a lot of murder and “evil”
Butout anit-heros are likable people,trapped in an alternative reality. The concept is amazing and as I mentioned,that it actually happened is mind bending.
Very well done!

– Thomas G. Kohls

Just began watching this show this past season (its 4th), and am totally hooked. My husband and I watched this season 1 DVD over the last week and now we’re back to buy season 2. We should probably exercise self control and pace ourselves a bit, but where’s the fun in that?

It’s definitely a good idea to watch this series from the beginning, I think. Altogether, the series is the best thing I’ve watched on tv in a l-o-n-g time–the acting is superb (Matthew Rhys in particular is uncannily good), the plot is pretty novel/exciting, and there are quite a few surprisingly funny situations (well, funny in an absurd or bleakly humorous way, that is). The Americans will keep your interest, that is for sure.

As others have pointed out, there’s sex and violence in most every episode. So, be aware. I found myself in an awkward situation when I was talking about this show at a family dinner and my grandmother started getting very interested in it–now she wants to borrow this DVD set. I tried to explain that it’s rated MA and is pretty heavy on the sex and bloodshed…but I think she was offended that I thought she couldn’t handle “adult content.” (This is the same woman who walked out of an Austin Powers movie in the first ten minutes because she was appalled by the sex/crudity). Episode one has a pretty vivid oral sex scene…as does the last episode of this season…with lots of sex in between. And assorted violence and perfidy. Sorry Granny…it’s probably a bad idea to let her watch it…perhaps I’ll have to “misplace” the set accidentally. 🙂

ANYWAY, I can highly recommend this show for your binge-watching enjoyment and I’m so glad it’s been renewed for two more seasons. It’s interesting to consider how they’ll eventually wrap up the series, and whether we’ll get to see Philip and Elizabeth deal with the ultimate collapse of the Soviet Union. I can’t help but hope that there’s some kind of a happy ending in store for the two of them. They’re pretty compelling characters, and you do get attached to them despite them being the “bad guys.”

– Lady Antares

DVD Wholesale Main Features:

Actors: Keri Russell, Matthew Rhys, Holly Taylor, Keidrich Sellati, Noah Emmerich
Directors: Adam Arkin, Alex Chapple, Bill Johnson, Daniel Sackheim, Gavin O’Connor
Format: AC-3, Box set, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
Dubbed: Spanish
Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only.)
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Number of discs: 4
Studio: 20th Century Fox
DVD Release Date: February 11, 2014
Run Time: 572 minutes