The Americans

"Mizejewski reads The Americans as a domestic melodrama that negotiates the terrain of the real and the 'real.' It is an incisive analysis informed by her immersion in all aspects of '80s history and culture. --Ina Rae Hark ""University of South Carolina"" (9/16/2021 12:00:00 AM) The Americans is both gripping and groundbreaking, and there is no scholar more astute and no author more adroit than Linda Mizejewski. Her writing is just as captivating as the show itself. This is no small achievement, particularly because The Americans is smart and well written and requires that any scholar bring her 'A game' to its consideration. Fortunately, Mizejewski's work is always excellent. Indeed, Linda Mizejewki is one of the finest writers publishing in gender and media analysis today, and it is a true pleasure to spend time with her and her insights in this book. --Brenda R. Weber ""Provost Professor and Jean C. Robinson Scholar at Indiana University"" (9/16/2021 12:00:00 AM) While The Americans has earned its place in television history as a phenomenal spy show, Linda Mizejewski demonstrates, in a series of compelling and lucid arguments, how its originality is indebted to its particular orchestration of elements from domestic family melodrama, including its portrayal of gender, family, children, and the nation. In exploring the intersection of the spy genre and family melodrama, Mizejewski has given us a terrifically insightful and teachable book that helps us to appreciate The Americans as one of the most morally complex and challenging of television dramas in recent memory. --Barbara Klinger ""Indiana University"" (9/16/2021 12:00:00 AM) With her nuanced analysis Mizejewski makes clear just what is so distinctive about The Americans: its fusing of espionage and domestic melodrama, its involvement of children in espionage, and most of all its challenging positioning of the series' spectators in morally ambiguous and complex ways. A great book on a provocative and innovative show. --Diane Waldman ""Associate Professor Emerita, University of Denver"" (9/16/2021 12:00:00 AM)"