The Americans is the Best Show on Television

May 11, 2016 by Alex Castle

“It’s amazing what you get used to.”

So says the Korean Mary Kay saleslady as she describes living with all of her ESL in-laws under one roof to her latest recruit, a bright-eyed and pretty (if a little awkward) woman she does not know is really the one doing the recruiting.

It is not yet clear what KGB spy Elizabeth Jennings (Keri Russell) wants with the Mary Kay lady, but it is amazing to consider what she has gotten used to: she has gotten used to an arranged marriage with a fellow deep-undercover KGB agent, posing as a happy couple with a travel agency and two all-American teenage kids. She has gotten used to sneaking out at all hours to cultivate, seduce, and/or murder intelligence sources, to wearing... Read More

The People v. O.J. Simpson Shows the Trial of the Century From Every Angle

Apr 20, 2016 by Alex Castle

I remember it well: it was a Friday night and I was a 21-year-old college student working as a barback. The Knicks were playing the Rockets in the NBA Finals, so we had a good crowd in the bar when they interrupted the game to show a white Bronco moving slowly down a sunny highway, pursued by the LAPD and, incredibly, being cheered on by people on the shoulders and the overpasses.

As the total media insanity of the O.J. Simpson murder trial continued into my senior year, I became obsessed with watching the case on television; it was on all day every day. Sometimes it was fascinating, mostly it was excruciatingly dull, but I was hooked enough that I spent my final Spring Break at home in my... Read More