Watching "The Americans" when you grew up in the DC Metro region

[untonuggan]

So I started watching The Americans last night, which for those of you who have not seen it is a show about KGB spies living as Americans in the DC Metro region during the 1980s. I am entertained so far, though parts of my brain keep SCREAMING during the show because I know a lot about the various locations they keep talking about and some of them...don't make sense.

Care to learn more? Spoilers ahoy!

• The KGB spies the show focuses on live, allegedly, in Falls Church, VA. Now, Falls Church is a charming area and one my folks considered buying a house in at one point, so I'm fairly familiar with what the houses look like. They are, for the most part, 1940s-ish houses and kind of quirky. (There was one that, for a time, was painted purple, though I doubt it was painted purple in the 1980s.) Some of the houses are 1960s ramblers if you go further out from the "City of Falls Church." The houses, in other words, are small. They tend to have bigger plots of land around them. There is a big tree canopy. The roads are fairly narrow. Um, I am fairly certain the development where the KGB agents alleged house is isn't in Falls Church. It looks more like a 1990s/2000s "Monster Mansion" (which, um, how do travel agents afford that? Housing is expensive in DC! Even in the 1980s. Like, currently, a house like that costs upwards of $1 million, depending on where it's located.) Big house, way bigger than was being built then, very few trees, etc. Basically, the opposite of Falls Church. It looks more like McLean, which is a very wealthy area where CIA headquarters (Langley) is located. Um, anyway, I digress. Housing choice: unrealistic.
• The spies apparently run a travel agency. Although they live in Virginia, the travel agency is in DC. In Dupont Circle. Now, currently Dupont Circle is the epitome of hip and happening and young things and stuff. Makes sense to locate a travel agency there, I suppose, though right now travel agency = internet. In the 1980s, Dupont Circle was poor and queer and artists. Not exactly the kind of people who would wander in and book a flight somewhere, so...why have the travel agency in DC at all, and not in Virginia? Unless, of course, you wanted to be close to Embassy Row (in Dupont Circle) or have an excuse to go to DC without raising suspicions. But if I was your FBI neighbor and I thought about the location of your travel agency, I'd have to wonder: why Dupont Circle?
• Also also, they seem to drive to work. That is a crap idea, unless you happen to have after-hours spy-work to do. Seriously though, Falls Church is by a ton of Metro stops and the Metro goes right to Dupont Circle. And parking is a pain in the *butt* in DC (the meters are all 2-hour and if you go to a parking lot it's super-spendy, current-day prices are $10-20 a day depending on if you get the early bird special) and so is traffic. It makes way more sense to take the Metro than to drive, so this behavior would again arouse my suspicion if I was your FBI neighbor and I thought about things.
• Finally: they film Stephen (the male KGB agent) going for a jog. I was like, "I know where he is jogging...where is that?" And then I was like, "Oh, he is jogging by the outside of Arlington National Cemetery...wait...that is a super long jog from Falls Church. WAY LONG. Like, if he jogged a tiny bit more, he would be in DC." Google Maps puts a jog there at a 14 mile round trip, approximately. And he is barely sweating when he gets back. And if he did live in Falls Church, it would make *way more sense* for him to jog on the W&OD Trail, which is a multi-use Bike/Running/Etc. trail that goes right through Falls Church and will take you to either Arlington or way out west to Leesburg-ish. He didn't do any spy-work on the jog, so...I guess he just really likes super-long jogs to stay in shape for spying? IDEK. I am probably nit-picking, but, it pushed my buttons.

Anyway, basically what I am saying is, I like The Americans so far, and it is also fun to nitpick about why their location choices are so ridiculously unrealistic. (But I guess it depends on where they can get access to film?)

Comments

[jelazakazone]

I have a hard time watching shows that are ostensibly set in DC. Like, they get the metro completely wrong and it bugs me. So, I totally hear you. When they do that, it messes with my head.

[untonuggan]

omg yes, Metro stuff on TV is generally "whaaaaat are you dooing"

i would really enjoy watching a show that got DC right

[sine_nomine]

My Big Fat Greek Wedding was supposed to take place in Chicago. I took one look at it and said, "They shot this in Toronto." I was right. They did have a couple Chicago exterior shots but that was it.

[anke]

I hear that Due South was shot in Toronto despite taking place in Chicago... Apart from one episode that takes place in Toronto, which, logically, was shot in Chicago.

[sine_nomine]

I'm not familiar with Due South. What is it?

Another two Chicago manglings that leap off the top of my head were "When Harry Met Sally" (iirc, it's Harry who drives off the University of Chicago campus through a gate that is never open in a manner that would allow a car to pass through it... well, except for the day that they filmed the scene, clearly!) and "Nothing in Common". Jackie Gleason and Tom Hanks are father and son... and there are many shots looking out of windows down onto landmarks that are nowhere near where one is looking out of said window.

I might be able to come up with more if I think harder.

[anke]

TV series about a mountie partnering up with a police officer in Chicago. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Due_South

[sine_nomine]

Huh. I'll have to check it out. Thank you! :-)

[untonuggan]

I did not know that! Thank you for sharing, that is…oddly entertaining.

[sine_nomine]

I'm fascinated by all the comments on this post.

[untonuggan]

*g*

[phlox]

Sounds like part of the fun really *is* nit-picking! And I am glad that apparently the show is fun on its own, with Bonus!mental stimulation from figuring out where it's *so wrong*! I've only been to DC once, but the idea of driving almost anywhere (unless you're in, say, a presidential motorcade) does strike me as a terrible plan. (Taking a brief taxi trip when I discovered that the Sunday Metro service was not the same as other-day Metro service was bad enough!

Your comment prompted me to do research--not much ;) --and I discovered that the first bits of the Metro opened for business in 1973, and the first bits of the Metrorail opened in 1976. Pretty speedy, really!

I wonder what the thinking behind some of the choices made by the producer(s), writers, location scouts, whomever was on a lot of these! I mean, okay, bigger house than makes sense probably makes filming a bit easier, but why not make the claimed location something that matches with the architecture? Even if the architecture and resulting claimed location would be really crummy for keeping a low profile. ;)

And I love that Mr Spy took a 14-mile run and wasn't even winded at the end of it. Apparently he's *really* in shape. And likes running places without multi-use trails. (Since you're mentioning it, I am guessing that the trail's been there since at least the '80s!)

(Edited because auto-correct was "helping" too much ;p)

[untonuggan]

There's actually a really interesting book about the history of the Metro; I've unfortunately only read about half of it before my brain!issues kicked in. However, it has to do with how DC built the metro in the age of highway-building (so why build public transit then when it was "out of favor" in most cities) and also the bureaucratic nonsense still going on with three jurisdictions at least (DC, Maryland, Virginia…not to mention Congress) trying to fund and regulate Metro. For example, the reason the Metro is not closer to National airport is because the Airport authority wanted the Metro there to be underground and wouldn't approve "ugly" above ground (and less expensive) tunnels. So eventually Metro just built it just off airport land, above ground, to get it done. Funnily enough, now that they're building the Silver Line way out west, they are having the Exact Same Debate with Dulles Airport and it looks like they may use the same "solution" (which is just *great* for people with disabilities, kids, lots of luggage, etc.).

Apparently a lot of the filming was done in Brooklyn? which just kind of pisses me off, actually. >.<

The W&OD railroad tracks have been there for quite awhile (since the 1800s) and the repurposing as a trail started in 1974 (different sections opened at different times). There's a historic photo of the opening of the Four Mile Run bike trail, which starts very close to where the W&OD starts. Am intrigued by historic photos; don't know if you are as well. :D

P.S. Auto-correct, we hatesssss it, precioussss.

[jae]

The Americans actually films in Brooklyn and other areas around New York City. So that would be why you don't recognize D.C. locations. I think they do pretty well given that, though!

Also, the male spy's name is Philip, not Stephen. :)

By the way, if you feel like talking about the show or want to keep up with news about it, come join us at theamericans!

-J

[untonuggan]

It's not necessarily not recognizing DC locations; I am familiar with the necessities of finding somewhere to film. It's just that a lot of the places that they name (see: Dupont Circle, above) don't make sense for the kind of activity that they have taking place there. At least, not in the 1980s. Like, great place for a starving artist or a gay bar, terrible place for a travel agency unless you actually just want to spy on Embassy Row…which doesn't look suspicious *at all*.

And there is just a part of me that wishes that they could have some sort of scenes involving DC landmarks. Like, not the fancy-pants tourist landmarks that are made to look like Greco-Roman temples, but things that I am familiar with as someone from DC. Like Ben's Chili Bowl, home of the most delicious half smoke ever. Things like that.

Also also, another thing that I just thought of that's inconsistent and *niggling* me: in the first episode there's the whole *send the Soviet defector off on a shipping boat*. Except we don't have boats that big that fit up the Potomac. (Like, Georgetown and Alexandria were slave ports, but they had smaller boats for their shipping, for realz, like the 17th-18th century boats). Currently, our main boats are "eat dinner and watch the sunset over monuments" boats and "take the ferry from Alexandria to National Harbor." Massive ships would get stuck. It's just stuff like that which pushes my buttons and pushes me out of the "this show seems realistic" part of the show and into the "now I am not thinking that the show is realistic and I want to punch someone who made these decisions because otherwise this would be a fun show for me to watch".

I guess it also pushes my buttons because there is an influx of "young" people moving here to find jobs, which is fine, except housing shortage and increased property taxes, so there are hundreds of families living in the old DC General Hospital. And the mayor wants to make it so the city can turn away people who might be able to go somewhere else even on nights when it's freezing (and even if that other place is "back to an abusive household"). Somehow this feels connected in my brain? Like, you want to have the image of DC, but you don't want the nitty-gritty of actual DC and dealing with motorcades interfering with your filming. IDEK, it's not really logical at this point. But also: filming in DC = more tax money in DC = possible money for helping people who are homeless. It just feels somewhat exploitative…"I will call this DC and make money off the fact that it's called DC and misrepresent what DC is/was like, but actually I am doing nothing to help actual DC."

Aaaaand names: I have aphasia from my meds and it makes it really hard to remember words sometimes.

[geeksdoitbetter]

" if I was your FBI neighbor "

~snerk~

[untonuggan]

Well, you never know, it is DC after all ;)