The concept of this series looks promising for those who like the genre but as usual the way they set up the whole plot is so unrealistic that, for the Nth time it does nothing but insult our intelligence.
There is an initial, setup scene where FBI people wait for a high level Soviet defector to come and brief them about the existence of Soviet illegals. Because many of them just don't believe such a thing. In fact, 'illegals', or sleeper agents are known to be around for decades before the 1980s, so this conference where a KGB defector is supposed to convince doubtful FBI officers about the existence of Soviet sleepers is absurd.
Even more absurd is of course, that a defector of such importance would hang around late night in some shady neighborhood so that our main characters, the fake Americans (highly trained Soviet agents) could so easily abduct him. He doesn't even have a gun for protection, just some karate moves and a weird knife to impress the 14-year old viewers and those FX executives who approved the show.
On top of all that, the defector appears to have been paid about 3 mln (in 1980's dollars) and still has zero protection. Just wandering around shady quarters and hoping to be abducted, tortured and killed by his former masters. That's how smart is the defector, who ran the whole sleepers operation and outfoxed his bosses managing to safely defect.
I The writers of this show just choose to be lazy, cut corners and present a completely unrealistic picture. And get away with it.
Most importantly, at the end of the pilot, the fake American family makes a crucial decision to stay with the KGB and not defect for reasons I found completely illogical and unconvincing. It turns out that the defector they abduct, back in the past, raped the female sleeper agent, and before being killed confesses that this is standard KGB training procedure. Clearly, such a practice would tip our couple, especially the male agent toward defection and not the opposite direction.
There is also a completely ridiculous scene with some child molester going after their 13-year old daughter - in public place, before the eyes of his father, who could immediately call the police. Since when child molesters openly harass 13-year old children in front of their fathers in huge stores before the eyes of many people?
So far, this is utterly unrealistic and relying on cheap shots to engage us into a completely fake reality.
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