Spies being put out into the cold

It’s the end of a spy era for fans of Covert Affairs and TheAmericans – the final seasons have begun on SA screens, writes

THERE’S something dangerously sexy about spy shows. And it’s not just talking about the eyecandy leads. I’m talking about the subterfuge, the romance, the drama, the gun-toting action and the suspense.

Covert Affairs and The Americans kept fans of the genre spellbound with their story arcs. While the former focused on the adventures of CIA operative Annie Walker (Piper Perabo), The Americans homed in on Elizabeth (Nadezhda, played by Keri Russell) and husband Phillip Jennings (Mischa, played by Matthew Rhys), two Soviet KGB operatives who are posing as the all-American family with their son and daughter in Virginia.

While thematically similar, the polarised worlds in which the characters operate ensure there’s diversity in the storytelling. Even from an aesthetic perspective, they are different.

Covert Affairs is slick and glamorous. Annie is always on the go with clandestine assignments, often in the most exotic foreign locations. Depending on the job, she dresses up or down, looking gorgeous either way.

While brave, strong-willed and feisty in the field, she also reveals a more malleable side in her love life and interactions with her sister.

Relationships more often go off kilter, especially when she flirts with danger or allows her emotions to get the better of her. Let’s not get into her falling in love with her mark.

Like anyone, she has flaws that, despite trying to conceal them, surface.

Even though fluent in several languages, she is unable to always talk her way out of Catch-22 situations.

After going off the grid for months, Annie finally returns to her playground in season five. However, she isn’t about to disclose her heart condition. Things are also tense between her and Auggie, her handler as well as ex-boyfriend.

She told Collider.com: “In the previous season, when Annie went dark, she was having to work all on her own, and she also found out about this heart condition, which she was so worried would take her off the board for working for the CIA, so it’s been a process of her coming back into the fold and learning to work as a team. And so that’s what’s going on with Annie and Auggie. But also, it’s hard to go to work with your ex, even if what you’re doing is a less stressful job than the CIA. The friction of what they have gone through, as a couple, and then coming out the other side, can’t help but be underneath all the conversations they have. Especially at work, they can’t really speak about their personal relationship, but it’s always there.”

Yet again, Annie allows her professional and personal lives to intertwine. This time it’s with Ryan McQuaid (Nicholas Bishop), a special forces officer who is a billionaire.

The mission this time: Locating Borz Altan.

Annie and her mentor Joan also deal with their strained relationship this season. The rookie has grown (defiant in some ways) and is clearly taking no prisoners in this final chapter of her tale. Back to The Americans. I suppose the ruse had to eventually end. There are only so many stories you can build around a family, where the parents lead a double life that they are keeping from their children and friends. Not that it’s been a well-kept secret.

Russell and Rhys are utterly convincing in their roles. They walk that fine line of deception (as doting parents, loving couple and deadly agents) with finesse. Also, the period setting is more gritty, intense and dark.

In such a world, confession is never good for the soul – but one character is aching to offload their burden. Well, that’s where last season ended.

Chatting to HitFix.com, co-executive producers Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg (creator) shared their plans for the final curtain call on the show.

Fields says: “We would not have written that scene without knowing what we were going to do next season. Nor would John Landgraf (the network’s top dog) probably have let us shoot that scene without us telling him what was going to happen. That was the first thing he said when we pitched it.

“We rarely pitch through these things with John on the phone, and for some reason, he was on the phone. We pitched that, and that was his first question: ‘What happens?’ And, of course, Joe and I had just taken a long walk hours before, so we had it in our head where it goes next season, so we said: ‘The reason we’re pitching it is we’re excited where it goes next season.’

“It’s becoming problematic. Joe and I have this debate which is, in life, truth is a wonderful disinfecting agent which helps purify every relationship. But in these guys’ lives, its destructive power has to be considered.”

Of course, in playing with such a dangerous idea, it lends itself to so many possibilities, emotional upheavals and perilous situations.

Then again, it’s probably the perfect poison imaginable for the final season.

These two shows might be going out… but they are doing so with a bang!