Allegiance

Kind of like The Americans I guess?

“Without dark, the light cannot know itself,” Typhoon sang in front of a room full of sheepish-looking policymakers. Of course he talked about the dark sides of our national history, but it is also so well applicable to series. Without clamps like Empire and Extant we would never be able to appreciate gems like Fargo, Romanzo Criminale and The Spoils Of Babylon. You just need lillukness to recognize beauty. In that light, we should be grateful to NBC that they managed to throw something super miserable into the world again with Allegiance. Actually, the storyline alone is enough to understand that you should just ignore it. Alex is making a nice career with the CIA. What Alex does not know is that his father, mother and sister are on the Russians' payroll as a spy. Very normal family situation of course. When a Russian is killed on American soil and Alex is deployed by the CIA to find out what's going on, the Russians get a little nervous. Threatening with corporal punishment that will eventually lead to death, they force Alex's family to keep an eye on him. Eavesdropping card in his phone. Chasing him a bit in a nondescript Buick. Cutting peepholes in yesterday's newspaper. That work. Oh yes, Alex is also a kind of hyper-intelligent-cum-paranormal and his sister makes do with the man who threatens to kill his family. I notice tears fall on my keyboard as I type. Tears, because NBC seemingly thinks we are so dulled that we welcome this kind of inferior viewpoint into our lives. Instead of watching this series, it is even better to look for a new corner sofa at such a mall at Whitsun. Flanked by your wailing mother-in-law. And your three screaming children. And with both knees dislocated. It is NBC who thinks: “We can do what FX can do with The Americans”, but it turns out that they cannot do that at all. They linger in the caricature of Russia as the looming red danger and America as the great savior. They let their actors spit out lyrics that you wouldn't find in those pocket novels at the cash register of Albert Heijn. It is to cry and the NBC has done the world a favor by pulling the plug on this insult itself. But that's just my humble opinion.