Just like 'The Americans'?
I just saw a promo for the first time about this, and it looks strikingly similar to The Americans on FX. I don't think I have room for another one.
shareYeah I thought it looked like the Americans and Homeland.
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MovieChat Forums > The Assets (2014) Discussion > Just like 'The Americans'?
This is based on a true story about the hunt for Aldritch Ames, a CIA agent who sold lots of intelligence to the Soviets.
Unless Alpert's covered in bacon grease, I don't think Hugo can track anything.
Aside from both being spy stories set during the Cold War, there is not much similarity.
'The Americans' is purely fictional and the protagonists are Soviet 'sleeper agents' who are true believers in the cause of communism. 'The Agents' is based on a true story and the protagonist is an American traitor whose motivation was purely monetary.
'The Americans' is purely fictional and the protagonists are Soviet 'sleeper agents' who are true believers in the cause of communism. 'The Agents' is based on a true story and the protagonist is an American traitor whose motivation was purely monetary.
Actually "The Americans" are based on real sleeper cells the creator was going to set the film in modern times since it was based on the arrest of all those sleeper cells just a few years ago, but he decided to set it in the 80s after he saw that very few people were upset in the U.S. about Russian spies.
The ironic thing is people were asking about if the children on "The Americans" would find out about their parents and in February of last year while the series was airing the Germans arrested a husband and wife who were connected with the U.S. sleeper cells, the wife was actually on the radio broadcasting when they went into the home, the daughter who is in her 20s had no idea her parents were spies and that they were from Russia.
Setting "The Americans" in the 80s during the height of the Cold War was probably a good idea, instead of setting it in current times where for odd reason most U.S. citizens don't seem to care they had spies working in the U.S. or that their own government was collecting information on them.
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Hows this for Irony http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/alleged-russian-sleeper-spies-trial/stor y?id=18222943
In this town I'm the leper with the most fingers.
That's the German couple I mentioned earlier, I don't think the U.S. government put any of the sleeper agents on trial they did a spy swap.
Russian spies were succeeding, FBI official says
The 10 sleeper agents exposed in 2010 were reportedly succeeding in efforts to rise in American society and gain connections to policymakers. Newly released documents detail the investigation.
October 31, 2011|By Ken Dilanian, Los Angeles Times
Reporting from Washington — Brush passes. Dead drops. Secret electronic messages. All under the watchful eye of the FBI.
Documents released Monday, including photos, videos and papers, offered new details about the FBI's decade-long investigation into a ring of Russian sleeper agents who, U.S. officials say, were trying to burrow their way into American society to learn secrets from people in power.
The investigation was code-named Operation Ghost Stories because six of the 10 agents had assumed the identities of dead people.
The agents, whom the U.S. sent to Russia in July 2010 in the largest spy swap since the Cold War, are not accused of stealing any U.S. secrets. But they were more dangerous than commonly believed, C. Frank Figliuzzi, FBI assistant director for counterintelligence, said in an interview.
They were "the cream of the crop" of trained Russian intelligence agents, he said, and they were sent here to blend in and befriend American policymakers. They were succeeding, Figliuzzi said.
"Several were getting close to high-ranking officials," he said. One had gone to work for a confidant of a U.S. Cabinet member, he added, declining to offer details.
One of the Russians, who identified herself as Cynthia Murphy of Montclair, N.J., provided financial planning for Alan Patricof, a New York venture capitalist and top Democratic donor who was finance chairman of Hillary Rodham Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign, according to news reports.
The agents were known as "illegals," because they weren't operating out of Russian embassies or military missions. Instead, they led seemingly normal lives in the U.S.
Figliuzzi noted that one of the spies, Donald Heathfield of Cambridge, Mass., attended Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, which trains many senior government officials. One of the photos released Monday showed Heathfield, who purportedly stole the identity of a Canadian infant who had died decades ago, graduating from Harvard in 2000. The university has revoked the degree.
These were the people they based the series "The Americans" Joe Weisberg, a former CIA officer who created the series decided to develop story lines in the series, and base some of the plot lines on real-life stories, and integrating what he had learned when he worked for the CIA.
Movies will make you famous; Television will make you rich; But theatre will make you good.
attended Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, which trains many senior government officials.
LOL, so, clearly, he was right at home among socialist true believers exactly like himself...
are not accused of stealing any U.S. secrets.
In response to what someone else asked --- what the hell would you put them on trial for? You don't usually try failed spies, and any spy that gets caught before they find ANYTHING has failed completely in their goal. Ergo, a "swap" for agents of our own is probably a good deal.
I'm not saying you could not put them on trial, I'm saying it serves no useful purpose, because they really haven't done enough to get serious sentencing for, even if nominally you could just have them shot out of hand... That kind of thing seems a bit extreme when they've failed.
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Nope,this is a true story---I recalled the name Aldrich Ames, and looked it up---the series is based on this book about the case, which was written by two of the investigators who tracked down Ames. It's called CIRCLE OF TREASON:CIA TRAITOR ALDRICH AMES AND THE MEN HE BETRAYED, by Sandra Grimes and Jeanne Vertefeuille. I was trying to provide a link to the book but I can't for some reason. Anyway, I just found this was on a minute ago, and was near kicking myself for having missed most of the first episode. I love spy stories,since I grew up on them--so I will definitely be looking out for this show next week.
it's not very good you didn't miss anything.
shareI have to agree, this show is trying to grab the audience that is flocking to "The Americans" over on FX. Having just watched the pilot episode, what seems to be lacking is a lead character that the viewers are "attracted" to. In "The Americans" Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell have enough personal appeal that even though they are spying against America--and Russell's "Elizabeth Jennings" can be hard, cold and bitchy--the audiences still "like" them and want to see them again and again.
The actors on "The Assets" are so bland and ordinary-looking (which seems to be popular in the acting ranks) that you can barely tell them from the wallpaper. They don't make an impression!
Well, this is only an eight-episode mini. I'll probably continue to record and watch on weekends.
I liked the pilot and I'm one of the so called The Americans audience. I'll be watching this new TV show.
shareWell, I'm giving it more of a chance, if only because I've read the book upon which it's based. And the cast is just great.
It also has in this nearly all-British cast, some of my favorite British actors in it--Rhys and Ovenden and Harriet Walter (!!) and I couldn't believe my eyes with the great John Lynch appeared at the end--"Cal" himself! Even that fixture of British tv, the oddly named Lex Shrapnel appears on the horizon.
Our cups runneth over.
Though American audiences probably largely unfamiliar with these icons of British acting world won't be as enthused by their appearance and probably will shrug.
The Amerikans is far better. This was good, but suffice to say the CIA would not have entrusted thisto a woman as it was a sexist mens club back then. But it is ok.....
Better then Killer women. That was pure uunadulterated trash
CIA would not have entrusted thisto a woman as it was a sexist mens club back then. But it is ok.....
Huh? If you mean the team that caught Ames...Well...You can look it up.
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Forget about younger people don't read especially History. NFC.
In this town I'm the leper with the most fingers.
And what about the ten thousand times they told you that this was all based on a true story and that the main players are real? She was real!
"Just like"? Not at all. ABC's attempt at being "just like," yes.
"I am allowed to think everyone is stupid for 10 minutes."-- Randy Susan Meyers
CIA would not have entrusted thisto a woman as it was a sexist mens club back then. But it is ok.....
Sandra Grimes was a real person who helped catch Ames.
She wrote the book about it (with another author).
So tell us again how the CIA would not have entrusted a woman to help catch him?
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