When the modernist poet Ezra Pound began to promote the mantra “make it new,” the idea was to innovate in the face of traditionalism. Pound took inspiration from classic Japanese art in general and infused it with modern sensibilities. Similarly, The Americans works with a traditional genre: spy-thriller. Since John le Carre and Ian Fleming, the genre has developed its habits, both effective and cliche. What “Open House” does, though, is it takes some of those tropes or previously-established ideas and themes and flips them back to the viewer in new and interesting ways. There’s hardly a car chase scene worth shooting these days, especially now that Hollywood action films have cheapened the effect through sheer numbers. Even The Americans‘ pilot featured an opening sequence that was fast and loud (granted, it was set to Fleetwood Mac’s “Tusk” and, in spite of how familiar it felt, still managed to be one of the…
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