So, Is "The Americans" a Field Guide to Spotting Spies? @Variety @Danielletbd

In this article for Variety, Danielle Turchiano examines the popular culture image of the CIA on the hit FX television series The Americans (2013-2018) with the assistance of real life agents Martha Peterson and Mark Kelton. (And probably not a good idea to call them "spooks." Here's a guide to some agent lingo).

More about the show's March 28 finale in this Vox article and about the show generally in this Variety article.

A (very) selected bibliography on the spy and popular culture here.

Thomas Andrae, Television's First Feminist: "The Avengers" and Female Spectatorship, 18 Discourse 112-136 (Spring 1996).

Lisa Marie Bidlingmeyer, How the TV Image Destabilizes Identity in TV Spy Series (Thesis, MIT, 2007).

Wesley Britton, Spy Television (Praeger, 2004) (The Praeger Television Collection).

Christine Alice Corcos, "I Am Not a Number! I Am a Free Man!": Physical and Psychological Imprisonment in Science Fiction, 25 Legal Studies Forum 471 (2001) (discussing the series The Prisoner).

Luis M. Garica-Mainar, The Return of the Realist Spy Film, Cineaction 12-19 (2012).

Jon Heitland, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Book: The Behind-the-Scenes Story of a Television Classic (St. Martin's Press, 1987).

Michael Kackman, Citizen Spy: Television, Espionage, and Cold War Culture (University of Minnesota Press, 2005) (Commerce and Mass Culture Series).

Stephen Keane, America (sic) Exceptionalism in Television Spy Dramas: Mainstreaming American With "I Spy," "Sleeper Cell," and "24"? (Thesis, Georgetown, 2007).

Tom Lisanti and Louis Paul, Film Fatales: Women in Espionage Films and Television, 1962-1973 (McFarland and Company, 2002).

J. Fred MacDonald, The Cold War As Entertainment In 'Fifties Television, 7 Journal of Popular Film and Television 3-31 (1978).

Trevor McCrisken, The Housewife, the Vigilante, and the Cigarette-Smoking Man: The CIA and Television, 1975-2001, 100 History: The Journal of the Historical Association 293-310 (April 2015).

Alan Nadel, Citizen Spy: Television, Espionage, and Cold War Culture, 60 Film Quarterly 71-72 (Summer 2007).

N. S. Stone, A Reader's Guide to the Spy and Thriller Novel (G. K. Hall, 1997).

McGoohan, Montalban Die

Patrick McGoohan, known for a number of law-related roles: as "Number 6" in the cult series "The Prisoner," as "John Drake", the hero of the series "Danger Man" and "Secret Agent," and as various villains in several "Columbo" movies, as well as a number of well-received films, has died at the age of 80. The announcement of his death follows that of the news of the death of accomplished actor Ricardo Montalban, who most famously played the Nietzchean character Khan in an episode of Star Trek and reprised the role in the second big screen Star Trek film.

Read more about law in The Prisoner and Star Trek in some of the selected references below.
The Prisoner

Christine A. Corcos, Narratives of Imprisonment: "I Am Not a Number! I Am a Free Man!": Physical and Psychological Imprisonment in Science Fiction, 25 Legal Stud. Forum 471 (2001).

Star Trek

Christine Corcos, Isabel Corcos, and Brian Stockhoff, Double-Take: A Second Look at Cloning, Science Fiction, and Law, 59 Louisiana Law Review 1041 (1999).

Paul Joseph and Sharon Carton, The Law of the Federation: Images of Law, Lawyers, and the Legal System in “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” 24 University of Toledo Law Review 43 (1992).

Richard J. Peltz, On a Wagon Train to Afghanistan: Limitations on Star Trek’s Prime Directive, 25 University of Ar-kansas (Little Rock) Law Review 635 (2003).


Michael P. Scharf and Lawrence D. Robert, The Interstellar Relations of the Federation: International Law and “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” 25 University of Toledo Law Review 577 (1994).