FX Network Wants Viewers to Root for the KGB. After that, the Khmer Rouge and Chairman Mao Get a Sitcom

You’ve probably seen the provocative TV ads touting FX’s new series, The Americans.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5JHrwoCWPE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qyq1RC12dF0

Spooky. You can go either way with teasers like that. It turns out, the way the producers went is to hope audiences back some of history’s worst bad guys.

“It might be a little different to believe and get used to, but we want you to root for the KGB,” said EP Joel Fields. “They’re going to try to get the Soviets to win the Cold War.”

History knows they’re fighting a losing battle, but the creative team behind the high-profile launch expressed a confidence that more than enough time has passed for American audiences to not hold a grudge.

“If you tried to tell a story like this about al-Qaeda now, it would be impossible; no one would want to hear it,” Fields continued. “I feel even the same could have been said up to 10 years after the cold war ended.”

The Soviets’ enslaved roughly half a continent, murdered millions of their own people and helped spawn the scourge of international terrorism. They threatened to destroy our values and way of life. They banned God and repressed every idea that disagreed with theirs. That’s quite a record. But now isn’t too soon to hope that the USSR buries the USA? And hey, maybe in another five years we really will see Real Housewives of Abbottabad, the madcap, zany life of and times of women who love their bad boy on the run. American audiences will stand up and cheer each time he does a reverse Gilligan and barely slips the grip of shadowy special operations forces. Tune in Tuesdays on FX.

Hollywood really can be a source of wretched scum sometimes.