I'm Confused

Margo Martindale in The Americans

We watched The Millers the other night and greeted it with several belly laughs. I am doubtful that it will survive, but that’s just my gut thinking out loud. (Talk about a mixed metaphor!)

What confused me was the starring role of Margo Martindale. There she was providing laugh after laugh after laugh. We first became aware of her in the Gifted Man where she defined a serious role as the doctor’s administrative assistant and sometime conscience. 

Then she showed up in the Americans as the handler of two Soviet sleeper agents, a role that seemed destine for a long run. There she was not only testing the loyalty of the sleepers but murdering an American agent who had killed her one-time lover back in the Soviet Union. 

I did some research and learned that she had also had a role in Justified, which I watch but don’t remember her.

What has me confused is that she seems to be in more than one show, which was not the norm a few years ago. You were tied to a show and did not appear in another. 

Yet here she is the mother in a comedic series and a killer in a spy thriller on another channel. I hope I can remember which is which. I wondered to my wife if the fact that she’s in a new series means she was probably killed off in the other series. 

From what I read, she will be back on the Americans but we won’t find out how frequently until January when the Americans returns for another season. I did some superficial research but there was no mention of her roles for 2014. However, I did learn that she’ll be in an episode of Masters of Sex this year. 

Now I’m really confused.