A thread for The Americans on FX

junk lyfe

@ zachlyon: So, you don't like plot, yet you don't like Mad Men either :) Like, what tv-shows do you like?

I've been thinking a bit more about it: This last episode reminded me of the first few seasons of The Wire, where it was all about the different sides observing each other and smaller bits of plot rolling in to this weird ball of yarn. And then someone would tug at a single string (usually one of the 'good' guys, because they didn't really know enough to realize the consequences of what was going on) and the bodies would start falling. I mean, it's in no way the Wire, episode four of the Wire was several levels above anything in this show, but some of it operates in the same way.

i like shows that come close to the basic (not that i like this word but) depth of the worst movies on my netflix queue? it basically amounts to the wire and various recent shows on nickelodeon

i never gave much of a chance to mad men but it's always struck me as mostly-empty meandering

i like shows that walk with purpose and direction and swiftness, hard as they are to create obv

that's nuts. the first season of mad men was completely tightly wound. a few seasons in, it kinds of settled a bit.

the later seasons of Mad Men are more fun than the early ones, honestly. the little experiments like season 5's multiple timeline episode, etc.

tbh the only current show I really value is Justified so I like overplotty ridiculousness, ymmv yada yada

I guess I'm going to have to start watching nickelodeon.

you'd be surprised

I get finding Mad Men dull at first, but from near the end of S1 on (parts of S4 excepted), it hums along with quite a bit of purpose.

(vauge spoilers) At the end of the first season, someone walks into someone elses office, and explains the main plot of the season. That other person answers with 'who cares?' When even the people in the show think the plot is unimportant, I can see why other people would think it is meandering. The show has an accumulative quality, though, which is why it just keeps getting better.(/spoiler)

that _was_ the plot of the season!

i like where they're going with this.

they're breaking with history, yes? when reagan was shot at, they said that james brady died. not sure i heard anything afterward to contradict that (e.g. if it was a bad news report, temporarily hidden by the government, etc.).

homeland is pretty b+w.

― s.clover, Thursday, February 28, 2013 1:33 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

?? Really? Even with the drone attack and the fact that a lot of what I get out of the carrie/brody thing is that they are drawn to each other because they've both been damaged and effectively used up ad ppl by the govt

when reagan was shot at, they said that james brady died.

This is in keeping w/ the initial reports, which later of course turned out to be false. Pretty sure the correction appears later in the episode itself.

Killer ep tonight. 6 for 6.

Just watched all of these in a row over the weekend, not bad but I'm wondering how long they can keep up the game of cat and mouse with the FBI neighbor before they either run out of ideas or have to team up in some way? Also would like to see some flashbacks since they're supposed to have been in the US for years at this point.

Yeah, it's 1981 in the show's "present" and they supposedly came over in maybe 1963 or something, so THE ENTIRE SEVENTIES is a blank canvas.

team up? why wouldn't they just ice the dude

Elizabeth would. Not sure about Philip.

xp was thinking about if they were able to turn him or vice-versa, but yeah he'd probably more likely just get one in the dome

if they were able to turn him

That guy just killed an innocent Russian, one he was pretty sure all along was innocent, just for revenge. So I'm pretty sure he'd die before he turned.

The season finale contained some of the most tense television I've seen in some while. Can't wait for this show to come back.

Games Without Frontiers!

Is it coming back? I hope so, but haven't been able to figure out what sort of reception it's getting in the US.

Yeah, it's been renewed for a second season. I watched the last five episodes these last few days. A great debut season, all in all.

Yeah i loved this.

http://cdn1.screenrant.com/wp-content/uploads/Annet-Mahendru-in-The-Americans-Comint.jpg

ok, my heart belongs to annet mahendru

also, margo martindale playing ms. pac man = A+

watched 1st 4 episodes of this. gradually dawned on me that it probably wasn't going to get any better than "OK." all the "character" stuff (e.g. keri russell's interactions with her kids) is so undigested, like place-holding dialogue they forgot to rewrite. show tries really hard (esp w/ heavy-duty 80s soundtrack choices) and it's kind of endearing for that but the combo of tiresome sobriety of tone + ridiculousness of premise is never really dealt with. each episode had so many missed chances for more interesting plotting.

keri russell is probably the most beautiful woman in the world but i still gave up.

Apart from the first and last episodes I felt like they really didn't include much lol80s music. At least not in a cloying hit-you-over-the-head-with-it way.

(I'm v unobservant though so idk maybe it passed me by..)

the music choices on this are interesting -- in terms of how they are of the period, but some of them (e.g. Echo & the Bunnymen's Pictures on the Wall, the Cure song) are not at all what would soundtrack this type of show at the time.

http://www.avclub.com/article/the-pat-benatar-record-wouldnt-load-an-americans-m-200571

9 episodes into season 1 and enjoying it a lot. I'm a real sucker for Cold War espionage stuff. It's predictable at times, and the protagonists with a double life thing may be a bit old hat by now. But it's extremely watchable and moreish, and the leads are both very good. I'm impressed by how they've almost entirely resisted the urge to do any 'LOL 80s' stuff, leg warmers and Phil Collins aside.

Hearing very good things from folk who've seen early S2 episodes.

I kinda wavered on this show during the first few episodes but by the end of season it managed to come together in an interesting way and now I'm really stoked for season 2

i guess i didn't post on here before but I think this is one of the best shows on tv even if it is badly flawed in a lot of ways.

i really love that, at heart, it's just a show about how difficult it is to maintain an unconventional relationship when you have a family. great acting for most of the cast, leads especially.

yeah this is great. looking forward to season 2.

I certainly prefer it to Homeland. Less ponderous, less pretension to being much more than a decent thriller, less Clare Danes.

Oh, so so so much better than Homeland. More visually interesting, less stupid plot-wise, more interesting thematically.

Also: Tusk and Games Without Frontiers!

I was afriad this was going to suck. But it's actually quite good.

Glad this is back

Solid opener, if not spectacular. Suffered slightly from me watching it sandwiched between two episodes of True Detective.

Anyhow the buzz is it goes from good to great this season, so I'm certainly still onboard.

Just finished watching it. I'm somewhat confused on what exactly happened at the amusement park and how it led to what happened at the hotel, but that's probably just on me. Solid return otherwise.

It confused me a little too - I'm guessing it will be explained more later on.

I don't think Elizabeth and Phillip know who killed their friends?

The "next time on the Americans" clip after the episode ended alluded that figuring out who killed them will be a plot line moving forward, with Claudia figuring into it.

http://images.zap2it.com/assets/p9978323_b_h3_ab/the-millers.jpg

So the American mom on this CBS show is a Russian agent on FX. Hm.

Like, I dont think I have ever had as genuinely real emotional reactions to television as I did with that show.

Sixth time, and I still get a chill. It's perfect the way we see Elizabeth's reaction before we know what she's reacting to.

https://i.postimg.cc/QxTM93ky/paige.jpg

She should have won an emmy for that alone

Best final ep of any series of the golden age of tv, and it’s not even close.

For three minutes, it even made me like U2.

Just finished off Series 6 and...yeah, wow. Wish I'd got to discuss it here in real time.

- "Paige is the main character of the Americans" maybe an overstatement but that scene on the platform is the climax of the whole six seasons. The earlier scene outside her dorm where she says she's only afraid of being alone also destroyed me. Stan showdown in the garage also crucial but in the end he was just their neighbour.

- I didn't really consider until reading Emily Nussbaum's review how precisely Phillip's "confession" was calculated to manipulate Stan into letting them go. Given everything we've seen over the years I have to believe that Phillip really was gutted to be blowing up their friendship. The most convincing way to lie is to tell the truth, I guess.

- The series spends so much time avoiding showy twists and beats (hi Series 5!) that when it does pull something obvious it can get away with it and I respect it even more. Not even my beloved Halt & Catch Fire could have made me well up to a scene set to fkn With Or Without You

- I'm glad we spent so much time with diplomat/artist couple. Not for the "dying woman shows Elizabeth how to really see" stuff but because it was a touching, sad portrayal of a couple that also stuck together through rough times (and baseball).

- Things that seemed inevitable but didn't happen: Paige didn't screw up - none of her mistakes had anything to do with the Jennings getting burned. Elizabeth didn't have to choose between her country and her family - in the end she chose one version of patriotism over another.

- Oleg :( :( :( :( Probably the closest the series gets to a "good" main character (who isn't a kid).

― A Box of After Dinner Comics Shipped to Your House Each Month (seandalai), Sunday, 17 June 2018 23:53 (six years ago) bookmarkflaglink

I have no recollection of who the "diplomat/artist couple" are, maybe it's time for a rewatch?

Don't know if this helps:

https://i.postimg.cc/NMyG72jW/painting.jpg

And yes.

Other moving scenes were when Elizabeth went to the older (spy?) lady who knew she was gonna have to kill her, and took it with good grace and calm.

And as for visceralness I will NEVER forget the body inna suitcase bit.

...although a scroll back has me saying that scene didnt bother me, lol.

I think its funny the one tiny takeaway from this show we still sometimes riff, is the whole "clench yer butthole if you're doing a lie detector test, it totes works trust me".

(xpost) You mean the woman who was watching her son's office, right? There was also the woman who was an ex-camp guard on the run--she didn't take it calmly.

Both scenes are amazing. The first--the woman is played by Lois Smith, longtime character actor (Five Easy Pieces)--is, I think, the key scene of the entire run. Her one line--"That's what evil people tell themselves when they do evil things"--hangs over every murder (which start to happen more frequently) from that moment forward. It's the question you're always grappling with re the Jennings.

The artist in season 6 was played by Miriam Shor, whom I otherwise know from more comedic roles (Younger, American Fiction), but she was v good.

Of no import, but when Elizabeth tells the husband she can help with Erika's (the artist) assisted suicide, I just assumed that she had the cyanide pill in mind. When she actually does, though, she does something more conventional.

I’m going to start watching this again

For three minutes, it even made me like U2.

I am admittedly pathological about this but U2 ruined the scene for me. Picking a piece of music with a singer whose personality and ego is right up front like that, eating up the space around the moment...just hated it.

Interesting. Not sure why, but all the stuff I always recoil from when it comes to them--the bombast, the self-conscious grandeur, the insistence that This Is Important--either it worked as it's supposed to work, or the scene itself is so great that I'm able to overlook all that.

They nearly used American Pie instead of the U2 song

That would have been even worse! They should have used "Rock You Like a Hurricane" or at least "Winds of Change"!

Ugh no way American Pie.

Watched pilot and S1E2 last night. I’d forgotten about all the hand-to-hand combat!

Maybe I should be watching Mad Men instead? I have yet to adventure in that direction.

As great as The Americans is, Mad Men stands alone for me.

Don Draper and Phillip Jennings have quite a few things in common.

I always get resistant to watching the "great shows" everyone bangs on about - I was a very minimal TV watcher til my current partner, but he's insisted on a few haha. So Ive now seen the Wire and the Sopranos, but still havent ever seen Mad Men.

(xpost) A couple of us discussed Philip/Don/Tony Soprano/Walter White earlier in the thread.

Americans is overall a better show than Mad Men imo, tho I can see the violence knocking it down pegs in other people's eyes.

Mad Men is sublime, the better show overall, but no one stuck the ending as well as this one.

Mad Men at its best rivals The Americans for me, but there's like 2-3 seasons where Mad Men is not at its best. The Americans only had one season like that imo, and ends as strong as possible. I was not a fan of Mad Men's finale though I know a lot of people are

Oh yeah, it was desperately uneven. But it touched on so many things.

Only yesterday I learned Russell and Rhys are a couple in real life! o_O Mind blown. Think I'm thankful I did not know this when watching it. But boy, that makes their tense acting when a couple even more impressive imho.

― Le Bateau Ivre, Thursday, February 23, 2017

My first post in this thread was a few months after this, so same here: only learned of this yesterday when I was talking about the show with my cousin's husband (who is a dead ringer for Philip in a couple of his disguises). That's amazing. I totally want to be a fly on the wall for their conversations at home. Like, do we really trust them?

(Earlier in the day, he tried to tell me that the Marshall Tucker Band pre-dated the Allman Brothers, so when he mentioned Rhys and Russell, I said "Okay, I gotta call you out on this one too.")