A thread for The Americans on FX

if anything it only gets a whole lot darker, the stakes higher, and the disguises are something you accept as a given. season 1 is also much more episodic by comparison to the more taut/serialized 2, so that could also be fueling your doubts

oliver north is a co-writer on one of the episodes so anything can happen

the episode he co-wrote is great! and with little to no jingoism snuck in that I could notice

It's just a story credit iirc

yeah I don't know of anyone who doesn't significantly prefer S2 to S1

i like the idea of oliver north getting a job in the writers' room as part of a ploy to film a scene where he is seduced by his secret crush matthew rhys

NYT ran a piece awhile back on this clarifying his role
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/16/arts/television/oliver-north-now-in-the-service-of-tvs-kgb.html

Some fun stuff in here on the logistics of getting the rights to Soviet footage

http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/the-americans-producers-were-thinking-about-a-long-story-that-were-telling/single-page

my girl just binge watched the first season; i think she'll get through the second by next week.

OMG I just remembered this is tonight!

btw USA has been kickin' out Russian spies IRL this week, apparently sans car chases.

no car chases, no credibility

glowing review of season 3 http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/the-americans-season-3-fx-best-show-on-television/

Have now seen 4th episode as well. I think everyone will be pleased.

Stop it, I cannot wait!

hell of a premiere. still the best show on television.

those preview scenes look unnerving as fuck (one word: suitcase)

Really wish I'd stuck with this but for whatever reason I stopped watching about halfway through season 2. Could I watch season 3 despite missing 5 or so episodes?

You're gonna want to try to catch at least the S2 finale first if you can.

Right I'll do that thanks

yeah you need to watch all of season 2 I think. for one thing, it is excellent; plus some things will not make sense.

We're still creeping along through season 1, but I think we're hooked. Sure, there's some silliness, in the plausibility sense, but it does offer a smart twist on the will they/won't they dynamic. They start out married, with kids. The question becomes, will they fall in love, or end up killing one another?

oh jesus. the suitcase.

kinda wish they'd had the chutzpah to give the finger to Mad Men and call that episode "The Suitcase"

was just thinking that!

I like mad men and sometimes love it but this has a greater place in my TV heart

ha, my girl did the "is it over" "is it over YET" "GOD HOW IS IT NOT OVER" thing
show is in a real groove; so many good scenes

lol I watched these on screener before they had titles and did not relize this one was called "Baggage." I can settle for that.

also, the screeners open with a note about unfinished sound mixing/fx, and the notes open with "Greetings, Comrades!" <3 <3

That was the most uncomfortable viewing in this series since that scene with the Mossad agent taking a shit.

btw one of the highlights of s1 for me was when Philip was transcribing from a "numbers station," cuz WFMU strted playing tapes of that stuff probably in the late '80s.

I am not looking at recent posts cuz spoilers of stuff i'll see 8 months from now.

Do you think the barscene with the boxing match might be a hint to The Suitcase?

Good episode. This show is really working in it's very own grove.

last scene was like a dance, the way philip slowly pushed the filing cabinet drawer closed and got in the seat. yow. and this shot:
http://f.cl.ly/items/1n3D223Q3t290W2B0v2C/Screen%20Shot%202015-02-07%20at%2011.40.43.png

i am so consistently amazed by the quality of this show, it just keeps going up a level in every way

the way you held your breath as the camera panned to a cell you knew would have nina in it...how it made you steel yourself for something horrifying but just got a mundane, minor degradation

the framing of the statue w/outstretched hand as philip talked to yusuf

just brilliant in every way

just about had to walk out of the room for the tooth extraction scene

is it safe?

not as bad as the suitcase scene for sure!

I feel like a lot has occurred so far considering it is only 3 episodes old.

What a fucking brilliant series this is, a week seems too long.

I just caught up with "Baggage" last night and that was some of the most uncomfortable television I've ever seen. (Misshapen bodies due to bone breaks is one of the grossest things in my whole world, so I almost didn't get through it.) Sounds like another gross one this week, huh?

just a bit of amateur dental work with pliers, no biggie.

Deleted scene from last night's episode

This might have been my favourite episode yet. This show is just so sure of itself at this point. There were all the amazingly suspenseful spystuff, but that is almost besides the point. The dentistry scene could have been done by no other show ever, the way it was both so gross, but also played as this image of how much trust and love there still is between these two - after the earlier bedtime scene had showed how apart they are being torn by the Paige-thing. But the scene I REALLY loved was the first one, the scrabble-scene. This is when I love a show, when it's world and it's characters are so fully developed, that you can let a main character play a game with a character you only introduced a few episodes before, and you know so much history of this world, that you are coloring in all the stuff to make it riveting. Again, this is why I love tv.

Season 2 probably had a better plot, and probably was more important in leaping up a level in quality, but I like it more when plot is just something in the background, not why we watch the show.

A lot of great stuff this week; the closing Philip/Elizabeth conversation was a bruiser.

Still in the middle of season one, and hit the first ep I think I really didn't like, with the West German agent. There were, like, 6 sex scenes, which got pretty silly, and I don't know how many more "I don't think we can do this" conversations I can stand. It's always like this:

Elizabeth: I think we can make this work.
Philip: I know we can make this work. I love you.
Elizabeth: I love you too.

Third person: Elizabeth, do you really think this will work?
Elizabeth stares and sulks.

Elizabeth: Philip, I don't think we can make this work.
Philip: Fine, be that way.

yeah, that's a definite weak element of the early game, but be assured they work it out of their system by the end of season one

it is really worth it to get through the (minor) growing pains of the first season considering the leap forward in season 2 that has continued unabated through s3

My only concern for this season is that it could easily tip over into too-bleak territory. Knowing that FX/Weisberg see this as a 5-seaon-ish show helps, though - gonna have to keep those narrative gears grinding.

i miss margot martindale; hope she's coming back soon

Her sitcom got canned iirc so she'll be back at some point this season I'd bet

Weisberg's reply on Margo showing up was (from an interview in mid season) "I don't know"
I miss Margo too but I'm enjoying frank langella so far and hoping he sends Phillip on quest for a rare bible with some unique illustrations.

the closing Philip/Elizabeth conversation was a bruiser.

― Simon H., Thursday, February 26, 2015 6:41 AM (3 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

seriously!

the amount of conflict and suppressed feeling that's conveyed purely through facial tension on this show is extraordinary.

i very much appreciated the use of yazz in the last episode

the zinaida storyline is being played so masterfully. symbol of stan's paranoia or evidence his instincts are coming back?

i love how they make the incidental characters real, not just plot devices, and also how they're not afraid to get campy with the wigs and disguises (and the sudden UNDERCOVER DOG that elizabeth was walking)

the dentistry scene a couple of episodes back was the first time i've ever had to actually cover my eyes in front of the tv; didn't think they'd trump the suitcase scene but jesus that was brutal

feel like the current philip/elizabeth tension re: paige is being slightly undercut by elizabeth not having any convincing plan as to how exactly she'll tell paige anything; even if they both agreed on this point i can't imagine paige reacting positively

i very much appreciated the use of yazz in the last episode

yazoo, lex - we're not americans after all!

could not watch the dentistry scene AT ALL.