A thread for The Americans on FX

I didn't find that anywhere near as difficult to watch as the two aforementioned sequences this season tbh.

That scene was disturbing but... I feel awful for saying this, but I kinda felt that the guy had it coming? Congrats to the actor, for giving us such an asshole in such a short time, that I didn't really feel that bad when he was BURNED ALIVE. I mean, I felt a bit disturbed, but nothing compared to that thing with the suitcase... Mostly, I was scared they were going to kill the kid, who was much more sympathetic.

Am I a psycho, or was I meant to feel like this?

more like the dumbericans

the actual backstory and plot of the south africans kind of lost me, not sure if I wasn't paying attention or what, but if the point was just to see the guy burned alive I suppose I don't need worry that I missed something crucial.

you were meant to feel that way i think. it's a savagely violent show and the dirty secret is that both of the leads are horrible horrible people who manipulate people, destroy their lives, kill, torture and otherwise engage in terrible behavior in the service of a higher calling. We should really want to see them dead; the show's best trick is that you're rooting for them.

The thing I got out of the SA plot was, that the young afrikaaner was being recruited by the old afrikaaner to infiltrate the anti-apartheid movement, and then to bomb something or other to put blame on the anti-apartheiders. Basically, the old guy was a horrid racist who claimed that he wasn't an interrigator, but clearly didn't care that black people were being tortured to death in his country. So... I didn't feel that bad when he bought it, though I was def disturbed. A bit. But it does feel as one of the points where they are pretty clearly on the right side of history.

Philip seducing an underage girl to help with the war in Afghanistan, on the other hand...

But it does feel as one of the points where they are pretty clearly on the right side of history.

Indeed, though it was fairly bold of them to make the black ANC guy a rather unpleasant character as well.

wow, Lois Smith was on, huh? Looking forward to seeing that in 9 months or so. (If you don't know who she is: East of Eden, Five Easy Pieces, stage legend etc)

She was brilliant and even though the outcome is very predictable, the scene was one of the highlights of this series so far.

agreed. one of the most remarkable scenes from a remarkable show. i do admire how this show paints the concept of 'good guy' and 'bad guy' in so many shades of grey, to the point where both the russians and americans are mired in so much evil they're equally risible. and its clear that the principals of the show are as likely to be betrayed by their own side, as the people whose ideals they are fighting against.

I think the most incredible thing for me was that it was in episode 9. Pretty close to the end, most series would ramp things up and become hurried, but here, we spent like, half an episode on the murder of an old woman we just met. This season does all the wrong things, and it feels so right.

When the series ends, I want a spinoff where Stan and Oleg drive cross-country in an RV having wacky adventures.

YES

Also WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN TO MARTHA??

Like I genuinely think about this when the show is on, WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN TO MARTHA?

When this series is done we should poll all the terrible things they have done in the name of Joe Stalin, like

1) Seduce 15 year old daughter of CIA dude
2) Kill off grandma mail robot
3) Whatever Philip's going to have to do to Martha
etc etc

Like, what is the worst thing? Because a lot of it is Bad Stuff. Really liked that the grandma said at the end, how is what you're doing right? and that what Elizabeth was saying was what evil people say to justify evil behaviour. The moral murk of this show is fascinating.

the scene with Smith was devastating but not more so than the opening scene of "the Martha initiative"
that actress is really really good; you can see her vibrating painfully against the walls of the fiction she's choosing to inhabit

Also WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN TO MARTHA??

― IHeartMedia, the giant broadcaster formerly known as Clear Channel, (stevie), Friday, March 27, 2015 10:12 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

she can't turn clark/philip in unless she's willing to go to jail herself - even allowing for this being fiction, very few deals she could cut would completely eliminate the prospect of prison time - and i don't see her having that level of dedication to any jingoistic notion of doing what's "right"

she could always try to clip him, as they've definitely set up enough chekhov's-gun stuff for it to be logical, and would probably die in the process. i would also buy it if that stuff turned out to be misdirection en route to an even bleaker fate, which i think is the most probable outcome

yeah, def think the chekhov-gun thing is misdirection, thought's had me tense for two episodes now

i don't see a way that martha survives the series (unless she brings them down completely) and that makes me sad.

i think philip's getting closer and closer to snapping
i could see the show ending with philip vs elizabeth

we've got at least two more seasons yet i would guess? Did the creators put a sell-by date on this thing already?

IIRC, weisberg and fields said in an interview that they thought 5 seasons were doable, and FX seems willing to support it that long despite this season's significant rating drop

5 seems like just the right amount imo

significant ratings drop? that's a shame.

i hope it doesn't get cancelled before it finishes, if you get me. i want to know how this ends.

5 seasons is almost always the right amount

I'd fallen 7 episodes behind, but I just caught up with everything over the last two days. The slow killing of the old lady made me incredibly sad.

i found it more traumatic than chopping that woman up or the dental surgery or etc etc

renewed for season 4!

Not surprising but still great news.

It might be because it's tough to take everything in about last episode, but my main takeaway was that the use of croaky Henry is absolutely awesome. Has he sounded so weird all season? Him doing the Eddie Murphy rutine right when things were most unbearably tense was so amazing, I chuckled for minutes afterwards. I probably really needed something to chuckle about... What an episode, what a season, what a show!

Phillip's face was priceless, like at a period of such high tension stress his son starts doing monologues from Delirious. It is scenes like this that elevate this show way above everything else right now.

Paige's list of theories (Witness Protection, drug dealers, aliens) was fantastic.

Hats off to casting etc. - both kids are great. Holly Taylor did a fine job with that.

yeah, this show is totally next level

Paige's list of theories (Witness Protection, drug dealers, aliens) was fantastic.

my partner was like, "I would watch all of those shows. Except for the one where she's adopted."

caught up with the last two and am reeling from the old lady scene. i cannot imagine any other show choosing to do that and doing it so naturally at this stage in a season that's been all slow build. you feel so many conflicting things: the horror of realising what will happen, the comfort of seeing elizabeth allow the "merciful" route (that allows her to have her confession of sorts too)...further to what stevie said about the moral murk, i think this show is absolutely incredible in its insistence that there are no such things as "good" or "bad" guys and everything you've been told about that binary is wrong; but its even firmer insistence that there is morality within that, within the characters.

that scene almost overshadowed the paige stuff ie the entire point that the entire premise has been working towards and which was ultimately handled in a very quintessentially americans way - unhysterical, low-key, no consequences yet except simmering silences.

oleg and stan's plan is so stupid. i'm amazed stan was right about zinaida.

very interesting to compare and contrast martha and paige's reactions...

3 minutes into this episode, nerves already fried to shit. dear god, this show!

not really getting this "no such things as 'good' or 'bad' guys" feeling. it seems pretty clear-cut to me that Philip and Elizabeth are being portrayed as the bad guys. and there is no point afaict where the CIA/FBI/US in general are being depicted as bad guys

also, I wasn't sure about the Paige reveal. it seemed a trifle rushed to me.

still loving this show

philip and elizabeth are both obviously bad people and very sympathetic protagonists who the audience fundamentally roots for

plenty of cia/fbi people have been depicted as anything from amoral murderers to vindictive trigger-happy idiots

one of the recurring tropes i especially love is where a character dupes someone by being emotionally honest with them, which nina did again last night (i...think?)

yeah that is great, I have absolutely no idea what Nina is really going to do; it's like the more honest she is the less believable she becomes. And I don't blame her because she has basically no agency over her own life. I think she might be the only good person on the show!

philip and elizabeth are both obviously bad people and very sympathetic protagonists who the audience fundamentally roots for

I'm not rooting for them, I can't wait for them to get their comeuppance

plenty of cia/fbi people have been depicted as anything from amoral murderers to vindictive trigger-happy idiots

examples? not being snarky, genuinely interested as I can't think of any

larick, the black ops killer from season 2 played by lee tergesen (aka tobias beecher from OZ)

while he's in many ways a soldier the same way philip and elizabeth are, he appears to take quite a bit of joy in many of his killings

Let us not forget the totally innocent Russian dude Stan murdered.

vlad! oh man...the way that the mouthful of burger just falls limply out of his mouth after he gets clipped is burned into my brain forever

That camp that Philip and Elizabeth attacked in season two was training right wing guerillas to fight in South America. That's pretty shitty as well. The guys they are trying to get to via that young girl are arming the mujahedeens in Afghanistan, right? Which, I'm not going to argue that the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan wasn't heinous, but the way CIA got involved wasn't particularly bright either.

this one was particularly devastating

prestige TV conditioning had me expecting penultimate episode major character deaths that never came (I think the creators understand that expectation and sort of wired it into every scene with martha), but the relatively subtle big moments of this one were more powerful than any of the things I was expecting would have been.

the latest wig moment (avoiding specifics for those not caught up) was wrenching

the slow burn has to give way to an explosion for the finale tho, if only bc of how thin things have been stretched

this season is prob the closest to john le carre's specific vibe the show has come and I mean that as the highest praise