A thread for The Americans on FX

EMMY-NOMINATED Y'ALL

rhys, russell, the show itself, fields/weisberg for writing, martindale for her one annual claudia scene (lol)

finally (on all points)

Yeah, bout time!

Poor Martha.

Rewatching the first series on Netflix at the moment. Been so long since I watched it and it feels good to get back up to speed on the early stuff. Plus there are some nice ironies such as Elizabeth hotly vowing to Philip that they would never tell Paige. I wonder how much the showrunners had it all mapped out from the beginning.

I guess the show finally landed a bunch of Emmy nominations, for the first time.

Dude, it was only SIX posts above yours.

Ha!

i just finished season 2. The acting is really crucial to this show working. Even, say, John Carroll Lynch as the s2 'budget guy' spy.

i'm already anticipating the denouement of this series, but i can see how they also might reverse expectations re who is less committed (ie obviously established as Philip).

By the way, is anyone else who grew up during the show's timeframe finding world current events kind of nerve-wracking?

Ev'ry-thing old is new aaaaa-gain...

Except Morbs!

(I kid, history repeats, etc.)

i am New Morbs. Tanned, rested and ready.

so did the KGB training for P & E include acting classes? and how much travel-agent work do they do for their cover?

https://twitter.com/resnikoff/status/808383371739021312

I'm working my way through The Crown, and it just dawned on me: PHILIP and ELIZABETH

!!!!!!

#woah

This show is going to be packed with newfound currency when it returns, isn't it?

you ain't kidding.

And Veep!

when the fuck is this coming back

Just watched the first season of this over the course of a week, so am avoiding spoilers upthread. Loving this show. Great acting all around, but boy how great is Noah Emmerich? Love that guy so much.

It's been odd watching this while US and Russia are making such headlines today, almost up to the point where I feel more comfortable with the Cold War narrative as an escape than our post Cold War idiotic reality of today with Trump and Putin.

Moving on with this series asap. Can't wait for their daughter - who is great - to be completely infatuated with slacker neighbor dude next door, and more trouble for Liz and Philip on the way. Both of those great actors in this too, though Elizabeth really, really neglects the most basic duties of being a mom tbh. She's been very cold and uncaring towards her kids up till now (your daughter has her first crush, sit her the fuck down and console her and tell her to enjoy the ride ffs!).

enjoy, the other seasons are all better than s1, it just improves as it goes

when the fuck is this coming back

March 7!

Thanks Simon, that's heartening, already have been losing sleep watching this so cannae wait!

Update: I'm at s03e03 now. You weren't kidding: second season was even better! Season finale was exquisite.

The way they slowly but surely move Paige forward into the story is chilling, so well written. Watching her 'grow up' in the series and being dealt a very clever, probably very heavy card this way (I am at the point where she's heavily in the church, and P and E learn she's chosen to be kgb groomed like Jared) is fantastic. What I admire about the series is they aren't pushing it too much: the pace is perfect. Man I love this show.

Every single s04 episode felt like I needed to update this thread with something you all know already. But just saw e07 and e08 back to back (Martha gone missing ensuing a hunt, and the seven month gap in the episode after, all for a blink of an eye at peace except poor Paige because the writers will not let everyone be at peace at the same time ever not just for one second) and omg dagehdnsjfjidusmsdke

This is truly the best show ever.

kinda is. very much looking forward to the new season.

Just saw s04e11. Only two more to go. Only two... It kills me,

'Pastor Tim' freaked me the fuck out first time I saw him, but by now I'm convinced he's a paedophile. He's a demon. Or at lest a vile weed. So many ppl who got offed in this series and this fuck is still alive? It cannot last another two episodes, surely.

Already dreading this to be over...

that's funny that you think that about pastor tim--i thought he was a pedophile at first, but it seems like he's just a wholly decent person. Obviously, in this show, things change, but I would be surprised if Pastor Tim is anything other than a decent guy who Paige has to betray over and over again.

"a vile weed" actual lol

Heh :)

Voodoo, no you are probably right. It's what this show does so brilliantly though: I completely went with Liz' disgust at church as an institution and pastor Tim representing that in all his annoying kindness. I was as suspicious as she was. But he probably is a p decent person. The trust issues Liz 'n Philip have really get in the viewers minds as well, at least in my mind.

One other thing: I ~cannot~ believe the poor viewings this show has been getting. Looking at the number of viewers (via wiki) how on god's green earth is it possible for this show to barely manage 1 million viewers by season 4? I mean I know by season 4 you probably won't acquire a lot of new viewers, but not even averaging 1 million? For a show this prolific, in a country w/ 320 million people? Or am I interpreting the numbers all wrong? How can it even be financially ok to continue this show with these tiny viewer numbers? It dazzles the mind.

I don't think I ever thought Pastor Tim was a paedophile but I definitely leaned towards him being a Soviet spy for a while (especially after Paige was recruited into his church by a girl who conveniently popped up on that bus ride and then was never seen again). Tim's church actually being a liberal, protest-friendly one was an ingenious twist.

I read that the FX CEO is just really proud of it as art and committed to letting it play out in full. It's a travesty that no one watches it while eg overblown hypebeasts like Westworld seem to magically dominate the pop culture cycle out of nowhere. And of course the lumbering shambles that is The Walking Dead still pulling in more viewers even after it's declined off a cliff.

Can't be long before they tell Henry, surely.

Completely agree, Lex. And if that is true of the ceo of FX, he deserves some sort of medal because that takes guts (and loads of money) to take that stance nowadays.

Watching this show parallel to what's happening in real life in the WH is crazy. Did make me realize that going purely by looks, it would be wrong not to cast Keri Russell as Melania Trump in the movie about this sharade of a presidency that is undoubtedly to come.

so much art seems ~resonant in the Current Climate and much of that is to do with my projection but yeah The Americans is going to be really really real when it comes back

This show, like The Shield, is just such a perfect, almost classically perfect, tragedy. We don't know how it will end, but everyone seems to hurtling toward a set point.

I'd love to see this show's viewership blow up and win awards and whatever in the final two seasons like Breaking Bad did, after several seasons of being a critical cult favorite. Everyone involved in this show deserves a toast.

I agree, but I can kind of see how this slowly paced often deeply miserable show isn't crazily popular.

Landgraf explained that they look at three factors: Viewership, critics and what they themselves love, and if two out of three are good, they will keep a show on. FX needs lots of different kinds of shows to keep the channel in every cable package, so a small but passionate fanbase might be ok at this point. They probably won't get a massive budget increase to create a CGI nuclear war or anything, but for a couple of actors and a truckload of wigs, that should be ok.

lol https://twitter.com/jonmladd/status/831901743948644353

also lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqBxUgqe8eQ

They were filming the Americans in a church in my neighborhood last week. Presumably a Pastor Tim plotline. Sadly didn't see any of the cast in their 80s finery. If Philip is decked out in a ridiculous disguise when this episode airs I will have a twinge of regret at not hanging around longer.

Omg!

And that Sabotage clip is so otm, so good.

this can't come soon enough!

good thing on the bbc today about real life illegal jack barsky: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-38846022

For some reason I thought this was going to be the last season. Now there's more to look forward to.