A thread for The Americans on FX

This show is so dark and depressing, I can totally see Philip and Elizabeth deciding to stay, and Stan's (clearly? or is she?) Russian girlfriend killing them. Then again, don't forget the early season with the Russian/American kid snapping and killing his whole family in that hotel room ...

No Oleg this final ep. Bummer.

Christ, I'd forgot all about that kid killing his family!

Actually maybe what'll happen is they'll all try to leave and it'll be *Henry* who refuses, and goes to Stan for asylum/help.

not a good season, not a good final episode. Plot points waved around then shelved for no reason. Aimless and uncompelling.
i'm hopeful this is a "justified" case where they have a shitty penultimate season and then have something to say at the end.

The more I think about it, the more I think "Justified" could be one of the best series finales ever.

I didn't like the agriculture subplot at the top of the season, and I'm mad about how much time was wasted on it over all. If that was just to have Philip kill an innocent in vain one last time, they could've at least built a more compelling scenario.

I think the show did get better about half way through, even if it was still slow. I have a better sense of Henry and Paige now, for sure, and I can empathize with Stan wanting to ground his life after years of doing what he's been doing (though we'll see how that works out). Philip just seems beaten down and the only glimmer of hope he had was just extinguished by a) new information and b) Elizabeth's insistence on pursuing it (he didn't pitch the recorder, btw...he told Elizabeth he'd almost done it, but didn't). Oleg's life in Russia was definitely the most compelling avenue the show went down this year, but I'm still not certain what the stakes are for him.

Wish the dressing down of Tuan would've been more vicious, but that's not what this show is.

So whats the thoughts on Stan's gf trying to talk him out of quitting? She's doing that on purpose right?

Oh yeah, they couldn't have been clearer in saying she's a Russian agent without putting a red neon flashing hammer & sickle over her head.

Poor, stupid Stan.

I wonder if the Centre is going to assign Philip and/or Elizabeth to the Russian woman that Stan and his partner are targeting, which would put them on a direct collision course with him.

I think this season had a few too many plates spinning but "aimless" is complete nonsense.

Pretty divisive season huh? My bf hated it too, along the "nothing's happened" lines, but I think - especially in the last three episodes - they really pulled out some emotionally devastating scenes.

The great thing about this show is that it's always, always felt character-driven rather than plot-driven, and in the cases it hasn't that's jarred a bit (suspension of disbelief required to get us to think telling Paige would be a good idea, for instance). S5 was maybe character-driven to a fault - sometimes people do things that don't go anywhere dramatic, that sputter out or end in brick walls. I feel this is really ties into the themes of all the characters feeling powerless and trapped by larger systems they can't get out of, whether that's Oleg in the KGB or Stan in the FBI or Mischa reaching the US but hitting a brick wall or Paige's secrets or Philip and Elizabeth themselves. I mean, powerlessness and impotence is all about stasis, to an extent. Maybe it's character-driven to a fault now? I thought it was tremendously effective, if not exciting.

Actually maybe what'll happen is they'll all try to leave and it'll be *Henry* who refuses, and goes to Stan for asylum/help.

― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Friday, 2 June 2017 03:39 (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I feel defection might be a little dramatic for The Americans but I can 100% see Henry running away to Stan over the boarding school issue, with no spy stuff involved. I think it's basically clear they won't be going back to Russia for S6 now anyway, it's the "one last job" final act.

Renee's "oh no you must stay in the FBI" speech was almost too obvious and I think even might have given the game away to Stan. Not a normal way to react to a "my job makes me feel like shit every day" confession.

Where I did think S5 fell down wasn't in the lack of Plot Happening or the pace, it was in the disconnected stories - Oleg and Stan and P&E were basically in separate shows throughout. There was a degree of interconnectedness in the past seasons that made it really, really tense even when the show slowed it down.

Yeah I agree with that last point - the show itself suffered a lot from moving huge, compelling characters like Nina and Martha out of the centre of the action and then not really replacing them, so the US scenes had relatively few character rattling around a huge dramatic space. Granted, it created space for Paige in particular to really shine, but when I watched the scene with Philip and Kimmy I remember thinking "I wish we'd seen more of this".

I suspect a dour season soaked in emotional paralysis and creeping dread was what they were going for all along but I wish they'd ignited the touchpaper at the very end, as a cliffhanger if nothing else.

I was trying to work out a way where Stan's girlfriend pulls the old switcheroo on us all and turns out to be a US agent - that they've suspected Stan of being the leaky pipe for a long time and want to find out who he's leaking to, exactly. But I can't make that work, and I think she must be a Soviet agent, especially given the questioning of Oleg.

This show has done such a good job of skirting the obvious, that I almost think she can't be a Russian agent. But if she's *not* a Russian agent ... I dunno, that's yet another dead end. The downside of dragging things out is, unless they have an airtight plan, the reveal (if there is one!) is bound to be pretty disappointing.

This show has been beautifully, brilliantly character driven, but we really didn't learn anything new or see any new facets of anyone save a) Henry, who had been so MIA he might as well have been written off the show; the promise/threat of sending him to boarding school played like a sly in-joke and b) Gabriel, who essentially *was* written off the show (at least for now). Anything else new was new: the hippie stud in Kansas, the Russians in America being recruited, heck, Oleg's life in Russia. If those plots are going anywhere - and given what happened wth the super plants, maybe they're not - I wish we hadn't spent so much time on them. If they *are* going somewhere, I wish for drama/suspense sake we knew a bit more. Because it's going to be, what, a year or more until the show comes back? That's a long wait to follow a season that was in essence a long wait.

Someone should assemble a supercut of Philip swallowing.

Here's a whole show where he does just that.

I'm still sticking by my initial theory which is that they'll end up in some situation (maybe just a weekend away or a chummy lake swim or something) in which Stan notices Elizabeth's gunshot scar and the penny will suddenly drop.

Talk about a slow build.

Maybe the show will just end in 1989 and the fall of the USSR, and Philip and Elizabeth will just shrug and say "now what?" Or kill themselves.

it's not so much "nothing happened" as "what happened didn't move the plot forward or introduce anything to forward the story"

as a for instance, the shooting of the old woman and her husband in their house was a scene that show has done numerous times and done better... it was generally poorly directed, occasionally unclear and put the main characters through a wringer that culminated in A MAJOR DECISION that had little dramatic heft. Everything was off.

show is not as compelling to me post-Nina, I have to say, but still enjoying this season (only about half way through it)

Have just learned that the file we d/l had the last few mins cut off, which explains my confusion at the sudden ending. Will need to rewatch it.

Ha, us too!

yeah just rewatched it... our copy ended with phillips talk to paige about having a dog and boyfriend ... it did seem odd ! now i'm like ohhhhh ok.

Just caught up with the finale too. It didn't disappoint, and I think we're set-up for quite a final season. Despite all their efforts it seems because Isaac Breeland will be head of the Soviet div, they have to stay. If I was Philip, seeing how tortured he is, I'd still say: 'fuck this shit, I'll rather defect', but it's a clever plot-twist. Though they could've done better with the most important 'news' of the episode being buried in a murky recording tbh.

Not sure what staying means for Henry: will he be allowed to go now anyway? (good suggestion up here that he might seek refuge/help from Stan). I think Stan's last season will be way more interesting than this one, too. Something tells me he and Oleg will cross paths again, either to do with his new 'girlfriend' or not. Not sure if they are to help each other or confront each other though. Or both.

One thing I'm still not clear on: If the Center wanted Alexei and his family back to Russia, why will he be locked up should he return? I must have missed something as I'm still not very clear about this whole story line. Is he going to be sad and alone in America next season? (will we even see them again?)

They don't want Alexei back in Russia, just Evgheniya, because she's having an affair with the CIA's new head of its Moscow office. So they want her to go back there and continue the affair. That's why they sent someone to tell her that she won't be punished if she goes back.

Ahhh you right, I blanked on that last night, thanks.

I'm delighted that Martha's going to be allowed to adopt a child. It's a good ending for her, unless someone figures out a way to use the child as leverage to get her to do something unpleasant.

Yeah, though I'm not at all sure this is the 'end' for her. They didn't invest in her story all season, but they keep bringing her up every now and again.

Can imagine her and Gabriel leading sort of parallel sad to be in Russia lives. Wouldn't be surprised if they crossed paths again, perhaps after the fall of the wall, for a "now what?" moment.

Can also easily see Oleg defecting. The way the wheels are turning, I can also see his powerful dad pulling strings to get him out of the country, to his own detriment. There'd be a symmetry with his wife's stint in prison, too. For that matter, I can see Oleg getting back to the USA, meeting up with Stan, and tipping him off to all sorts of shit before vanishing for good. Or for that matter, tipping off Stan before Elizabeth kills him at Russia's behest. OR, further, Philip forced to face down Stan at some point. Lots of directions to go in, not least because this season was little more than slowly turning gears.

The fall of the wall is still a good five years away. I wonder if they're going to try to cover that much time in the remaining 10 episodes.

I mean, maybe that's something they can finally do now because Henry and Paige are "adult" enough that they can be aged with makeup or haircuts or wardrobe. It's really hard to make an 11 year old look 19.

We're still only in 1984 though, right? (seeing Reagan's 'We begin bombing in five minutes' gaffe) That's still five years from the fall of the wall. Would be something if they leap forward five years for the last season. Paige already fully the third Jennings spy, Henry finishing his education and still clueless about it.

xp

they can just fast forward. five years is nothing.

I mean, Henry can go to sleep away school, Paige can go on a mission to South America. kids gone, no problem.

They don't want Alexei back in Russia, just Evgheniya, because she's having an affair with the CIA's new head of its Moscow office. So they want her to go back there and continue the affair.

But they didn't find out she was having the affair until partway through the season. So why were they nosing around the family before that?

I'm more interested in them fast-forwarding by six months to a year - the last series will be about them (and the centre/FBI) coming to terms with what the Gorbachev era means.

That does seem to the the logical direction.

Or, you know, everything going bad right before the great thawing.

Or maybe it will end in summer 2016, with an old Philip and Elizabeth, in grey mustache and wig, hobbling fake intel to Trump's people.

Carter Page is Henry!

Finished the first season. Truthfully, it's been a bit of a slog--took me a month, with lots of breaks. I liked Amador, but he's gone. I realize that liking characters here is beside the point, but that does figure in for me. The music hasn't made much of an impression; the extended episode-ending song when Gregory was killed was pretty good, I guess (didn't recognize the song). The French Lieutenant's Woman was used well. The period details leave me cold, which is a function of my antipathy towards the period. I started the second season yesterday, but at some point soon I'll need to connect with it to keep going.

That was "To Love Somebody"? I need to pay attention.

it improves on the second season and then gets better exponentially going forward until the most recent season

I just realized I never even watched the last few eps of the last season :/

hoping it rallies in the final season

xpost Yeah, like "The Shield" the stress just keeps getting amped. I have no idea what they were going for, but this most recent season had the least happen, and just when you thought something was going to happen, it more or less wraps up with nothing happening. I'm sure lots happened, of course, but it doesn't really advance much.

One thing I'm having a hard time with--again realizing that it's not anything I should be preoccupied with, that I should just go with it--is how improbable I find the logistics of them leading this double life: in terms of running the travel agency, in keeping it from their family (which the final episode of Season 1 finally got around to, with the daughter poking around downstairs), and, maybe most of all, Philip's phony marriage to Martha. I mean, they're out past midnight killing people. The people in their lives don't seem to ask a lot of questions.

Well I guess their children have been fairly unquestioning so far because that's just what their parents do, and they don't really have any other friends who aren't fellow spies or US govt employees they're playing.

Understand your frowning Clemenza but would urge you to keep going if you can, you'll be rewarded imo.

Yeah, probably, especially because trying to keep things a secret is the prime mover of a show about secret spies. It's less about what they're doing - I mean, it's the more or less real world, we know how it ends, spoilers: Russia doesn't win the cold war - then it is about the difficulties of living their life and the toll it takes on them personally and professionally.

Took me a little longer than the Cold War itself to get through Season 2, but I did, and I'll stay with it for 3. Not loving it yet, but it did get better. Larrick was a good villain--reminded me of John Lithgow in Blow Out a bit. Also liked Burov, Kate, and John Carroll Lynch's character. Richard Thomas and the daughter--both of whom I found very bland for a long time--got better. I have trouble following all the plot detours but don't dwell on that too much.

Two things still bother me. The biggest is Philip/Clark's marriage to Martha, and the Martha character in general. Alison Wright is good; the character's gullibility I find borderline preposterous. She's married to this secretive guy with a toupée who drops in at his convenience, she's got a day-job where she's privy to lots of high-level intelligence, and--thus far, anyway--she seems blissfully oblivious to any possible connection.

I also find that Elizabeth's and Philip's undercover creations are almost too good sometimes. When Elizabeth was telling he story of abuse to the young soldier, or befriending the AA woman, she never stumbles for a split-second. I know it's her job, but I'm always thinking I'm watching Keri Russell the accomplished actress rather than an undercover spy.

"her story of abuse"

Clark and Martha having Tantric sex in Season 3's opener: am I wrong, or is that the first flat-out comedic moment thus far? Good sign. I find most of the good shows I've watched the past few years (and again, I'm still way behind) loosen up as they go along--realize that, even if serious, it's okay to joke around now and again.