A thread for The Americans on FX

Ooh, a friend pointed out that when they were calling Henry from the payphone and Paige declined to talk to him, she'd already made up her mind she wasn't going to Russia.

When Paige mentioned Stan's son, I'd forgotten all about him--don't think he's been seen since Season 3 or thereabouts.

I'm wrong--he had a few episodes in both 4 and 5. Feels like he's been gone longer.

What are you supposed to think about Renee? That Stan's just going to live with the possibility that Philip is right?

This was beautiful

Philip's comment on Renee was great. Stan's entire existence is on shaky ground having discovered his best friend and neighbor has been something unexpected and now this huge ambiguity remains. And Philip's got nothing more than an instinct! Not even the Russian agents know who is an agent and who is a civilian. How can anyone know anything for sure, now?

I don't know, Stan's an FBI agent, something tells me he clunky IBM workstation searched everything he could on Renee when he started dating her - any big holes in her life would stand out and cause him to question her and/or pause the seriousness of the relationship if her background was shaky. Then again, it is Stan.

The same workstation that didn't have anything on the Jennings family?

I felt like the end underscored how Stan has always been a more empathetic person than either Elizabeth or Phillip, and that Phillip thought that made Stan strong, where Elizabeth thought it made him weak. It's interesting to see a show where a man's friendship with another man affects him in that way. Like, Stan just can't go around shooting people, even when it's his job. If the standoff in the carpark had been between any other characters, there might have been some tension, but obviously Stan was always going to do what he did, which was very satisfying, in a way.

Also, for all that the song cues might have been lazy, at least they just played the proper versions of them, and not some breathy folky cover versions.

A very solid finale--which didn't really betray any of the aesthetic principles of the show, despite how much we might have thought we wanted that.

also didn't mind the U2 at all. It felt emotionally generous in the context of this show.

Satisfying finale; Noah Emmerich did a really great job looking understatedly shook for the last 45min of the episode.

Glad we all finally learned definitely that Renee may or may not be a Russian spy.

Lots of spinoffs I'd be happy to watch that will never get made!

I really appreciate that Fields and Weisberg just flatly refuse to answer questions or speculate about things left ambiguous.

Yeah I liked the ambiguity. I mean, we know that Gorbachev didn't get assassinated.

Very action-free finale, which was odd. Lots of long shots of people staring into the middle-distance. All-in-all, I like the choices they made.

god, the looks on their faces when they realized Paige was out on the platform

according to Laurie Holden there _is_ a concrete answer wrt Renee, but they're not telling.

Renee serves a very specific function in the narrative. Her purpose has been to serve intrigue. Whether or not she’s a spy, that’s for the audience to supply. I know, but I will never tell. I was told at the very beginning. Whether or not that changed, or went to a different incarnation, that’s a whole other story. But [Joe and Joel] are very smart writers. She was there for a reason. When the audience goes back and rewatches these episodes, they will be able to find clues which will better inform them as to who she really was.

Some have pointed out that it's a little weird they choose to go to Russia at all given what they've been up to; wouldn't they be targets? (I suppose there's no reason they would have to stay there.)

They could've gone to live with Pastor Tim, I guess.

Perfect last episode.

I thought the pause at the border in the car was the “wait, are we sure russia is where we want to go?” moment and they resigned themselves to it

There were some fantastic scenes (Stan's two F-bombs in the parking garage were very earned; I watched on Amazon and was immediately curious how FX handled that) but I'm kinda disappointed in several aspects, most notably that we got no resolution of the big factional dispute between the Center and Team Gorbachev. Obviously we know in reality Gorbachev stayed in power, but how is it Elizabeth in particular was allowed to travel back home to Russia without being murdered instantly? Great show, pretty good ending. Elizabeth's expression when she saw Paige outside the train was fantastic.

The Slate podcast for the show, which has consistently gotten more slapdash over time, was basically a complete wasted opportunity today. The interviews were so boilerplate. (It was a much better companion to the show before June Thomas took it over.) Fortunately, Joel showed up on Larry Wilmore's podcast today (Larry loves the show!) and it was way more enlightening.

Ooooh, I'll have to check that out.

Elizabeth's dream was somehow deeply moving and extremely disorienting. What a sucker punch.

Weirdly, my season rankings for this are identical to Justified (albeit much more consistent overall)

4 > 3 > 2 > 1 > 6 > 5

Wow, I'm not sure I'd put 6 that far down, but tbh the only slot to change it with would be 1.

yeah, there's obviously a lot of excellent stuff in both 5 and 6 but they're just so bleak

but how is it Elizabeth in particular was allowed to travel back home to Russia without being murdered instantly? Great show, pretty good ending. Elizabeth's expression when she saw Paige outside the train was fantastic.

Was wondering the same thing, but I figured that the anti-Gorbachev partisans (whom Claudia was taking orders from) aren't the ones in power, and Elizabeth was basically defending Gorbachev, so she should be in the clear? Also wondered if, when they hit the border, immediately asked to be connected with Arkady, a pro-Gorbachev person whom they could trust.

I rewatched and that seems to be the implication

The only real good news in the end is that Philip can maybe get to meet his son at some point.

I read the pause at the border as them having made it to Russia with no knowledge if the pro or anti Gorbachev faction was running things and it was just as likely that they might be dragged from their car and shot. Arkady showing up confirmed that everything was cool.

I think that episode locked this in as my favourite show of all time tbh. Can't think of anything else that's ended as perfectly.

The fact that the final episode succeeded without any real 'BANG!' moments was only possible because they've completely nailed the characters over the course of six seasons. Stan letting them go, then the scene with Renee, Paige on the platform, the phonecall to Henry, the heart-in-mouth moment when they go over the border despite having betrayed the KGB, each of those moments really landed.

TBH 'everyone gets away with it* but is totally fucked up as a result' was not the ending I was expecting but it worked so well because we know what happens next and can envisage pretty much what their futures look like as a result. Like, Paige can go on with her life in some way, the only person who can incriminate her is Stan and he's too heavily compromised. The scene in the McDonald's really underlined the pointlessness of what they've been doing, because we all know Russia is about to flip into the kind of venal hypercapitalism that Elizabeth's been fighting against her whole life. But you still can't help wondering if there's a way of reuniting the family in the future. And there's Philip's son and Martha as well, loose ends wandering around in their new life, it actually makes perfect sense that they were never tied up.

*Except Oleg. Poor old Oleg really didn't deserve that.

I can imagine Stan bailing Oleg out at some point.

I feel like the Gorbachev-friendly crew might get some traction and find out about Oleg. Maybe someone in the know could go to Russia and let them know what he did. Hmm.

On rewatch, I think something that's really impressive about what the show did overall is that Weisberg and Fields responded and adapted what they were doing based on the strengths and weaknesses of the ensemble. It became obvious pretty early that Holly Taylor had the range to go wherever they wanted to take that character,while the kid playing Henry was perfectly believable as an affable, nice, smart kid, but maybe not as a whole lot else. (They have kinda commented on this phenomenon in previous season post-mortems, though in the nicest terms possible.) The way his naivete and innocence is ultimately made a crucial character element - paying off in that devastating phone call - is really remarkable.

Watched last night after the game and I think they pretty much nailed the landing. I agree a lot with what Matt DC said (especially about Oleg :( ).

I think Peak TV has heightened sense of what people count as “drama” or “big events” in tv shows. Stan finding out about P&E and confronting them is huge, but because nobody died, it's somehow anticlimactic? Were people surprised when there were no deaths in the Mad Men finale? I know The Americans was playing a more dangerous game, but i always thought Americans had more in common with Mad Men than something like Breaking Bad or The Shield.

Anyway, the fact that the show could elicit such emotion and intensity without having to rely heavily on major character deaths is very much to its credit.

Yeah, the most high-profile death in the entire series remains poor Nina, 2.5 seasons ago.

everyone was angry abou the mad men finale too if I recall correctly. Ditto the Sopranos. I think the only big finale ending that gave people the blood lust they wanted was Breaking Bad.

Enh, Sopranos ending was spectacular; the MM one worked for me but I also didn't take it as literally as most seemed to

BB is my least favorite finale of those three! (i liked the americans finale more too)

VC: the Stan/Jennings showdown was anti-climactic for me in the way it was dramatized. The fact that it occurred had no inherent drama, I don't think. It wasn't a surprise--the entire series had been moving towards that one scene. I found the scene serviceable, nothing more.

I'm very much in the minority here. Much preferred the Mad Men, Sopranos, and Breaking Bad finales. I feel like the writers here were so careful not to settle for neat resolutions and hyped-up drama--a good approach, theoretically--they just kind of drifted off.

thinking back, at what point did series finales really even become a thing? MASH I think. But then I don't really remember a big cultural one until Seinfeld (which everyone also hated at the time).

I still hate the Seinfeld finale.

in terms of recent-ish major American dramas' finales

Sopranos > The Leftovers > The Shield > Americans > the Wire > MM >>> BBad

Had it contained any closure for Jesse, I still think "Ozymandias" would have been a better BBad finale - the two eps that followed were really deflating for me.

Mary Tyler Moore? That preceded MASH, and was very much a big deal.

The Fugitive?

cheers finale was a huge thing with tons of buildup

Friends too.

wow I don't remember the end of Cheers at all.

Same. I remember Diane's last episode (disregarding the one later when she made a cameo return), but the finale is a total blank.

everyone dies of cirrhosis

I only remember the closing shot.