A thread for The Americans on FX

xps Here's the podcast for listening to on the browser: http://podbay.fm/show/962741924

If you want to subscribe to it with your mobile app, just look for "Americans" + "Slate"

It's one of the weirder tv podcasts I've ever subscribed to. Sometimes they spend zero time talking about the episode in question, and instead interview people in casting or costume or people with real world knowledge of dialects and KGB spy technology. The showrunners are almost always present, though, and directly involved with the podcast. Sometimes actors will drop in, but not always.

That sounds intruiging, thanks Johnny!

I love this show so fucking much

Yay, Roxy Music!

The scene with Elizabeth coaching Paige on "how relationships work" was so goddamn brutal

Oh damn, I got distracted watching the Dave Chappelle specials on Netflix and totally blanked on this last night. Still trying to get used to it being Tuesday night show.

An interesting interview with Holly Taylor (Paige).

You know, this show has made me watch tv more meticulously. It felt like they showed this scarfed woman juuuust a but too long. In a split second I thought what am I missing, what is significant here. Never would have guessed it, but it was Martha. Wow.

Simon otm, Elizabeth continues to beat nihilistic truths - related or unrelated to being a spy - into her young daughter, it is so brutal to watch.

Roxy Music was cued up perfectly.

(The episodes, however slow burning plot wise, are chock full of characters already, but not having seen Henry for this long is starting to worry me...)

WTF with that finger rubbing thing. I thought the butt clench trick was dumb enough but that!!

last two episodes were... not so good? i'm willing to accept i might not be in the right headspace but the pixillation of plots, the slightly harder to follow storylines, the lack of an immediate serious direct threat to the family's way of life and somewhat generally more lax writing feels very off.

like the Martha thing felt like it lingered too long imo.
and in general i'm getting a bit tired of red herring threads that reveal too little about the characters. what secrets does tangerine grocery store lady hold? probably none.

Havent seen the other nights one yet but yeah last weeks was weirdly slow and not story-progressing. I'm rapidly losing any sympathy for Stan, on another note. He is way too easily led around by his emotions and his penis. How is he an FBI agent?

lol, because the FBI are so renowned for their hypercompetence

the slightly harder to follow storylines, the lack of an immediate serious direct threat to the family's way of life

basically every season from starts this way iirc

maybe? first ep was great and built in just the right way.
basically i would appreciate it if all they did this season was dig mysterious holes for ten minutes in silence.

that was a top 10 sequence maybe and they've had a lot of great sequences

as always the x factor this season is Henry

he's probably stuck in their luggage somewhere

I've missed Martha, but I also kind of hope that was just a little bit of a check-in and not a reintroduction of her into the series.

Poor bug scientist. He didn't deserve that.

I've missed Martha, but I also kind of hope that was just a little bit of a check-in and not a reintroduction of her into the series.

I think you'll get yr wish.

what secrets does tangerine grocery store lady hold? probably none.

None, obvs. That was just Oleg at work.

So that's two cold-blooded murders in the space of three episodes. I can't wait for these fuckers to get their comeuppance.

Apparently the actress who plays Martha is on that Ryan Murphy show, Feud, so I don't think Martha will be back in any kind of big way.

I love the Oleg-at-work stuff.

So Oleg's mom just got 200% more interesting.

Also, Stan ftw.

The Jenningses are the least interesting part of the show at the moment, but that may be about to change with Philip's son coming to town.

Otm (love Oleg so much, just for his weird head nods alone), and otm, Stan ftw, but disagree with the latter.

Thought Philip's 'joke' at the beginning ("we might get fired", Lizzie: "it's not funny", Philip: 'I know...') was spot on. We've not seen them this worn down, and too tired to really protest their Kansas mission before. (Philip has been on the brink(-ish) of quitting. But you can't quit, is the message. There's no way out. And with Paige doing her own snooping around, Henry's return this season showing he's now entering puberty and being difficult, with Mischa on the way, this is still very much the Jenningses imho. It's all theirs. To lose.

I love small things like them being these top notch spies but not having a clue who their son speaks to on the phone. The Marx book was a bit too much in the face but could possibly push Paige more towards the Russian goal (if she reads it). Philip's "flirting" in the gym was downright creepy, I was waiting for him to be slapped. He lost his mojo and seems to really be stuck between a rock and a hard place, again. Elisabeth's flirting was spot on in the way how she wrapped beardo around her finger.

Elisabeth came in tired from Kansas and Philip was watching bees and pollination on the telly. The bees, the bees.

Yeah, I agree with all that, it's not so much the Jenningses that are the least interesting (they're always marvelous), but the whole wheat story itself that isn't very compelling. In my brevity, I didn't clarify.

Yeah, put that way I agree with that. The wheat story is p weak. But it's all happening around that.

I'm disturbed by dickish, seven-foot-tall Henry.

There's something dodgy about Stan's girlfriend, never trust anyone who just tries to pick you up at the gym.

I think the wheat story is going somewhere (like as far as I know they're wrong about what the US is planning) and I'm wondering how many people they're going to have to kill for this blind alley and what it will do to them.

The show feels like it's preparing to split Philip and Elizabeth from allies into rivals and, regardless of what happens with these new fake relationships, the arrival of Philip's kid is going to blow their marriage open.

That's a great read.

I don't know if you're seeing "on the next episode..." clip teasers where you are, but there's definitely something up with Stan's girlfriend.

^^ I don't watch those, with reason tbh :-/ (would be nice if we keep stuff like that off the thread). Even though yeah she obv doesn't seem like an innocent gf.

Man it would be great if Oleg's mom turns out to be some mastermind and sent her to Stan :)

Yeah I wondered about Stan's girlfriend when she said she was from Pittsburgh, which is also the city Philip claims to hail from. A possible weakness in his cover story to come, perhaps?

Maybe they all say they're from Pittsburgh and they'll end up with similar cover stories?

I've been of the opinion Gym lady will be some plant/spy/something hilarious.

That last episode... when Elizabeth explained about the wheat thing you could just see something inside Philip break and he probably isn't coming back from it.

Yeah, that hit him very hard. I've just no clue what consequences it will have. I'm guessing the inevitable (right?) meeting with Mischa will shake things up even more.

Are we to understand that ultimately Gabriel/The center botched this up, giving Philip and Elizabeth a completely wrong lead in pursuing these plant people? Or is "no I'm trying to SAVE the world from famine"-dude just oblivous to the fact that his research will be mis-used by higher powers? Is this story line dead now?

In Phillip's flashback of post-war misery this week, it looked like they were eating kiln baked lumps of dung, surely the cats have already been skinned and cannibalism will be the next stage!

:D Yeah that was a bit on the nose.

Or is "no I'm trying to SAVE the world from famine"-dude just oblivous to the fact that his research will be mis-used by higher powers? Is this story line dead now?

Nah, there's no way they're going to double back on that plot switcheroo. The whole point is to emphasize that Russia's problems with providing for its people are of its own making.

The whole point was to make Philip and Elizabeth realise they snapped a guy's spine on the basis of, at best, a misconception and at worst an outright lie. Very difficult to see Philip accepting whatever mission they're given next. Soviet agricultural policy is probably secondary to the drama here.

Couldn't work out whether the post-coital chat about Lotus Notes was meant to be funny or if they're going somewhere with that character being very emotionally distanced.

I def thought the latter tbh

This season spends so much time just simmering instead of boiling that it's hard to really talk about specific moments, but this was probably the most emotionally pulling one so far. Elizabeth at Young Hee's old house. Philip learning about his father. Paige meeting Gabriel (!!).

Yeah, you nailed it. I saw it yesterday and while it doesn't any immediate 'action' talking points, again I really enjoyed it. Gabriel's such a strong character, the acting is so good. Though Paige meeting him was done equally well on both parts. Elisabeth's eye-roll after seeing the shrink made me laugh, but she did use the session to talk about something that actually happened to her. I wonder if she'll get more out of it personally, like Philip with EST.

I have no idea whatsoever how Oleg's story will unfold, in what direction, if at all.

yeah gabriel has been brilliantly portrayed throughout, that scene by the memorial was very powerful.

the themes are all subtly building, i think it's a p strong season, especially given how quiet it is compared to some of the more rollercoaster violent eps.

The look of grandfatherly affection on Gabriel's face when he met Paige was brilliantly done.

This show is so good at dropping massive moments in when you aren't expecting it - showing Martha in the supermarket, Nina's execution, and now this.

Another Henry and Stan scene this week as well, that's definitely going somewhere.

Oleg and Martha have to bump into each other at some point I'm guessing? Either that or Oleg and Gabriel later on. There's no evidence that he knows anything about Philip and Elizabeth but those stories are going to have to move closer together at some point even if they never share screen time.

And Mischa getting turned around again has to pay off in some way as well, surely?

Glad to see Character Actor Margo Martindale again, albeit briefly.

Yeah, this was def the best episode in the season.