A thread for The Americans on FX

I think you'll also find it an improvement!

Four episodes into the final season--almost finished.

My recollection was that the last time we see Martha, she's leading a solitary, lonely life in Russia. I'd completely forgotten the playground scene--great closure. (I don't think she turns up again.)

They really step up the music in S6; there must be three or four songs played in their entirety in the first episode alone. Overall, as I've said upthread, I'm not that crazy about the music in The Americans. Some of it registers, but so much of it is a certain mood and a certain time frame--first half of the '80s--that just isn't my thing. So much Peter Gabriel. (I like the line-dancing music!)

Maybe there's an explanation forthcoming that I've forgotten, but it makes no sense to me that Russia couldn't simply provide whatever funds are necessary to keep the travel agency afloat. I know they don't want to attract attention, but there must be some way to do so without detection.

folks, please be aware you can use h tags to talk spoilers

I just don't want to use that hidden-text thing...I assume Alfred and VG know to be careful about what they look at in this thread. Elizabeth and Philip would know that.

I liked "Gold Dust Woman" a lot.

Maybe I blew through the series too fast, but I felt like the show overall was ok-to-good at best. It got pretty repetitive imo, and I was pretty worn out by Philip & Elizabeth's dynamic by the end. I probably could have stopped watching after S2. I don't think it flagged necessarily, but neither did it surpass that season.

My thinking on season goodness hasn't changed on rewatch:

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

4 > 3 > 2 > 1 > 6 > 5

maybe I'd call 1 and 6 even.

I was pretty worn out by Philip & Elizabeth's dynamic by the end

I definitely think by the fifth or sixth season there are way too many pregnant pauses and long, silent glances exchanged by the two of them. Of everything in the series, I think my favourite subplot is almost everything involving Pastor Tim. It produced some of the best dramatic moments, and even had this weird twisted humour about it: instead of the parents worrying about their daughter discovering sex or drugs, they're panicked because she's taken an interest in Jesus. And high comedy like Paige's baptism, where they cut to the parents and you can see their disgust and moritification.

I totally thought Pastor Tim was going to end up being some creepoid!

I thought exactly the same thing. My other favourite strand is probably the Stan-Oleg friendship, which could be out of Casablanca.

I'm sure I could find the answer easily enough, but are things in the series loosely--very loosely, even--based on actual people and events, or is it all 100% invention?

am in the 3rd season. I picked up again after a several year hiatus. I thought at the time that it was just too dour and depressing, but idk now it seems to fit the moment and I am more interested

Didn't take much to answer my question.

http://qz.com/926553/what-happened-to-the-real-russian-spies-who-inspired-the-americans/

interesting

Oleg was, on balance, the most enjoyable character to watch. I liked his relationship with his dad. Richard Thomas was good as well, nice to see him.

Another article on the actual people here:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/07/discovered-our-parents-were-russian-spies-tim-alex-foley

Finished up last night. I'm posting about the final episode and ending here, so avoid if necessary.

As I've said before, I have a tendency to zero in on criticisms of things I like, so this isn't more than that. All in all, I've watched it twice and would recommend it to anyone.

I think they let one of the greatest endings ever--Paige on the platform and Renee on the driveway--slip away with 5-10 more minutes after that. It was funny to see Paige pour herself a shot of vodka (the image of her at the table vaguely evoked the ending of Stalker), and you get some picturesque shots of Russia, but nothing of any import is added.

The big showdown in the garage mostly worked for me, a bit more than last time. Noah Emmerich does great, mostly listening and trying to process everything. Matthew Rhys's apology/explanations seemed a little too simpering. I found it credible that Stan lets them drive away; you can see him going back and forth in his mind, and every time Philip comes forward with the truth, that buys some time. The key moment is the Gorbachev story checking out with Oleg's--that, and the fate of Henry.

I like thinking about the comparative monstrousness of the leads in my favourite shows: Don Draper, Tony Soprano, Walter White, Eric and Tami Taylor (kidding). Philip and Elizabeth might head the list, ahead of Tony Soprano: they do some truly awful things the last couple of seasons, especially Elizabeth--whose repeated rationalization, love of country (and her miserable childhood), never gets out from under the shadow of Lois Smith's "That's what evil people tell themselves when they do evil things."

The Americans and The Shield both do such a good job really getting at the price these people pay for their misdeeds, even the people that get away. From memory at least, I never felt like Walter White, for example, paid a real price. He was a selfish, tragic asshole from the start and just went down from there. Same with Tony Soprano iirc. What I loved about The Americans is that Philip (like a few characters on The Shield) both recognizes his misdeeds and also that he can't outrun them. It eats away at him like a cancer. Elizabeth is so focused on rationalizing what she does, per her training, that she's willfully blind to the effect it is having on him and her family, and iirc by the time she does recognize it it is too late for any of them.

Agree. Very belatedly started watching Ozark this weekend, and while it's hugely enjoyable and covers a lot of the same territory of families warped by demented gusto mperatives, it doesn't really come close to The Americans for sheer dread.

Gusto? Should have said "demented imperatives". Must now whack my typist.

Ozark is definitely compulsively watchable (for me, anyway) and without a thought in its head.

Just measuring them on what they actually did...I'd have to check, but I think Tony's and Walter's murders were confined to drug/cartel-related criminals and other mobsters. (And I guess you can add people Walter killed via his product.) Elizabeth killed or ruined the lives of many people who were collateral to the Cold War. Philip was better, and did a lot more hand-wringing, but then there were people like Kimmy. (Who he ultimately saved, yes.)

Walter and Tony (presumably--the only sensible interpretation to me) also die at the end; Elizabeth and Philip do make their way home, albeit at the cost of their family.

It's a comparison that interests me; I don't think there's a right answer.

Yeah, it's complicated. They make it home, but minus their children, who are the only things real in their life. Even the Soviet Union is not what they remembered.

I will say that Don Draper, who is routinely lumped in with this group, is a veritable saint by comparison. He's a compulsive, serial philanderer who discards women as it suits him--not good! (Most crushing, I'd say: Faye.) But he doesn't poison, strangle, or blow away anybody, and there are countless examples of him being the most thoughtful, empathetic person in the room.

Yeah, I never saw Mad Men, or at least not more than maybe the first season. But isn't part of the story there (like it is in The Americans, I guess; isn't there some sort of mistaken identity thing in Mad Men as well?) about the world is changing around him as much as his own journey? Will he change with the times or will he be left behind? That sort of thing? It seemed from the sidelines at least that it was more a personal journey sort of story rather than the almost classically tragic tales of The Americans or Breaking Bad or The Sopranos or The Shield.

Don's monstrousness is often self-directed--as thoughtless and cruel as he can be with women, he is mostly a menace to himself. (You really, really should go back and carry on.)

One thing that didn't sit well with me in the last couple of seasons of The Americans is how they plainly give Philip more and more of a conscience as Elizabeth's acts of violence become more and more shocking (the two Russian recruits with their child in the next room, the Marine who stops Paige, Tatiana; also the security guards, although that's dark and murky). And when Paige comes home and confronts her about the Sam Nunn intern--she doesn't come off well there, either. She really takes the fall--even in the final confrontation with Stan, she mostly stands there without speaking while Philip gets to explain and apologize. It just seemed a little unfair...mitigated by the scenes of her and Paige and Claudia bonding.

If you listen to Apple podcasts (I don't), this might be of interest:

http://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/best-of-the-americans-the-rewatch-podcast/id1533699328

I don't know anything about it--just showed up in my mail box today.

I missed this show the first time around. Catching up. Now at S1E4. Yeah ofc it's great. Got a 1000 messages to read ... I will read them after I finish each season.

It's so good. Maybe I will start it again!

So weird! We just started watching this for the first time, as well. Halfway through season two already. It's intense. Buuut also a good way to de-stress after watching The Rehearsal?

The episode where Reagan got shot is excellent. I remember Al Haig declaring he was in charge but not sure I ever thought it was a coup. I hope WW3 wasn't as close as the show made it out to be...

I don’t think I could watch this show through again but it has perhaps the most satisfying and powerful final episode of any series in this golden era of telly.

Omg the episode where Philip and Elizabeth separate, Amador dies, and Stan kills the jr kgb guy. Everything going to shit.

We just watched that last night! Husband never watched The Americans first time round. He was stunned that they packed so much into a single first-season episode.

I gave up on tyhe show when I was getting heavily into watching it 10 years ago or whatever that. Actually presumably a little less since reason I was struggling with it was I would be multitasking, pinning things etc as i sewed and continually missing subtitled bits so having to rewind several times an episode.
Don't know why i haven't gone back to it since cos it was pretty good.
Stan Beeman actor is now in Dark Winds I noticed.

This is most definitely not a show for multitasking (even beyond the constant subtitles).

Near the end of season 2 now, increasingly curious how they keep this afloat for several more seasons given how much has already gone down and the corners certain characters have been backed into.

This revive prompted another (third or fourth?) rewatch for me. I'm a few episodes into S2. Adding to posts above, it amazes me how many peripheral characters they trotted onto this show for an episode or two. One of countless examples: the guy who cleans machinery at the defense plant, the one where--instead of killing him--Elizabeth takes the photo of his kid as insurance. There are still things that nag at me like the first time--e.g., the unrealness of the Clark-Martha relationship (even though the payoff for that down the road was great)--but obviously you don't keep going back to something unless you like it a lot.

Clark and Martha does occasionally feel a bit like something that would strain credulity over the course of a half hour sitcom episode (doesn't she have a brassy next door neighbor to encourage her to kick that scrub to the curb?!), but I guess it's also a testament to the selective blinkers people often wear in relationships.

The thing I keep coming back to though is...I don't care how securely you clip that wig to your head, at some point over the course of multiple years of intense intimate encounters you're gonna at least snag your watch chain on that thing and yank it off.

I recently did a full rewatch, and it held up quite well. A few things that stood out:

The FBI has really terrible sketch artists

I was surprised how much they glammed up Elizabeth in the early episodes vs the rest of the show

The thing where Paige bombards them with an endless torrent of questions got old real quickly

Philip and Elizabeth sure loved to murder people

It would be awesome to hear someone do a version of The Aristocrats joke, but it's The Americans and just a retelling of the plot to the show

Philip and Elizabeth sure loved to murder people

Oh, they are MAD for the murdering. Just mad for it.

Okay, lol, just got to the episode where Martha mentions that she's been aware of Clark's 'toupee'.

The FBI has really terrible sketch artists

lololol so true

Glad there are others watching for first time or rewatching. But you guys are going too fast lol. I’m going to have to bow out of the thread for fear of spoilers.

Maybe it was said upthread (haven’t looked). Want to give a shout out to the Jennings kids. Well acted and well written roles - at least up to S1E9. They brought home the consequences to Philip and Elizabeth for separating. Not just a business decision.

The kids are right up there with the Soprano kids and Sally Draper. They're totally credible as kids. A.J. Soprano's great, but he's great because he's weird and neurotic and all the rest; Paige and Henry are normal and interesting at the same time.

Whenever Elizabeth says she's been doing laundry, or she has some laundry to do, it reminds me of Patrick Bateman returning videos in American Psycho.

Thought Holly Taylor was an excellent on this show, one of the best child actors I've seen in anything. Disappointed I haven't seen her in anything else since (I do see on Wikipedia she's been working, but nothing I've seen)

Yes, she is a v credible TV teen. Which is to say (admiringly) that she would never make it on a CW drama.

She was in a few episodes of Manifest, which my partner and I angrily hatewatched all 3 seasons of. She plays a bonkers religious lass. Its probably not sitting through that show to watch though.

More religion! Just finished the episode where Paige silently says grace at dinner, horrifying Elizabeth. That whole subplot still kills me. "God, no--our 14-year old daughter is messing around with drugs having sex flunking out of school turning into a Jesus freak."

There are posts about this I never read near the beginning of this thread, so this is the first time I caught the writing credit for Oliver North (S2, E9)! It's actually a really good episode...have to believe he was primarily a consultant for the Contra camp stuff.

Yeah, that credit jumped out at me, too. Very weird in the context of the show. Expecting to see an episode directed by Gary Hart at some point.