A thread for The Americans on FX

So, this is really quite great, right? Less tiresome plotmechanics, more about the people and how they deal with their weird world. Really loved yesterdays episode. It's amazing how unsympathetic the characters are allowed to be. I mean, they haven't really done anything that Tony Soprano or Walther White wouldn't do, but... For some reason I'm more shocked at what's going on on a weekly basis in this show. It might be because the show still insists on us seeing them as decent people trying to do their best in a tough job, and it's just... weird...

I want to watch this! I subscribed to a couple FX shows on the iTunes store, what with not having cable television, and they kept showing promos. Is it set in the present?

It's set in 1980-81, and the main characters are undercover Soviet Agents. The historical setting is probably a good thing. I think it allows everything to be less black and white than it is on Homeland, but then again I've only watched two episodes of Homeland, so I hardly know what I'm talking about.

Uh yeah things aren't exactly black & white on homeland

Still doesn't mean that they can't be more grey on Americans. Like, the terrorists are still pretty much the bad guys on Homeland, right? At least the foreign ones, right?

pointlessly rapey first episode, omg the fbi guy moved in next door, 80s stuff! no thanks

is this good or is it good like mad men is "good"

nvm everything sucks

I wouldn't call the pilot "pointlessly" rapey, nor particularly graphic in its one rape scene.

And yes this has turned out to be every bit as good as I was hoping.

And this last episode adressed a few of the icky stuff with that rape-plot, and did it very, very well. Really, every episode is adding so much to the story at the moment. The characters and the world is getting so much richer from week to week, it is really exciting.

Yeah, this show is great. The conflicts between the lead couple - him being more sympathetic to the Americans/understanding of American culture vs. her still being super-antagonistic and unwilling to recognize that life in America even in 1980-81 was pretty sweet compared to the USSR - are handled very well. I also like that they get the look right; that early in the '80s was still basically the '70s in a lot of ways, so you don't see people wearing garish neon T-shirts and Wayfarers and whatnot. It has that dingy 1970s look.

homeland is pretty b+w.

so thoughts on this show

-great soundtrack so far: fleetwood mac, roxy music, echo and the bunnymen, and some early 80s sleaze/cheese (queens of heart, in the air tonight, harden my heart)
-noah emmerich is the gem of this series so far.
-john boy as an upper level fbi agent
-use of wigs, tv critic speniwall says it the best:

"Phillip and Elizabeth have access to some really high-end wig technology for 1981, no? I'm very impressed by the stuff Phillip wears in particular, since it has to hide his big afro"
-hopefully more justified alum show up, given Marge's appearance and Yost's contribution as an exec producer.

Poor Philip, many of his wigs and disguises seem to be variation on 'sex offender'. That wig in the garage scene? Woof.

good mustache

This is excellent. Feels pretty realistic. I read the Mitrokin Archive recently, a massive history of the KGB based on papers smuggled out by a defector, and it's clear the writers have as well. Aside from that the look and feel is very good.

Last episode I've watched is the one set around the Reagan assassination attempt, best one so far, really illustrating the massive gap between the KGB's ability to collect intelligence and their ability to analyse and act on it. Also swung the Phillip and Elizabeth power dynamic back to Phillip.

I think this is the most interesting thing about the show, the idea that you have these two independent agents acting out a lie even to their kids and you have one clearly assimilating into the US and one building a shell to prevent it. I loved seeing Elizabeth wince when her kid said Poland was a part of Russia. I can see her inner torment about her children not being raised as good communists.

FYI This is all on Hulu so no need to buy on iTunes

Nice, I hadn't noticed! I'm sure they'll yank it at some point, but I'll get on that

pointlessly rapey first episode, omg the fbi guy moved in next door, 80s stuff! no thanks

― adam, Thursday, February 28, 2013 1:25 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

basically, jfc the pilot was laying it on thick

it wasn't "pointless" but that's kind of the problem, felt like a plot device

i'll watch a couple more episodes cause i'm weak and hopeful

sick of being promised 'the golden age of television' and getting empty crap

If you are expecting to see the best stuff ever then this isn't it, but it's totally fun rollicking espionage junk ... and surprisingly romantic at times?

yeah i'm not actually surprised. but there are SVU marathons like twice a week, i don't need more junk, and p much every serial drama is junk right now.

junk lyfe

@ zachlyon: So, you don't like plot, yet you don't like Mad Men either :) Like, what tv-shows do you like?

I've been thinking a bit more about it: This last episode reminded me of the first few seasons of The Wire, where it was all about the different sides observing each other and smaller bits of plot rolling in to this weird ball of yarn. And then someone would tug at a single string (usually one of the 'good' guys, because they didn't really know enough to realize the consequences of what was going on) and the bodies would start falling. I mean, it's in no way the Wire, episode four of the Wire was several levels above anything in this show, but some of it operates in the same way.

i like shows that come close to the basic (not that i like this word but) depth of the worst movies on my netflix queue? it basically amounts to the wire and various recent shows on nickelodeon

i never gave much of a chance to mad men but it's always struck me as mostly-empty meandering

i like shows that walk with purpose and direction and swiftness, hard as they are to create obv

that's nuts. the first season of mad men was completely tightly wound. a few seasons in, it kinds of settled a bit.

the later seasons of Mad Men are more fun than the early ones, honestly. the little experiments like season 5's multiple timeline episode, etc.

tbh the only current show I really value is Justified so I like overplotty ridiculousness, ymmv yada yada

I guess I'm going to have to start watching nickelodeon.

you'd be surprised

I get finding Mad Men dull at first, but from near the end of S1 on (parts of S4 excepted), it hums along with quite a bit of purpose.

(vauge spoilers) At the end of the first season, someone walks into someone elses office, and explains the main plot of the season. That other person answers with 'who cares?' When even the people in the show think the plot is unimportant, I can see why other people would think it is meandering. The show has an accumulative quality, though, which is why it just keeps getting better.(/spoiler)

that _was_ the plot of the season!

i like where they're going with this.

they're breaking with history, yes? when reagan was shot at, they said that james brady died. not sure i heard anything afterward to contradict that (e.g. if it was a bad news report, temporarily hidden by the government, etc.).

homeland is pretty b+w.

― s.clover, Thursday, February 28, 2013 1:33 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

?? Really? Even with the drone attack and the fact that a lot of what I get out of the carrie/brody thing is that they are drawn to each other because they've both been damaged and effectively used up ad ppl by the govt

when reagan was shot at, they said that james brady died.

This is in keeping w/ the initial reports, which later of course turned out to be false. Pretty sure the correction appears later in the episode itself.

Killer ep tonight. 6 for 6.

Just watched all of these in a row over the weekend, not bad but I'm wondering how long they can keep up the game of cat and mouse with the FBI neighbor before they either run out of ideas or have to team up in some way? Also would like to see some flashbacks since they're supposed to have been in the US for years at this point.

Yeah, it's 1981 in the show's "present" and they supposedly came over in maybe 1963 or something, so THE ENTIRE SEVENTIES is a blank canvas.

team up? why wouldn't they just ice the dude

Elizabeth would. Not sure about Philip.

xp was thinking about if they were able to turn him or vice-versa, but yeah he'd probably more likely just get one in the dome

if they were able to turn him

That guy just killed an innocent Russian, one he was pretty sure all along was innocent, just for revenge. So I'm pretty sure he'd die before he turned.

The season finale contained some of the most tense television I've seen in some while. Can't wait for this show to come back.

Games Without Frontiers!

Is it coming back? I hope so, but haven't been able to figure out what sort of reception it's getting in the US.

Yeah, it's been renewed for a second season. I watched the last five episodes these last few days. A great debut season, all in all.

Yeah i loved this.

http://cdn1.screenrant.com/wp-content/uploads/Annet-Mahendru-in-The-Americans-Comint.jpg

ok, my heart belongs to annet mahendru

also, margo martindale playing ms. pac man = A+

Also meant to mention another great episode-ending scene, the once where Gabriel announces he's going home. Two lines: Philip's "Is Stan Beeman's girlfriend Renee one of us?" followed by Gabriel saying "You were right about Paige--she wasn't meant for this."

From my memory it wasn't accidental. She's snooping on mum and dad more and the parents use the "whoops you caught us, now can you stop being so nosey" via 69 trick

Yeah that Renee sub-plot was real tantalising. Glad they never gave an answer for that

Okay, the 69 being intentional is strongly implied by the circumstances, but never explicitly stated. The whole episode/plot-thread was about Elizabeth and Phillip getting annoyed at snoopy Paige and trying to figure out how to deal with it, then whammo the super secret super protective spy parents somehow leave their door ajar for Paige to stumble in on the act. But I guess you could refrain from making a judgement on its intentionality. Balance of probability leans towards intentional rather than accidental though imo

That's an interpretation that didn't even occur to me through (I think) four reviewings. After I finish, I'll give that scene another look--you wouldn't know offhand what episode it is, would you?

Season 2 episode 1

I thought this thread had been revived cos of those poor Argentinian kids who found out on the plane that they were actually russian spy kids.

I did see about that :( Pastor Tim quote above otm

I didn't know about the Americans angle to that story (they mention the show here):

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/russia-spies-prisoner-swap-putin-children-rcna164852

there was also this a few weeks ago - an Australian version of The Americans would be lol:

https://apnews.com/article/australia-espionage-russia-spying-db92e5c5182b82cd815743298ea0dd56

From the pilot:

Super-secret spies living next door. They look like us, they speak better English than we do.

There are Philips and Elizabeths in our midst...

I mean yeah I already knew the show had its basis in the Vavilov family from Canada. Those 2 kids are STILL fighting some legal battles to get their Canadian citizenship back, which is astonishing.

Final episode of S5. I think the single most moving thing in the entire run might be when Martha is brought to the playground and told she's going to adopt that one little girl: "We want you to be happy."

God, I love Philip line-dancing in the first episode of the final season (played off perfectly against the cancer-stricken artist telling Elizabeth "That's like saying life's not your thing").

Follow-up--what a sequence:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHdFYjt9h48

The Americans is so immersed in the '80s, I wonder if they intentionally made Elizabeth's nurse character look like Dorothy in Tootsie.

I will say its one of the few 80s shows that got the awful, daggy hair *right*. Everyone had stupid big hair perms and waves, and a lot of shows just dont get it right.

Tried to find a good image with all the different hairpieces worn by Philip and Elizabeth but couldn't.

Great show for characters popping up you'd completely forgotten about. I'm on E6 of the final season where the cinephile makes his debut:

https://i.postimg.cc/hGJXx46z/jackson.jpg

I think I remember why he's so thematically important (as opposed to how he functions in the plot): after all the killing Elizabeth's done, he's the one she lets walk away.

Finished up last night. I went back and checked, and some of the things I was going to say I already said four years ago. Of all the great performances, I think my two favourites are Noah Emmerich as Stan and Costa Ronin as Oleg. I find I really like Stan, and making you like this almost cornily patriotic, square-jawed FBI guy isn't easy. I was trying to think if there's a movie moment as stunningly surprising as Paige on the platform. I'm sure there are many, but all I could come up with offhand was Harry Limes first appearance in The Third Man. It's just brilliant the way that shot is choreographed.

Paige on the platform? Spark my memory more?

When she gets off the train theyre all escaping on, and they cant do anything about watching her stay behind as they chuff away.

It genuinely suprised me too, I yelped aloud and tears sprang to my eyes!

Like, I dont think I have ever had as genuinely real emotional reactions to television as I did with that show.

Sixth time, and I still get a chill. It's perfect the way we see Elizabeth's reaction before we know what she's reacting to.

https://i.postimg.cc/QxTM93ky/paige.jpg

She should have won an emmy for that alone

Best final ep of any series of the golden age of tv, and it’s not even close.

For three minutes, it even made me like U2.

Just finished off Series 6 and...yeah, wow. Wish I'd got to discuss it here in real time.

- "Paige is the main character of the Americans" maybe an overstatement but that scene on the platform is the climax of the whole six seasons. The earlier scene outside her dorm where she says she's only afraid of being alone also destroyed me. Stan showdown in the garage also crucial but in the end he was just their neighbour.

- I didn't really consider until reading Emily Nussbaum's review how precisely Phillip's "confession" was calculated to manipulate Stan into letting them go. Given everything we've seen over the years I have to believe that Phillip really was gutted to be blowing up their friendship. The most convincing way to lie is to tell the truth, I guess.

- The series spends so much time avoiding showy twists and beats (hi Series 5!) that when it does pull something obvious it can get away with it and I respect it even more. Not even my beloved Halt & Catch Fire could have made me well up to a scene set to fkn With Or Without You

- I'm glad we spent so much time with diplomat/artist couple. Not for the "dying woman shows Elizabeth how to really see" stuff but because it was a touching, sad portrayal of a couple that also stuck together through rough times (and baseball).

- Things that seemed inevitable but didn't happen: Paige didn't screw up - none of her mistakes had anything to do with the Jennings getting burned. Elizabeth didn't have to choose between her country and her family - in the end she chose one version of patriotism over another.

- Oleg :( :( :( :( Probably the closest the series gets to a "good" main character (who isn't a kid).

― A Box of After Dinner Comics Shipped to Your House Each Month (seandalai), Sunday, 17 June 2018 23:53 (six years ago) bookmarkflaglink

I have no recollection of who the "diplomat/artist couple" are, maybe it's time for a rewatch?

Don't know if this helps:

https://i.postimg.cc/NMyG72jW/painting.jpg

And yes.

Other moving scenes were when Elizabeth went to the older (spy?) lady who knew she was gonna have to kill her, and took it with good grace and calm.

And as for visceralness I will NEVER forget the body inna suitcase bit.

...although a scroll back has me saying that scene didnt bother me, lol.

I think its funny the one tiny takeaway from this show we still sometimes riff, is the whole "clench yer butthole if you're doing a lie detector test, it totes works trust me".

(xpost) You mean the woman who was watching her son's office, right? There was also the woman who was an ex-camp guard on the run--she didn't take it calmly.

Both scenes are amazing. The first--the woman is played by Lois Smith, longtime character actor (Five Easy Pieces)--is, I think, the key scene of the entire run. Her one line--"That's what evil people tell themselves when they do evil things"--hangs over every murder (which start to happen more frequently) from that moment forward. It's the question you're always grappling with re the Jennings.

The artist in season 6 was played by Miriam Shor, whom I otherwise know from more comedic roles (Younger, American Fiction), but she was v good.

Of no import, but when Elizabeth tells the husband she can help with Erika's (the artist) assisted suicide, I just assumed that she had the cyanide pill in mind. When she actually does, though, she does something more conventional.

I’m going to start watching this again

For three minutes, it even made me like U2.

I am admittedly pathological about this but U2 ruined the scene for me. Picking a piece of music with a singer whose personality and ego is right up front like that, eating up the space around the moment...just hated it.

Interesting. Not sure why, but all the stuff I always recoil from when it comes to them--the bombast, the self-conscious grandeur, the insistence that This Is Important--either it worked as it's supposed to work, or the scene itself is so great that I'm able to overlook all that.

They nearly used American Pie instead of the U2 song

That would have been even worse! They should have used "Rock You Like a Hurricane" or at least "Winds of Change"!

Ugh no way American Pie.

Watched pilot and S1E2 last night. I’d forgotten about all the hand-to-hand combat!

Maybe I should be watching Mad Men instead? I have yet to adventure in that direction.

As great as The Americans is, Mad Men stands alone for me.

Don Draper and Phillip Jennings have quite a few things in common.

I always get resistant to watching the "great shows" everyone bangs on about - I was a very minimal TV watcher til my current partner, but he's insisted on a few haha. So Ive now seen the Wire and the Sopranos, but still havent ever seen Mad Men.

(xpost) A couple of us discussed Philip/Don/Tony Soprano/Walter White earlier in the thread.

Americans is overall a better show than Mad Men imo, tho I can see the violence knocking it down pegs in other people's eyes.

Mad Men is sublime, the better show overall, but no one stuck the ending as well as this one.

Mad Men at its best rivals The Americans for me, but there's like 2-3 seasons where Mad Men is not at its best. The Americans only had one season like that imo, and ends as strong as possible. I was not a fan of Mad Men's finale though I know a lot of people are

Oh yeah, it was desperately uneven. But it touched on so many things.

Only yesterday I learned Russell and Rhys are a couple in real life! o_O Mind blown. Think I'm thankful I did not know this when watching it. But boy, that makes their tense acting when a couple even more impressive imho.

― Le Bateau Ivre, Thursday, February 23, 2017

My first post in this thread was a few months after this, so same here: only learned of this yesterday when I was talking about the show with my cousin's husband (who is a dead ringer for Philip in a couple of his disguises). That's amazing. I totally want to be a fly on the wall for their conversations at home. Like, do we really trust them?

(Earlier in the day, he tried to tell me that the Marshall Tucker Band pre-dated the Allman Brothers, so when he mentioned Rhys and Russell, I said "Okay, I gotta call you out on this one too.")