A thread for The Americans on FX

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+

watched 1st 4 episodes of this. gradually dawned on me that it probably wasn't going to get any better than "OK." all the "character" stuff (e.g. keri russell's interactions with her kids) is so undigested, like place-holding dialogue they forgot to rewrite. show tries really hard (esp w/ heavy-duty 80s soundtrack choices) and it's kind of endearing for that but the combo of tiresome sobriety of tone + ridiculousness of premise is never really dealt with. each episode had so many missed chances for more interesting plotting.

keri russell is probably the most beautiful woman in the world but i still gave up.

Apart from the first and last episodes I felt like they really didn't include much lol80s music. At least not in a cloying hit-you-over-the-head-with-it way.

(I'm v unobservant though so idk maybe it passed me by..)

the music choices on this are interesting -- in terms of how they are of the period, but some of them (e.g. Echo & the Bunnymen's Pictures on the Wall, the Cure song) are not at all what would soundtrack this type of show at the time.

http://www.avclub.com/article/the-pat-benatar-record-wouldnt-load-an-americans-m-200571

9 episodes into season 1 and enjoying it a lot. I'm a real sucker for Cold War espionage stuff. It's predictable at times, and the protagonists with a double life thing may be a bit old hat by now. But it's extremely watchable and moreish, and the leads are both very good. I'm impressed by how they've almost entirely resisted the urge to do any 'LOL 80s' stuff, leg warmers and Phil Collins aside.

Hearing very good things from folk who've seen early S2 episodes.

I kinda wavered on this show during the first few episodes but by the end of season it managed to come together in an interesting way and now I'm really stoked for season 2

i guess i didn't post on here before but I think this is one of the best shows on tv even if it is badly flawed in a lot of ways.

i really love that, at heart, it's just a show about how difficult it is to maintain an unconventional relationship when you have a family. great acting for most of the cast, leads especially.

yeah this is great. looking forward to season 2.

I certainly prefer it to Homeland. Less ponderous, less pretension to being much more than a decent thriller, less Clare Danes.

Oh, so so so much better than Homeland. More visually interesting, less stupid plot-wise, more interesting thematically.

Also: Tusk and Games Without Frontiers!

I was afriad this was going to suck. But it's actually quite good.

Glad this is back

Solid opener, if not spectacular. Suffered slightly from me watching it sandwiched between two episodes of True Detective.

Anyhow the buzz is it goes from good to great this season, so I'm certainly still onboard.

Just finished watching it. I'm somewhat confused on what exactly happened at the amusement park and how it led to what happened at the hotel, but that's probably just on me. Solid return otherwise.

It confused me a little too - I'm guessing it will be explained more later on.

I don't think Elizabeth and Phillip know who killed their friends?

The "next time on the Americans" clip after the episode ended alluded that figuring out who killed them will be a plot line moving forward, with Claudia figuring into it.

http://images.zap2it.com/assets/p9978323_b_h3_ab/the-millers.jpg

So the American mom on this CBS show is a Russian agent on FX. Hm.

I just think it's cool that's there's no conflict there. She's a plausible link between the two shows. Oh wait, the FX show takes place 30 years ago.

after what she saw, I'm surprised she came downstairs to breakfast this morning!

I struggled to see the point of this show for the 5-6 episodes, but it got a lot, lot better -- it has this nice combination of comfort food predicatability and playful "holy shit" moments.

If one thing drags it down, it's the contrivance of the original "FBI guy next door" storyline - like it's trying to shortcut into a Hank/Walter relationship without actually doing the groundwork. That FBI actor is pretty great, though - I hope they give him more to do than mope and randomly spaz out

How many layers deep is Nina? Double or Triple agent?

It's hard to say bc I don't think she was initially a spy per se, just an office worker. The term might be "re-doubled agent"?

Right, but is she just playing the FBI to the benefit of the Russians, or is she playing the FBI to play the Russians to help the FBI?

It seems like the former, haven't seen any indication of the latter. Maybe she can be turned again, though? Wouldn't put it past them.

I hope they do something interesting with her, rather than just serve her back and forth between the two sides (then kill her off In the finale)

If one thing drags it down, it's the contrivance of the original "FBI guy next door" storyline - like it's trying to shortcut into a Hank/Walter relationship without actually doing the groundwork.

This irks me a bit as well.

Right, it seemed part of the plan at first, then halfway through the season you're like "ok, I guess it is just a massive coincidence"

Incidentally, the actress playing Martha is totally nailing whatever the hell Martha is - can't wait till she finds out

Excellent casting for her. Perfect level of attractiveness for the character.

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.")

The Koreans on the way

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/disney-korean-remake-the-americans-lee-byung-hun-han-ji-min-1236546436/

Hell yeah

Love this idea although I'll probably never see it because I'm not subscribing to Disney+.

It'll be on Hulu, too

Oh wait, Hulu only in the US and Disney+ internationally