A thread for The Americans on FX

We just starting watching this. First two eps of season one are solid, though I have a bad feeling the innate implausibility will send this down the "Homeland" route. That is, something totally if enjoyably ridiculous that decides, what the hell, we might as well get even crazier. Like (and I know nothing about the show past the first two eps) they've done a poor job so far explaining the incentive to remain loyal to the USSR. On one hand, there are their actual, living, breathing, loved children, born and raised in America. Plus, of course, living in America, with its food, and no bread lines, and people having a good time. On the other hand, there is ... a general loyalty to the USSR? Maybe future episodes will reveal there are loved ones back in the motherland who would suffer if they defected?

Having seen all of this and most of Homeland I can assure you it's done a great job of becoming similarly rdiculous so far.

of AVOIDING becoming etc, rather...

Phew.

Oh yeah it's way better than Homeland. Don't think it's fully hit its stride yet though, this season'll be the decider probably.

Homeland and The Americans are both similarly great imho.

Season 1 of Homeland is ok, s2 is bloody awful. Not watched beyond that.

Yeah, don't even think we made it through season 1 of Homeland. I have a problem with shows purportedly set in the real world that are already pushing the boundaries of plausibility that decide to push them past the breaking point. See also: House of Cards. Even early on The Americans is faintly ridiculous, but I will go with it for a while, at least until guy disguises himself as Reagan or something similarly daft.

the Americans doesn't even scratch the surface of the kind of plausibility problems house of cards and homeland have

Phew again. I love when a show lands a great conceit and doesn't screw it up with stunt plots and stuff. Because really, good story and acting is enough.

You've gotta have a bit of larger than life stuff in there though. It's a fine balance.

It helps that Rhys+Russell are really great throughout. S2 does an unexpectedly great job fleshing out the Rezidentura peeps, too

great job fleshing out the Rezidentura peeps, too

Yeah, these are some of my favourite sections/characters. I'm a bit in love with Nina.

Lack of plausibility is not really an issue at all for me.

Me either, really! But there's some invisible line a lot of shows cross, esp. those set in the real world, where it starts out implausible, but acceptable, yet pushes things so far, and muddies motivations so much, they might as well be magical wizards rather than spies. I have high hopes for this one, though.

Just watched first 4 episodes of s1, not bad at all. Liked the Reagan shooting ep positing Al Haig as nearly starting WW3.

yeah, John-Boy casting + Margo Martindale as a vet of Stalingrad

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

Yeah that was ACTUAL archival mistaken reporting, i remember it well.

Apparently Matthew Rhys has a story credit on an episode of Archer this season.

People w/ screeners seem happy with the early S3 eps.

morbs, just fyi: s1 is very good, s2 takes off into excellence

It it always startling to see morbs on a tv series thread, check out the Fargo series as well!

NO, THIS ONE SHOW IS ALREADY TOO MUCH TV.

The first-season bed-hopping is kind of eye-rolling (yeah, TV must have eyeballs). Philip's FBI secretary asked "Do you have protection?" which I don't think was a synonym for "condoms" until at least "safe sex" came along; more like 1987 than 1981.

OH NO A CHARACTER ONCE UTTERED A MINOR SOLECISM WELL THAT OBVIOUSLY RUINS THE ENTIRE SHOW

tbh, the "do you have protection" is a more reasonable question in the context of his inner world: can he protect his soul while entering into yet another false face relationship AH DO U C

yes i got the lil pun.

chill, anagram nothing ruined.

Anyone remember other dramatic fictions about True Believer couples where the dude was the (relatively) wavering one?

This show is based in NYC, they only shoot in DC when they have to. Not unduly distracting cept when they ran to Philly after that guy's widow, and Philly was played by Queens.

Just got screeners for the first 3 of S3, will report on quality level

J Hoberman did a short review of the s2 video release on Sunday, was mildly spoilery but not fatally.

finished s1, was hoping for a M Martindale-Richard Thomas death fight really.

On the commentary either the creator or a producer said Spielberg reads the scripts and looks at the edits as DreamWorks is involved. He helped w/ editing of finale's car chase.

Did not know that!

The first 3 of S3 are very solid, though more of a slow boil than the start of S2 was. And just when I thought they'd run out of suspenseful ways to shoot cars driving within the speed limit...

am I the only viewer who sees this show as amusingly inconsistent? alternately exciting and campy. the family angle is underdeveloped to say the least. gets a bit better as the daughter gradually becomes aware of her parents double lives, still too often it's like the kids are props. and the disguises! love the "clark & martha" subplot but it's so silly.

no, you are not the only one. I do like stuff such as Martindale donning helpless-granny drag for a hit. I guess the KGB sent its agents to some Moscow theatre seminars.

i mentioned this upthread but i see the show as a sort of fever dream of what the 80's felt like to a child: inconsistent, angry parenting; cold war paranoia; the madness of puberty; hypersexualized everything; the general confusion that is being part of a dictatorship beneath parents. if you think of Page as the main character, things shift.
but realistically, yeah: it's campy and that's fun.

I think it's borderline impossible not to chuckle about some of the disguises but other than that I never felt anything veered into truly distracting camp territory. there are a number of moments where the artifice of the disguises falls apart in some way - most notably in the s2 premiere - and the consequences of it are almost always devastating, and fascinating

it's like 1000% less campy than mad men

The masters of disguise and seduction aspect of it is partly what caused me concern upthread. We've still only dipped into the first few episodes of season one, and I wanted to make sure it didn't just keep getting sillier and sillier. Like, I can handle it as silly as it is at the start, but I'm not sure I could stick with it if it got any more ridiculous. So, you know, if she dolls up like Nancy Reagan or he goes in drag and seduces Oliver North ...

lolwut? no, nothing remotely that silly happens

if anything it only gets a whole lot darker, the stakes higher, and the disguises are something you accept as a given. season 1 is also much more episodic by comparison to the more taut/serialized 2, so that could also be fueling your doubts

oliver north is a co-writer on one of the episodes so anything can happen

the episode he co-wrote is great! and with little to no jingoism snuck in that I could notice

It's just a story credit iirc

yeah I don't know of anyone who doesn't significantly prefer S2 to S1

i like the idea of oliver north getting a job in the writers' room as part of a ploy to film a scene where he is seduced by his secret crush matthew rhys

NYT ran a piece awhile back on this clarifying his role
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/16/arts/television/oliver-north-now-in-the-service-of-tvs-kgb.html

Some fun stuff in here on the logistics of getting the rights to Soviet footage

http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/the-americans-producers-were-thinking-about-a-long-story-that-were-telling/single-page

my girl just binge watched the first season; i think she'll get through the second by next week.

OMG I just remembered this is tonight!

btw USA has been kickin' out Russian spies IRL this week, apparently sans car chases.

no car chases, no credibility

glowing review of season 3 http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/the-americans-season-3-fx-best-show-on-television/

Have now seen 4th episode as well. I think everyone will be pleased.