A thread for The Americans on FX

while he's in many ways a soldier the same way philip and elizabeth are, he appears to take quite a bit of joy in many of his killings

Let us not forget the totally innocent Russian dude Stan murdered.

vlad! oh man...the way that the mouthful of burger just falls limply out of his mouth after he gets clipped is burned into my brain forever

That camp that Philip and Elizabeth attacked in season two was training right wing guerillas to fight in South America. That's pretty shitty as well. The guys they are trying to get to via that young girl are arming the mujahedeens in Afghanistan, right? Which, I'm not going to argue that the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan wasn't heinous, but the way CIA got involved wasn't particularly bright either.

this one was particularly devastating

prestige TV conditioning had me expecting penultimate episode major character deaths that never came (I think the creators understand that expectation and sort of wired it into every scene with martha), but the relatively subtle big moments of this one were more powerful than any of the things I was expecting would have been.

the latest wig moment (avoiding specifics for those not caught up) was wrenching

the slow burn has to give way to an explosion for the finale tho, if only bc of how thin things have been stretched

this season is prob the closest to john le carre's specific vibe the show has come and I mean that as the highest praise

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

martha is the saddest character on television; they're just disassembling her completely. i don't know if i'm going to be able to handle it if they kill her. it could be the turning point where i start actively rooting for the FBI to catch these fuckers.

that wig moment was surely also death warrant

seriously. sitting on the couch after that going omg. felt so bad for martha when she called her parents. but if they kill her - which seems inevitable - wont the fbi investigate and find out about her "marriage" to "clark"?!? last season i thought this was the weakest sub-plot in the show, now it's crucial and could be the beginning of the end, maybe?

that wig moment was surely also death warrant

― hot doug stamper (||||||||), Friday, April 17, 2015 6:45 AM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it's such a cliffhanger - like this show doesn't really *do* cliffhangers, i prefer to savour it when i know i can fully enjoy it rather than rushing to keep up every week - but when it wants to it can do them so devastatingly. elizabeth and philip have revealed their true selves twice this season - once, because the old woman needed to die anyway; the other time, out of love and respect for paige. all logic points towards the former applying to martha, and i can't think of any possible long game philip might be playing here, but i have a feeling it won't be...

also RETURN OF CLAUDIA YASSSSS

you can thank her sitcom for getting axed just in time for her to make an appearance.

the version i dl'd of this episode ended with philip taking off his clark wig - was that the end of the episode or did something else happen? THIS SHOW IS SO GOOD. Also, caught the ad for the finale while in the US this weekend, a little spoilerrific but img stuff is going to go down.

That was the end. And yes, SO GOOD.

Thanks Johnny!

Yeah how do you make a silent sequence of a guy taking a silly wig off so tense?

but if they kill her - which seems inevitable - wont the fbi investigate and find out about her "marriage" to "clark"?!?

Yeah, but so what? They won't be able to find out who "Clark" actually is.

I always find Pastor Tim's appearances a bit confusing, as he looks a fair bit like Phillip in disguise.

There's so much plot to be resolved in the finale - Kimmy, Nina/Stan/Oleg, Clark/Martha, etc. - that I have no idea how or even if they'll cram it into 45 minutes.

Excited for the finale. Finding the story lines with Paige and Martha this season really emotionally gripping.

xp wouldn't be surprised if FX gave them extra running time for this episode - as a network they have a recent history of allowing like one or two notably long episodes per season (fargo, the bridge, louie and the Americans have all indulged this liberty)

...or not! FX schedule online doesn't indicate a longer-than-usual length. so in that case I share that concern.

i don't really expect them to try to wrap up all the storylines, this is the kind of show that likes its subplots to gestate for a long time

It's been renewed surely? They don't have to tie everything up this season!

xp

It's been renewed for season four, and it seems as if they are already assuming they'll get a season five. Apparantly, the network-boss really likes the show, which seems logical, as it's awesome.

And the last few years, subplots have carried over at the end of seasons. Annelise's story was only resolved early this year (shutter). I think the difference this year is, even the little plots that actually haven't meant a thing - such as the babysitter - are way more tense and captivating than usual.

the zinaida plotline is increasingly interesting too.

i read somewhere that the makers originally had a five-year plan (naturally!) for the show

Intrigued by the title of tonight's episode (which I won't post here lest it be considered a spoiler).

Fun interview with Holly Taylor (Paige) in which she, among other things, talks about watching Felicity: http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/qa-holly-taylor-of-the-americans-on-her-characters-pivotal-season-watching-her-tv-mom-on-felicity-and-where-they-hide-the-wigs/

We "discovered" this show before xmas - binge-watched the first two seasons, been watching each ep of s3 as soon as we can... the wait till season 4 is going to be AGONISING i bet

yeah we p much have Landgraf alone to thank for the show's continued existence 'cause NO ONE watches it.

Wish he could've saved Terriers a few years ago, but this will more than suffice.

The ratings on Terriers were even more ridiculously awful iirc, like almost surreally terrible

he said on a podcast interview that ratings were under 300,000 for most terriers episodes after the first couple, and also conceded that his marketing staff did a terrible job with it

i do love that show though. also loved the bridge but that had a rough first season before getting great in the 2nd and by then the ratings were completely fucked

the americans has an unassailable rep among critics and even with slowed down ratings in its actual timeslot prob gets a lot of on-demand viewings as backup

i took the wig coming off as "here's the deal and are u gonna ryde or die?"
like martha's been going along with this as best she can without looking it in the eye, dude clearly sincerely loves her and is equally willing to kill her if he absolutely has to which is scary as fuck
i've said it before but the actress playing martha is amazing; one of the real highlights of TELEVISION RIGHT NOW is watching her equivocate so that she can keep her dream
i really really hope they don't kill her

I could see him having to kill her as being what finally tips him over to defecting

Shit, my cable dropped out during the scene with Stan and Agent Gaad and the dvr quit recording at the same time. I have to wait until tomorrow and rewatch on demand because there's no way I'm going to pick it back up tonight having missed about 15 minutes in the middle. COMCAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAST!

yipes at this cliffhanger

deceased now, show killed me

so weird to have no Kimmy or Martha in the finale, and so much time alone with Philip. super moody and upsetting. shot of the ep = Paige praying for her grandmother.

i feel like the showrunners are looking at this series less in terms of season by season and more in terms of as a whole. i have no other answer why there's no culmination to the martha storyline that doesn't involve her presence in the episode, especially after the last episode's gut punch of an ending..

and yeah, they moonwalked away from the Kimmy storyline when they had reached a point where the only plausible story development left was for philip to fuck her or cut her loose and i'm not sure i wanted to see either of those outcomes.

yeah this was definitely a finale made by people who had assurances they'd be back

learning from interviews that the wig scene was originally at the top of ep 13 makes a lot of sense.

Of the three season enders so far, this one was definitely the most low-key, but ultimately the one with the highest stakes. I love that the writers don't urge you to be saying "OMG PAIGE NO" and instead are just laying it out there for you to say "Yeah, I kind of don't blame her" because she's 15 and her parents aren't who everyone thinks they are and she's the only one who knows. That must be melting her brains.

it's a mugs game to prognosticate BUT i would lay money we get a scene of pastor tim wanting to talk to the parents along the lines of "i'm afraid paige is a very troubled girl... she told me she thinks you are russians; is everything okay around the house" - lengthy awkward moment - parents get to spring the "no one is trustworthy" bomb on paige and that might push her away from the ministry and into secret russian spy bidness or maybe into beaman, who knows

I got the sense that Philip and Sandra might get really close next season which may end up causing friction between Philip and Stan (if Stan were to find out).