A thread for The Americans on FX

Huh. I remember him going all rogue, but I don't remember that at all! I guess it's been a while.

would like next season's last ep ending music to be "You Dropped a Bomb On Me"

do we know when the next season starts?

no date announced but 2 of the 3 seasons have premiered in the last week of january, so thats my guess

said it upthread somewhere but I am stoked at the possibility of inclusion of Able Archer 83 into the storyline, could see some interesting plot developments there

Just a little over 2 months until S4 (starts in March this time, though the exact date hasn't been announced).

good

Yeah looking forward to how this is gonna pan out now that Paige has blabbed.

This ad art is great

http://i.imgur.com/m8vfbem.jpg

A lot to parse in this brief 30 seconds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ld1dDuUVqZo

eeee cant wait.

Is that Philip that Stan is shoving against the wall?

Oh man I'm thinking about watching a few of the old episodes just to warm up.

Trailer not available in my country :(

Hi TV networks, this is why we pirate all your shows btw!

on the show and Christianity

(spoilers)

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2016/february-web-only/christians-soviets-and-bible.html

Shit! I just saw an interview with Alison Wright (Martha) and I had NO IDEA she's English IRL.

back on Wednesday!

xpost This show has the best American accents ever.

I knew she was English but I didn't knaaa she was a Mackem.

This feels like the only series left where I have very high expectations, i am mostly whelmed or going through the motions with everything else on tv.

I definitely feel like I've been spinning wheels waiting for this (and Better Call Saul). Helpfully, my wife and I have just started finding Broad City insufferable again, which happens about halfway through each short, short season, so Americans arrives just in time. Heard good things about Fargo, fwiw.

i make allowances for other shows because the things they do well hit my personal spots and outweigh things they do less well (that i care about less), but this frequently amazes me in being even more amazing than i expect

Heard good things about Fargo, fwiw.

It's fitfully fun and entertaining, but don't expect anything anywhere near Americans-level.

I have to disagree heartily there! Fargo is quite on the level with Americans, though obv a diff feel.

That was a respectable premiere episode. I was especially enamored with Martha in the pre-credits scene.

But yoooooooooooo...the preview teaser for the rest of this season is BANANAS!

Typically quiet opener - loved the closing shot and Philip's incredible weariness, though.

Anyone where/when this is on UK TV?

The violence in the scene with young Phillip beating the kid to death was very... impactful. You really felt every blow.

The Nina storyline is really boring at the moment, she used to be the best character hands-down but it feels like her role in the show is being artificially prolonged at this stage.

It does feel that way, but I figure it will pay off somehow (and probably soon—they wouldn't just have her shadowing that engineer guy for another complete season would they?).

I am way more invested in what happens with Martha right now than I am about anything else. Although if I were a Russian spy I'd be worried about an FBI agent thinking I was banging his wife.

We just found out in the premiere that Nina is married, so maybe her husband will prove to be a significant character.

i'm almost exactly 2 years behind

i did lol at the discovery that the leads are now a RL couple

We just found out in the premiere that Nina is married,

Oh thank god I thought I was going mad at that bit... I was like "wait, what husband.. whatd I miss!?"

Finally caught up with the first two episodes of this season. Good to have it back, but I worry it's on the verge of collapse. Or maybe that's what makes it great? I haven't seen any teasers for things to come. Right now it's pretty melodramatic, and almost every character seems deeply depressed or at least seriously messed up.

Didn't like the bus sequence of episode 2, though, which was fine as far as suspense goes, but seemed contrived and deeply dumb, even for a show whose death count remains ridiculous.

More than ever has a constant feeling that something really really awful is about to happen. But when something awful DOES happen (the bus guy getting strangled), it somehow does nothing to relieve that tension. This is maybe the murkiest TV show ever.

On a sillier note, I had a dream that the most recent season had ended with the shock twist of Russia actually winning the Cold War, and that this time it had changed into a kind of alternate reality thing with Phillip and Elizabeth set up as officials in the new American Communist regime! Was a bit disappointed when I woke up.

Something's got to happen, hasn't it? Did I read somewhere they've planned it for five seasons? I just don't feel they can keep up the pretence much longer, if they still have the taste for it. I wonder if something will happen to their daughter (I hope not, as she is a great actor)? I wonder if the show will end with one hunting down the other?

And this show is great, but also gruelling.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

(no spoiler, but you'll probably agree with me when you see)

Holy shit! that was a major jolt and like the character, I didn't see it coming at all.

Well, of all the bad things that could have happened to any number of characters in any number of episodes but particularly this one, I suppose this was the least surprising. The character had been a dead end for several episodes now, and there was no real way out of their situation. I like the actor and the character a lot, actually, but I'd been commenting to my wife that the show didn't quite know what to do with them.

Great show, but seriously dark stuff. Like, emotionally dark, and in a really bleak, methodical sort of way.

I loved the way Martha told a partial truth (she thought so anyway) to Agent whatshisname. Boldness is a good look for her.

Just occurred to me that the big surprise if this ep sets Russian what's his name up with an excuse to turn against his country and team up with Stan. Iirc Oleg does not know of the Jennings by name or face ...

Yeah that immediately occurred to me as well. If Oleg turns, and Stan is investigating Martha AND convinced that Philip is boffing his ex-wife, then it's surely only a matter of time before he stumbles across something. Then again he is inept, so...

Stan's not inept! He's the most twitchy and paranoid guy in the cast! He's always on guard for spies.

i can't believe they did this to her. heartbroken.

not to be a dick, but long overdue in my opinion! that storyline was going nowhere and was consistently the least engaging of the C plots. i think they'll be able to use her death make some forward moves with oleg and stan's relationship and their loyalties to goose the plot in new ways.

she was my tv spy girlfriend, shutup

condolences and dasvidaniya comrade

Right until the last second I was in denial and thought she was going to make it. Obviously in retrospect she had to go and it wouldn't have been realistic for the KGB not liquidate a traitor, but still, wtf man!

so did oleg's father not follow through with his promise, or did he have no power over it? and if he didn't follow through with it, to what end? will oleg find out (assuredly)? will oleg stay in the USSR? wtf is going to happen????

I'm interested to see them try to turn Pastor Tim.

^all those possibilities FAR better than "what will she do in prison THIS week?!?!?!"