A thread for The Americans on FX

i'm excited for the finale, but i'm also thinking it's gonna disappoint a lot of people who are looking for tidy resolution of every plotline. I've gathered that Fields and Weisberg are more interested in character than plot and that they have a different idea of what constitutes a major story beat than much of their audience. Take this exchange quote from the creators (from Sepinwall's S5 post-mortem interview):

It’s a year with a lot of anti-climaxes. Mischa comes to America, but Gabriel heads him off at the pass before he gets to see his father. Philip and Elizabeth are going to go home, and at the last second they can’t. We don’t know yet what’s going to happen with Oleg. Stan’s girlfriend is maybe a spy, but we have no confirmation yet. It feels like in other seasons you have maybe tried to pay a little more off within the context of that season than you have this year. Would you agree with that or not?

Weisberg: I think those two examples, we might see differently. To us, yes, you could say, “Well, Mischa came to see Philip but then he didn’t and he went back,” when really, in so many ways, that was about triggering the Gabriel relationship with Philip, and it ultimately led to Gabriel’s decision that he couldn’t stay in a relationship with Philip and Elizabeth any more because he didn’t want to be a liar. And them maybe going home, really that was about triggering the marriage stuff, which to us led to a scene like we’ve never seen before between Philip and Elizabeth where, as they come to a decision as to how to go home together, Elizabeth realizes she can’t because of who she is as an individual. But she gets that he’s his own person going through his own pain and his own struggles, and she tries to get him a way to continue on in the marriage so his individual needs can be supported as well. So, to us there were just different kinds of climaxes, perhaps more emotional, and because of that maybe they felt a bit more muted in terms of their plot dynamics, but to us they were character climaxes of a sort.

Fields: I think that the Mischa story is a very good example. We found that to be immensely satisfying, and that doesn’t mean anybody else should — everybody gets to have their own reaction to the story. But to answer your question about a different approach to the season, I think we felt very free to tell the story exactly how we wanted to and not have to adhere to any traditional storytelling structure. This isn’t how climaxes usually work, and it allowed us to go more in the direction that we veered more toward in every season, which is trying to go one direction of truth and reality and what we think would actually unfold, and worry less about what the more conventional idea of what is going to feel climactic or satisfying. And if one of the results of that is people feel it’s less satisfying, then I think we just have to accept that.

http://media.agonybooth.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/01073250/the-americans-s5-e8-elizabeth-philip-stan.png

That reads a lot like post-hoc rationalisation to me.

FWIW I think the likelihood of the Centre getting to one or both of them before the FBI does is pretty high, maybe Renee will play into that or maybe she's a total red herring.

Stoked for (but also nervous about) the finale.

Paige on the platform was the only great moment for me. The long-awaited Elizabeth-Philip-Stan showdown was...okay. It was very literal, with Philip doing lots of explaining. After that, not a lot. The two sketches could have been used earlier in the season and to much greater effect. I'm just coming off "Windy" and "Crystal Blue Persuasion" in Breaking Bad, so it's hard to convey the magnitude of piddliness that Dire Straits and U2 represent.

It's one episode. It doesn't much alter how much I enjoyed the series once it clicked in for me.

Yeah, I thought the music cues for this were pretty lazy (the same Dire Straits song was already used to better effect in the most pivotal sequence of The West Wing's run), but I'm actually pleased with the episode as a whole. Some closure provided, but only the right amount.

RENEEEEEEEEE!

The feeling I'm left with is that everyone was tired. Oleg, Stan, Arkady, Oleg's father, Paige, Philip and Elizabeth...everyone. They're just exhausted. I think that came through the screen and script extremely well.

The greatest thing about this show all along is that it left questions I don't require answers to.

What are you supposed to think about Renee? That Stan's just going to live with the possibility that Philip is right? Actually think it's pretty funny that they leave that dangling.

Exactly. That's Stan's penance for letting them go.

Ooh, a friend pointed out that when they were calling Henry from the payphone and Paige declined to talk to him, she'd already made up her mind she wasn't going to Russia.

When Paige mentioned Stan's son, I'd forgotten all about him--don't think he's been seen since Season 3 or thereabouts.

I'm wrong--he had a few episodes in both 4 and 5. Feels like he's been gone longer.

What are you supposed to think about Renee? That Stan's just going to live with the possibility that Philip is right?

This was beautiful

Philip's comment on Renee was great. Stan's entire existence is on shaky ground having discovered his best friend and neighbor has been something unexpected and now this huge ambiguity remains. And Philip's got nothing more than an instinct! Not even the Russian agents know who is an agent and who is a civilian. How can anyone know anything for sure, now?

I don't know, Stan's an FBI agent, something tells me he clunky IBM workstation searched everything he could on Renee when he started dating her - any big holes in her life would stand out and cause him to question her and/or pause the seriousness of the relationship if her background was shaky. Then again, it is Stan.

The same workstation that didn't have anything on the Jennings family?

I felt like the end underscored how Stan has always been a more empathetic person than either Elizabeth or Phillip, and that Phillip thought that made Stan strong, where Elizabeth thought it made him weak. It's interesting to see a show where a man's friendship with another man affects him in that way. Like, Stan just can't go around shooting people, even when it's his job. If the standoff in the carpark had been between any other characters, there might have been some tension, but obviously Stan was always going to do what he did, which was very satisfying, in a way.

Also, for all that the song cues might have been lazy, at least they just played the proper versions of them, and not some breathy folky cover versions.

A very solid finale--which didn't really betray any of the aesthetic principles of the show, despite how much we might have thought we wanted that.

also didn't mind the U2 at all. It felt emotionally generous in the context of this show.

Satisfying finale; Noah Emmerich did a really great job looking understatedly shook for the last 45min of the episode.

Glad we all finally learned definitely that Renee may or may not be a Russian spy.

Lots of spinoffs I'd be happy to watch that will never get made!

I really appreciate that Fields and Weisberg just flatly refuse to answer questions or speculate about things left ambiguous.

Yeah I liked the ambiguity. I mean, we know that Gorbachev didn't get assassinated.

Very action-free finale, which was odd. Lots of long shots of people staring into the middle-distance. All-in-all, I like the choices they made.

god, the looks on their faces when they realized Paige was out on the platform

according to Laurie Holden there _is_ a concrete answer wrt Renee, but they're not telling.

Renee serves a very specific function in the narrative. Her purpose has been to serve intrigue. Whether or not she’s a spy, that’s for the audience to supply. I know, but I will never tell. I was told at the very beginning. Whether or not that changed, or went to a different incarnation, that’s a whole other story. But [Joe and Joel] are very smart writers. She was there for a reason. When the audience goes back and rewatches these episodes, they will be able to find clues which will better inform them as to who she really was.

Some have pointed out that it's a little weird they choose to go to Russia at all given what they've been up to; wouldn't they be targets? (I suppose there's no reason they would have to stay there.)

They could've gone to live with Pastor Tim, I guess.

Perfect last episode.

I thought the pause at the border in the car was the “wait, are we sure russia is where we want to go?” moment and they resigned themselves to it

There were some fantastic scenes (Stan's two F-bombs in the parking garage were very earned; I watched on Amazon and was immediately curious how FX handled that) but I'm kinda disappointed in several aspects, most notably that we got no resolution of the big factional dispute between the Center and Team Gorbachev. Obviously we know in reality Gorbachev stayed in power, but how is it Elizabeth in particular was allowed to travel back home to Russia without being murdered instantly? Great show, pretty good ending. Elizabeth's expression when she saw Paige outside the train was fantastic.

The Slate podcast for the show, which has consistently gotten more slapdash over time, was basically a complete wasted opportunity today. The interviews were so boilerplate. (It was a much better companion to the show before June Thomas took it over.) Fortunately, Joel showed up on Larry Wilmore's podcast today (Larry loves the show!) and it was way more enlightening.

Ooooh, I'll have to check that out.

Elizabeth's dream was somehow deeply moving and extremely disorienting. What a sucker punch.

Weirdly, my season rankings for this are identical to Justified (albeit much more consistent overall)

4 > 3 > 2 > 1 > 6 > 5

Wow, I'm not sure I'd put 6 that far down, but tbh the only slot to change it with would be 1.

yeah, there's obviously a lot of excellent stuff in both 5 and 6 but they're just so bleak

but how is it Elizabeth in particular was allowed to travel back home to Russia without being murdered instantly? Great show, pretty good ending. Elizabeth's expression when she saw Paige outside the train was fantastic.

Was wondering the same thing, but I figured that the anti-Gorbachev partisans (whom Claudia was taking orders from) aren't the ones in power, and Elizabeth was basically defending Gorbachev, so she should be in the clear? Also wondered if, when they hit the border, immediately asked to be connected with Arkady, a pro-Gorbachev person whom they could trust.

I rewatched and that seems to be the implication

The only real good news in the end is that Philip can maybe get to meet his son at some point.

I read the pause at the border as them having made it to Russia with no knowledge if the pro or anti Gorbachev faction was running things and it was just as likely that they might be dragged from their car and shot. Arkady showing up confirmed that everything was cool.

I think that episode locked this in as my favourite show of all time tbh. Can't think of anything else that's ended as perfectly.

The fact that the final episode succeeded without any real 'BANG!' moments was only possible because they've completely nailed the characters over the course of six seasons. Stan letting them go, then the scene with Renee, Paige on the platform, the phonecall to Henry, the heart-in-mouth moment when they go over the border despite having betrayed the KGB, each of those moments really landed.

TBH 'everyone gets away with it* but is totally fucked up as a result' was not the ending I was expecting but it worked so well because we know what happens next and can envisage pretty much what their futures look like as a result. Like, Paige can go on with her life in some way, the only person who can incriminate her is Stan and he's too heavily compromised. The scene in the McDonald's really underlined the pointlessness of what they've been doing, because we all know Russia is about to flip into the kind of venal hypercapitalism that Elizabeth's been fighting against her whole life. But you still can't help wondering if there's a way of reuniting the family in the future. And there's Philip's son and Martha as well, loose ends wandering around in their new life, it actually makes perfect sense that they were never tied up.

*Except Oleg. Poor old Oleg really didn't deserve that.

I can imagine Stan bailing Oleg out at some point.

I feel like the Gorbachev-friendly crew might get some traction and find out about Oleg. Maybe someone in the know could go to Russia and let them know what he did. Hmm.

On rewatch, I think something that's really impressive about what the show did overall is that Weisberg and Fields responded and adapted what they were doing based on the strengths and weaknesses of the ensemble. It became obvious pretty early that Holly Taylor had the range to go wherever they wanted to take that character,while the kid playing Henry was perfectly believable as an affable, nice, smart kid, but maybe not as a whole lot else. (They have kinda commented on this phenomenon in previous season post-mortems, though in the nicest terms possible.) The way his naivete and innocence is ultimately made a crucial character element - paying off in that devastating phone call - is really remarkable.

Watched last night after the game and I think they pretty much nailed the landing. I agree a lot with what Matt DC said (especially about Oleg :( ).

I think Peak TV has heightened sense of what people count as “drama” or “big events” in tv shows. Stan finding out about P&E and confronting them is huge, but because nobody died, it's somehow anticlimactic? Were people surprised when there were no deaths in the Mad Men finale? I know The Americans was playing a more dangerous game, but i always thought Americans had more in common with Mad Men than something like Breaking Bad or The Shield.

Anyway, the fact that the show could elicit such emotion and intensity without having to rely heavily on major character deaths is very much to its credit.

Yeah, the most high-profile death in the entire series remains poor Nina, 2.5 seasons ago.

everyone was angry abou the mad men finale too if I recall correctly. Ditto the Sopranos. I think the only big finale ending that gave people the blood lust they wanted was Breaking Bad.

Enh, Sopranos ending was spectacular; the MM one worked for me but I also didn't take it as literally as most seemed to

BB is my least favorite finale of those three! (i liked the americans finale more too)

VC: the Stan/Jennings showdown was anti-climactic for me in the way it was dramatized. The fact that it occurred had no inherent drama, I don't think. It wasn't a surprise--the entire series had been moving towards that one scene. I found the scene serviceable, nothing more.

I'm very much in the minority here. Much preferred the Mad Men, Sopranos, and Breaking Bad finales. I feel like the writers here were so careful not to settle for neat resolutions and hyped-up drama--a good approach, theoretically--they just kind of drifted off.