We ought to pay tribute to the real-life Elizabeth on this thread (even though I imagine she's much less interesting than Elizabeth if you were ever to meet her).
http://pixel.nymag.com/imgs/daily/intelligencer/2018/07/16/16-mariia-butina.w710.h473.jpg
― clemenza, Tuesday, 7 August 2018 22:08 (six years ago) link
And for the most part, real Illegals never really murdered anyone, much less crushed them into suitcases and choked them with paintbrushes and whatever.
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Tuesday, 7 August 2018 23:07 (six years ago) link
The only thing I didn't really like about this whole series was the body count. After a while it got a little silly. I looked it up and the Jennings were responsible for around 36 murders, more or less divided evenly. That's crazy.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 7 August 2018 23:14 (six years ago) link
Yeah, there were very few occasions where a killing was born of the need to extract themselves from a perilous situation. Most of them were "eh, this is the only way to make sure there are no loose ends." Sloppy, imo.
But it's TV-MA, so I guess they felt the need to earn the rating every way possible.
― Johnny Fever, Tuesday, 7 August 2018 23:27 (six years ago) link
I just thought, even from episode one, that these are super spies and there is literally nothing more conspicuous they can do than murder people. The worst may have been the random dude on the airport shuttle iirc.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 7 August 2018 23:31 (six years ago) link
Ha that does raise a thought I did have a few times - wouldnt someone see all these dead people and go "hey what the?" I mean they did at the *end*, after they'd all escaped...
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Wednesday, 8 August 2018 02:08 (six years ago) link
...........................as far as we know DUN DUN DUUUUN
― wayne trotsky (Simon H.), Wednesday, 8 August 2018 02:17 (six years ago) link
Remind me why Elizabeth had to kill the painter woman? I thought the Russians wanted to keep her alive for as long as possible because of her husband's job.
― the word dog doesn't bark (anagram), Wednesday, 8 August 2018 19:27 (six years ago) link
Wasn't that a mercy killing, a rare instance of compassion on Elizabeth's part? I can't remember.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 8 August 2018 19:30 (six years ago) link
I think she also wanted to be done with that assignment
― mh, Wednesday, 8 August 2018 19:32 (six years ago) link
painter woman (with husband) had already botched a suicide/euthanasia attempt, no?
― A Box of After Dinner Comics Shipped to Your House Each Month (seandalai), Wednesday, 8 August 2018 20:30 (six years ago) link
Yeah, they fucked it up so Elizabeth had to finish it.
― Johnny Fever, Wednesday, 8 August 2018 21:10 (six years ago) link
yes, it's the only decent killing elizabeth did the entire series; and oddly the only one that seemed to bother her
― akm, Thursday, 9 August 2018 14:15 (six years ago) link
no, there was that old lady, the secretary, that worked at that factory or whatever. She didn't like killing her either.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 9 August 2018 14:17 (six years ago) link
This ended three months ago, so this is a very timely post.
I’ve always wondered why virtually everyone likes the final episode more than I do, and I think I finally figured it out. It has to do with the way Stan uncovers Philip and Elizabeth’s identities. There's no great eureka moment--he starts to suspect them, pokes around their house a little, and then confronts them in a garage.
I was thinking about how that contrasts with all the great eureka movie moments I love. (Lots of spoilers ahead, although they’re all pretty famous.) In Rosemary’s Baby, it’s Mia Farrow spilling the Scrabble tiles on the floor and anagramming Roman Castevet’s name. In Zodiac (whether you think Graysmith is right or not), it’s Lee Allen’s birth certificate. Godfather II: when Michael overhears Fredo mention Johnny Ola. Or another TV show, Breaking Bad; I thought it was fantastic the way Hank found the inscription in the Walt Whitman book. Even something as mainstream as Broadcast News, when Holly Hunter figures out that William Hurt manufactured the tear.
There was just no way The Americans was going to give me that moment--it was a show that very carefully avoided plotted contrivance. That’s one of the main things people loved about it, and I’m sure I appreciated that too, for the most part. But I've been conditioned to wait for such moments and take a lot of pleasure in them, and I wanted that moment here. They actually had it, if they had chosen to use it: the sketch of Elizabeth that Stan looks at after-the-fact. That would have been the most obvious thing in the world to do, to have Stan confront that sketch two episodes earlier, and I’m pretty sure I would have loved it anyway. But such a moment just wasn’t going to be part of The Americans.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 28 August 2018 04:45 (six years ago) link
See whereas I would have been way mad if they'd used expected plot contrivances or deus ex machinas or AHA moments!
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Tuesday, 28 August 2018 07:27 (six years ago) link
same, i loved that there was no big climactic moment.
Like it wasn't just one thing but several things at once that made it clear to Stan who his neigbours were: Elizabeth and then Phillip disappearing at Thanksgiving, the trip coinciding with the mess in Chicago, Henry telling him how often his parents disappeared on him, the cigarettes in the yard, and all the details about the sleeper agents he had collected over the years. And only Stan could have figured it out because he knew them so well.
― Roz, Tuesday, 28 August 2018 09:00 (six years ago) link
It came full circle nicely too, I think, with the first episode (I think it was?) where he stalked their garage for a bit, being a bit sus of them when he first met them!
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Tuesday, 28 August 2018 23:01 (six years ago) link
Started season 1 this week. Skipped over the thread right now, but it's fun to read along as it unfolds.
― Elvis Telecom, Monday, 8 April 2019 22:35 (five years ago) link
Update: I'm now in the middle of S4 - Stan Beeman looks so much like Jandek that I'm now assuming that Jandek is an FBI agent with a secret career as a outsider musician.
― Elvis Telecom, Tuesday, 2 July 2019 21:47 (five years ago) link
Haha, wow, I *never* made that connection but you've planted it right into my head now and I can't unsee it!
I still have to watch the last season, which is rather daft, as it's one of my favourite show.
― Uptown VONC (Le Bateau Ivre), Tuesday, 2 July 2019 21:51 (five years ago) link
and it's considerably better than the next-to-last season
― Simon H., Wednesday, 3 July 2019 00:18 (five years ago) link
Watch it LBI! The rare show that truly nails its ending.
― Roz, Wednesday, 3 July 2019 01:03 (five years ago) link
Damn I wish I could experience this show anew a second time, what a blast.
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Wednesday, 3 July 2019 01:22 (five years ago) link
Challop: i liked it more than breaking bad.
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Wednesday, 3 July 2019 01:23 (five years ago) link
It is better. it's all about the slow burn. Breaking Bad starts in high gear
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 3 July 2019 01:29 (five years ago) link
Not a challop - I also prefer it to BB, which was always a little too male-centric for me.
― Roz, Wednesday, 3 July 2019 01:34 (five years ago) link
Breaking Bad: "Science, b*tch!". The giant magnet episode was the worst.
https://www.urbasm.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Batman-Shark-Repellent.jpg
The Americans is much more comparable with Mad Men, although again that's male-centric.
― viborg, Wednesday, 3 July 2019 02:28 (five years ago) link
BTW, this is easily in my top five of nuTV - up there with Mad Men, The Expanse, The Sopranos, Romanzo Criminale.
― Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, 3 July 2019 02:54 (five years ago) link
It’s absolutely better than Breaking Bad.
― JimD, Wednesday, 3 July 2019 09:04 (five years ago) link
I still have to watch the last season, which is rather daft, as it's one of my favourite show.― Uptown VONC (Le Bateau Ivre),
― Uptown VONC (Le Bateau Ivre),
― willem, Wednesday, 3 July 2019 11:38 (five years ago) link
and it's considerably better than the next-to-last season― Simon H.
― Simon H.
― willem, Wednesday, 3 July 2019 11:40 (five years ago) link
I'm struggling to remember if this show ever mentioned Chernobyl at all.The final series - and the last episode in particular - is wonderful and anyone who's slogged through S5 should watch it.
― Matt DC, Wednesday, 3 July 2019 11:53 (five years ago) link
I'm def going to watch it soon, Roz!
I ditched my Netflix account a couple of years ago, and got The Americans through t0rr3nts. If you've trouble getting a hold of them, let me know Willem.
― Uptown VONC (Le Bateau Ivre), Wednesday, 3 July 2019 12:05 (five years ago) link
I'm struggling to remember if this show ever mentioned Chernobyl at all.
Hmm, not sure if Claudia makes passing reference? We jump from 1984 to 1987 between S5 and S6 so it's never a contemporary event.
― Michael Jones, Wednesday, 3 July 2019 12:20 (five years ago) link
I think I figured out who they killed for her identity: https://s.put.re/vpg4RS1v.png
― Philip Nunez, Friday, 16 August 2019 22:40 (five years ago) link
I watched S1 this past week and am trying to decide whether to carry on. The characters are reasonably interesting, and the shifting Stan-Nina power dynamic was well done, but the plotting seems rote. Minor crisis/minor resolution x2, midseason slightly-larger crisis, not-really-a-resolution, build to finale, big setpiece and out. Bingeing pulls the curtain back on the writer's room, for this and so many other narrative/dramatic series. TV is so much better when I have to wait a week between episodes (Twin Peaks, Better Call Saul).
― Miami weisse (WmC), Monday, 10 February 2020 15:44 (four years ago) link
Do carry on. A lot of the minor wrongs of s1 disappear in 2-4. 5 is plodding for no discernable reason, and then 6 is a superb cap off.
― Johnny Fever, Monday, 10 February 2020 15:48 (four years ago) link
Can only second what JF said: the show really steps up the pace and gets better from season 2 on.
― Le Bateau Ivre, Monday, 10 February 2020 15:59 (four years ago) link
I concur w/ JF's summary as well. s2 essentially takes the form of a murder mystery, and a surprisingly effective one.
― bold caucasian eroticism (Simon H.), Monday, 10 February 2020 16:05 (four years ago) link
Same here; it's well worth your investment.
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Monday, 10 February 2020 16:34 (four years ago) link
ok, I'll give it another season
― Miami weisse (WmC), Monday, 10 February 2020 16:42 (four years ago) link
s1 is very good, s2 takes off into excellence― Sounds like a forks display name (forksclovetofu), Monday, January 19, 2015 6:56 PM (five years ago)
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Monday, 10 February 2020 16:56 (four years ago) link
nth'd. show snowballs from s2 onwards.
― Pinche Cumbion Bien Loco (stevie), Monday, 10 February 2020 18:37 (four years ago) link
It's definitely in the mode of "The Shield," where actions taken early compound.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 10 February 2020 18:38 (four years ago) link
I miss Nina
― akm, Monday, 10 February 2020 21:17 (four years ago) link
About to watch this!
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 15 May 2020 19:32 (four years ago) link
Excellent.
― k*r*n koltrane (Simon H.), Friday, 15 May 2020 19:42 (four years ago) link
My buddy said, "You're a Reagan fetishist, you'll love it."
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 15 May 2020 19:42 (four years ago) link
As with most great shows, it takes a bit to get going but once you're about halfway into season 2, you should be hooked. Second to last season lags, everything else is top notch.
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Friday, 15 May 2020 20:19 (four years ago) link