A thread for The Americans on FX

also, margo martindale playing ms. pac man = A+

watched 1st 4 episodes of this. gradually dawned on me that it probably wasn't going to get any better than "OK." all the "character" stuff (e.g. keri russell's interactions with her kids) is so undigested, like place-holding dialogue they forgot to rewrite. show tries really hard (esp w/ heavy-duty 80s soundtrack choices) and it's kind of endearing for that but the combo of tiresome sobriety of tone + ridiculousness of premise is never really dealt with. each episode had so many missed chances for more interesting plotting.

keri russell is probably the most beautiful woman in the world but i still gave up.

Apart from the first and last episodes I felt like they really didn't include much lol80s music. At least not in a cloying hit-you-over-the-head-with-it way.

(I'm v unobservant though so idk maybe it passed me by..)

the music choices on this are interesting -- in terms of how they are of the period, but some of them (e.g. Echo & the Bunnymen's Pictures on the Wall, the Cure song) are not at all what would soundtrack this type of show at the time.

http://www.avclub.com/article/the-pat-benatar-record-wouldnt-load-an-americans-m-200571

9 episodes into season 1 and enjoying it a lot. I'm a real sucker for Cold War espionage stuff. It's predictable at times, and the protagonists with a double life thing may be a bit old hat by now. But it's extremely watchable and moreish, and the leads are both very good. I'm impressed by how they've almost entirely resisted the urge to do any 'LOL 80s' stuff, leg warmers and Phil Collins aside.

Hearing very good things from folk who've seen early S2 episodes.

I kinda wavered on this show during the first few episodes but by the end of season it managed to come together in an interesting way and now I'm really stoked for season 2

i guess i didn't post on here before but I think this is one of the best shows on tv even if it is badly flawed in a lot of ways.

i really love that, at heart, it's just a show about how difficult it is to maintain an unconventional relationship when you have a family. great acting for most of the cast, leads especially.

yeah this is great. looking forward to season 2.

I certainly prefer it to Homeland. Less ponderous, less pretension to being much more than a decent thriller, less Clare Danes.

Oh, so so so much better than Homeland. More visually interesting, less stupid plot-wise, more interesting thematically.

Also: Tusk and Games Without Frontiers!

I was afriad this was going to suck. But it's actually quite good.

Glad this is back

Solid opener, if not spectacular. Suffered slightly from me watching it sandwiched between two episodes of True Detective.

Anyhow the buzz is it goes from good to great this season, so I'm certainly still onboard.

Just finished watching it. I'm somewhat confused on what exactly happened at the amusement park and how it led to what happened at the hotel, but that's probably just on me. Solid return otherwise.

It confused me a little too - I'm guessing it will be explained more later on.

I don't think Elizabeth and Phillip know who killed their friends?

The "next time on the Americans" clip after the episode ended alluded that figuring out who killed them will be a plot line moving forward, with Claudia figuring into it.

http://images.zap2it.com/assets/p9978323_b_h3_ab/the-millers.jpg

So the American mom on this CBS show is a Russian agent on FX. Hm.

I just think it's cool that's there's no conflict there. She's a plausible link between the two shows. Oh wait, the FX show takes place 30 years ago.

after what she saw, I'm surprised she came downstairs to breakfast this morning!

I struggled to see the point of this show for the 5-6 episodes, but it got a lot, lot better -- it has this nice combination of comfort food predicatability and playful "holy shit" moments.

If one thing drags it down, it's the contrivance of the original "FBI guy next door" storyline - like it's trying to shortcut into a Hank/Walter relationship without actually doing the groundwork. That FBI actor is pretty great, though - I hope they give him more to do than mope and randomly spaz out

How many layers deep is Nina? Double or Triple agent?

It's hard to say bc I don't think she was initially a spy per se, just an office worker. The term might be "re-doubled agent"?

Right, but is she just playing the FBI to the benefit of the Russians, or is she playing the FBI to play the Russians to help the FBI?

It seems like the former, haven't seen any indication of the latter. Maybe she can be turned again, though? Wouldn't put it past them.

I hope they do something interesting with her, rather than just serve her back and forth between the two sides (then kill her off In the finale)

If one thing drags it down, it's the contrivance of the original "FBI guy next door" storyline - like it's trying to shortcut into a Hank/Walter relationship without actually doing the groundwork.

This irks me a bit as well.

Right, it seemed part of the plan at first, then halfway through the season you're like "ok, I guess it is just a massive coincidence"

Incidentally, the actress playing Martha is totally nailing whatever the hell Martha is - can't wait till she finds out

Excellent casting for her. Perfect level of attractiveness for the character.

I imdb'ed Stan's wife because she looked familiar. She's in four different shows at the same time (well, three now because I presume her run on Nashville is over).

I wasn't completely on board until the Reagan assassination attempt episode in the first season.

By the way, is anyone else who grew up during the show's timeframe finding world current events kind of nerve-wracking?

By the way, is anyone else who grew up during the show's timeframe finding world current events kind of nerve-wracking?

could you clarify? Not sure what you mean here.

Russia invading Ukraine?

Nina went from spying on the soviets to spying on the FBI when she realized that stan killed vlad.

Re: growing up in the timeline, I've been looking forward to if/how they incorporate this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Able_Archer_83

V good acting across the board this episode. Particularly impressed with Paige.

ha my dad was involved w Able Archer

For those here who remember the early 80s does the period detail hold up? Noticed a time-traveling 90s or 00s-era Pepsi machine in the background of one scene last week lol

I didn't notice the Pepsi machine. I saw a post-81 car in one scene, but I can forgive.

I liked the subtle digital young-ifying of the two of them in the 1966-67 sequences. Also Philip's hair in the early '70s bit.

Oh, and clearly someone is a Peter Gabriel fan - that was the second episode to use one of his songs for the big dramatic montage.

Really impressed by the steady quality of this show. Season 1 ruled, and Season 2 has been fucking great so far.

s2 has been awesome so far. Very confident. Love the scoring in particular.

Walked past a used bookstore and noticed that showrunner Weisberg wrote a spy novel at some point. Anyone read it?

http://www.amazon.com/Ordinary-Spy-Novel-Joseph-Weisberg/dp/B005Q62MV8/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1394769087&sr=1-1&keywords=ordinary+spy

I liked the subtle digital young-ifying of the two of them in the 1966-67 sequences.

So subtle I didn't even notice!

This season has been so much more noirish and gritty than the last, it is that excellent right now I almost expect Orson Welles to show up at some point. They seem exhausted, decadent and since the murder of the other family completely losing their bearings as a faux family but completely on track as agents. Fantastic television.

It's much better than Justified this go round, yes.

Haven't seen this week's yet but the first 5 were excellent.

I tried watching the first season a while back but the DVD that I got from the library turned out to be pretty damaged and at some point it just wouldn't play anymore, but I forget exactly how far I got. The last episode I remember is where they get the drop on some other agent trying to kill them and they all get stopped by a cop so then they pretend the agent is drunk and he sings some Kenny Rogers -- is that episode 7?

Also, it's been probably two years since my first watch, should I just restart from the beginning?