A thread for The Americans on FX

how the heck did they work out where the coffin was?

I guess the satellite photo Gabriel gave them had more detail to it than we were shown. But I didn't think about that until after the show was over. I spent time, too, wondering how they knew where to dig.

Yeah all I picked up was one minute theyre looking at a sat map, the next theyre cutting thru a fence and I thought "oh ok they have to spend hours testing holes, Time Team stylez, to find the coff...ohwait no they found it wtf"

the wordlessness of those last 10 minutes -- apart from the final getting-rid-of-hans sequence -- made me sit up.

Thought the cold open was masterful.

After they opened up the coffin, after ten (?) minutes of glorious silence, my mind started playing The Smiths:

"William, William it was really nothing
William, William it was really nothing
It was your life.."

What a first episode! And the balls on the writers to devote a third on digging into a grave. Thoughts like 'how did they know it was exactly there' didn't cross my mind watching it tbh. It was mesmerizing and I probably could have watched them open that up with every scoop of mud, in real time. Poor Hans tho.

Another takeaway from this episode: things will go from bad to worse for Paige won't they? It was anxious seeing how her role developed the last season, but this season it will probably be downright brutal. Finding out your whole life was a lie, trying to adapt to that, not even being able to have a first love... Damn.

how the heck did they work out where the coffin was?

Something something spy stuff etc.

hans' relationship with elizabeth in that last moment was very ugh. "it's alright, it's alright"

I must have blinked when they said what they were up to or showed an establishing shot (if they did) because my wife and I were all "why are they digging a hole? did someone bury a weapon? is someone going to get buried in the hole so that they can sneak out later!? are they going to break into a pipe?!" When they finally opened the box we were all ooooooooooooooh!

I was surprised it was Hans that didn't make it. I was sure, what with red shirt (literally?) number three and four on board that it would be someone else that bought it.

Loved the cold open with the alternate family, though it almost pushes things a tad too far. I've always had an issue with the random death count on the show (guy on bus, guy on parking lot, etc.), which alone would be enough for Russia to call a spy out of there. But the idea of there apparently being dozens of deep cover agents and their helpers, I dunno. Don't ultimately care, because it is fantasy and exemplary and perfectly executed, just something that's bugged me a bit.

Looking forward to whatever comes of Oleg. Hopefully he doesn't get the Nina treatment.

I had to go to IMDB to make sure the actor playing their new fake son wasn't the guy who played Jianyu on The Good Place. Very similar voice, and just enough of a physical resemblance that I wasn't sure.

No one on last weeks episode? In truth, it wasn't the best, but the greenhouse scene with the bugs getting all over Elizabeths face was reminiscent of the better X-Files suspense scenes imho. Also poor Oleg, probably getting dragged back into a place where he doesn't want to be.

Philip and Liz turning to some b minus tricks to keep their daughter from having sex/committing was a hard sell imho.

On the podcast, the show runners said there's no real world basis for the "trick," which makes me think they just wanted to resolve a problem in the laziest way possible.

Also, I called the X-Files thing after E1, half-joking, and was then super disappointed when it happened.

Yeah, great. Superbugs. Okay.

Yeah I sort of agree. What podcast is this btw?

the rubbing your fingers together schtick was not so good.

Where did they hide Henry? I hope they do an entire episode just from his perspective, where we discover he's been up to all sorts of crazy shit.

xps Here's the podcast for listening to on the browser: http://podbay.fm/show/962741924

If you want to subscribe to it with your mobile app, just look for "Americans" + "Slate"

It's one of the weirder tv podcasts I've ever subscribed to. Sometimes they spend zero time talking about the episode in question, and instead interview people in casting or costume or people with real world knowledge of dialects and KGB spy technology. The showrunners are almost always present, though, and directly involved with the podcast. Sometimes actors will drop in, but not always.

That sounds intruiging, thanks Johnny!

I love this show so fucking much

Yay, Roxy Music!

The scene with Elizabeth coaching Paige on "how relationships work" was so goddamn brutal

Oh damn, I got distracted watching the Dave Chappelle specials on Netflix and totally blanked on this last night. Still trying to get used to it being Tuesday night show.

An interesting interview with Holly Taylor (Paige).

You know, this show has made me watch tv more meticulously. It felt like they showed this scarfed woman juuuust a but too long. In a split second I thought what am I missing, what is significant here. Never would have guessed it, but it was Martha. Wow.

Simon otm, Elizabeth continues to beat nihilistic truths - related or unrelated to being a spy - into her young daughter, it is so brutal to watch.

Roxy Music was cued up perfectly.

(The episodes, however slow burning plot wise, are chock full of characters already, but not having seen Henry for this long is starting to worry me...)

WTF with that finger rubbing thing. I thought the butt clench trick was dumb enough but that!!

last two episodes were... not so good? i'm willing to accept i might not be in the right headspace but the pixillation of plots, the slightly harder to follow storylines, the lack of an immediate serious direct threat to the family's way of life and somewhat generally more lax writing feels very off.

like the Martha thing felt like it lingered too long imo.
and in general i'm getting a bit tired of red herring threads that reveal too little about the characters. what secrets does tangerine grocery store lady hold? probably none.

Havent seen the other nights one yet but yeah last weeks was weirdly slow and not story-progressing. I'm rapidly losing any sympathy for Stan, on another note. He is way too easily led around by his emotions and his penis. How is he an FBI agent?

lol, because the FBI are so renowned for their hypercompetence

the slightly harder to follow storylines, the lack of an immediate serious direct threat to the family's way of life

basically every season from starts this way iirc

maybe? first ep was great and built in just the right way.
basically i would appreciate it if all they did this season was dig mysterious holes for ten minutes in silence.

that was a top 10 sequence maybe and they've had a lot of great sequences

as always the x factor this season is Henry

he's probably stuck in their luggage somewhere

I've missed Martha, but I also kind of hope that was just a little bit of a check-in and not a reintroduction of her into the series.

Poor bug scientist. He didn't deserve that.

I've missed Martha, but I also kind of hope that was just a little bit of a check-in and not a reintroduction of her into the series.

I think you'll get yr wish.

what secrets does tangerine grocery store lady hold? probably none.

None, obvs. That was just Oleg at work.

So that's two cold-blooded murders in the space of three episodes. I can't wait for these fuckers to get their comeuppance.

Apparently the actress who plays Martha is on that Ryan Murphy show, Feud, so I don't think Martha will be back in any kind of big way.

I love the Oleg-at-work stuff.

So Oleg's mom just got 200% more interesting.

Also, Stan ftw.

The Jenningses are the least interesting part of the show at the moment, but that may be about to change with Philip's son coming to town.

Otm (love Oleg so much, just for his weird head nods alone), and otm, Stan ftw, but disagree with the latter.

Thought Philip's 'joke' at the beginning ("we might get fired", Lizzie: "it's not funny", Philip: 'I know...') was spot on. We've not seen them this worn down, and too tired to really protest their Kansas mission before. (Philip has been on the brink(-ish) of quitting. But you can't quit, is the message. There's no way out. And with Paige doing her own snooping around, Henry's return this season showing he's now entering puberty and being difficult, with Mischa on the way, this is still very much the Jenningses imho. It's all theirs. To lose.

I love small things like them being these top notch spies but not having a clue who their son speaks to on the phone. The Marx book was a bit too much in the face but could possibly push Paige more towards the Russian goal (if she reads it). Philip's "flirting" in the gym was downright creepy, I was waiting for him to be slapped. He lost his mojo and seems to really be stuck between a rock and a hard place, again. Elisabeth's flirting was spot on in the way how she wrapped beardo around her finger.

Elisabeth came in tired from Kansas and Philip was watching bees and pollination on the telly. The bees, the bees.

Yeah, I agree with all that, it's not so much the Jenningses that are the least interesting (they're always marvelous), but the whole wheat story itself that isn't very compelling. In my brevity, I didn't clarify.

Yeah, put that way I agree with that. The wheat story is p weak. But it's all happening around that.

I'm disturbed by dickish, seven-foot-tall Henry.

There's something dodgy about Stan's girlfriend, never trust anyone who just tries to pick you up at the gym.

I think the wheat story is going somewhere (like as far as I know they're wrong about what the US is planning) and I'm wondering how many people they're going to have to kill for this blind alley and what it will do to them.

The show feels like it's preparing to split Philip and Elizabeth from allies into rivals and, regardless of what happens with these new fake relationships, the arrival of Philip's kid is going to blow their marriage open.

That's a great read.

I don't know if you're seeing "on the next episode..." clip teasers where you are, but there's definitely something up with Stan's girlfriend.

^^ I don't watch those, with reason tbh :-/ (would be nice if we keep stuff like that off the thread). Even though yeah she obv doesn't seem like an innocent gf.

Man it would be great if Oleg's mom turns out to be some mastermind and sent her to Stan :)

Yeah I wondered about Stan's girlfriend when she said she was from Pittsburgh, which is also the city Philip claims to hail from. A possible weakness in his cover story to come, perhaps?

Maybe they all say they're from Pittsburgh and they'll end up with similar cover stories?

I've been of the opinion Gym lady will be some plant/spy/something hilarious.

That last episode... when Elizabeth explained about the wheat thing you could just see something inside Philip break and he probably isn't coming back from it.