A thread for The Americans on FX

That was "To Love Somebody"? I need to pay attention.

it improves on the second season and then gets better exponentially going forward until the most recent season

I just realized I never even watched the last few eps of the last season :/

hoping it rallies in the final season

xpost Yeah, like "The Shield" the stress just keeps getting amped. I have no idea what they were going for, but this most recent season had the least happen, and just when you thought something was going to happen, it more or less wraps up with nothing happening. I'm sure lots happened, of course, but it doesn't really advance much.

One thing I'm having a hard time with--again realizing that it's not anything I should be preoccupied with, that I should just go with it--is how improbable I find the logistics of them leading this double life: in terms of running the travel agency, in keeping it from their family (which the final episode of Season 1 finally got around to, with the daughter poking around downstairs), and, maybe most of all, Philip's phony marriage to Martha. I mean, they're out past midnight killing people. The people in their lives don't seem to ask a lot of questions.

Well I guess their children have been fairly unquestioning so far because that's just what their parents do, and they don't really have any other friends who aren't fellow spies or US govt employees they're playing.

Understand your frowning Clemenza but would urge you to keep going if you can, you'll be rewarded imo.

Yeah, probably, especially because trying to keep things a secret is the prime mover of a show about secret spies. It's less about what they're doing - I mean, it's the more or less real world, we know how it ends, spoilers: Russia doesn't win the cold war - then it is about the difficulties of living their life and the toll it takes on them personally and professionally.

Took me a little longer than the Cold War itself to get through Season 2, but I did, and I'll stay with it for 3. Not loving it yet, but it did get better. Larrick was a good villain--reminded me of John Lithgow in Blow Out a bit. Also liked Burov, Kate, and John Carroll Lynch's character. Richard Thomas and the daughter--both of whom I found very bland for a long time--got better. I have trouble following all the plot detours but don't dwell on that too much.

Two things still bother me. The biggest is Philip/Clark's marriage to Martha, and the Martha character in general. Alison Wright is good; the character's gullibility I find borderline preposterous. She's married to this secretive guy with a toupée who drops in at his convenience, she's got a day-job where she's privy to lots of high-level intelligence, and--thus far, anyway--she seems blissfully oblivious to any possible connection.

I also find that Elizabeth's and Philip's undercover creations are almost too good sometimes. When Elizabeth was telling he story of abuse to the young soldier, or befriending the AA woman, she never stumbles for a split-second. I know it's her job, but I'm always thinking I'm watching Keri Russell the accomplished actress rather than an undercover spy.

"her story of abuse"

Clark and Martha having Tantric sex in Season 3's opener: am I wrong, or is that the first flat-out comedic moment thus far? Good sign. I find most of the good shows I've watched the past few years (and again, I'm still way behind) loosen up as they go along--realize that, even if serious, it's okay to joke around now and again.

imo the most hilarious Clark/Martha scene is when he’s going down on her, appears from beneath the covers, and we find out he’s kept his glasses on the whole time

were they fogged up? i seem to remember they weren't fogged up.

lol, I think so

Marathon Man and Affliction now have some company in the terrifying-dentistry department.

"Do you want a ringing endorsement, or do you want to know how the burgers are?"

Lots of good performances, of course, but Karen Pittman as Lisa--the Northrup employee Elizabeth's working on in Season 3--is the first time I've felt like I'm watching something exceptional.

AV Club reveals the final season will take place three years after season five finale.

Getting better, for sure (season three, episode 9). Walter Taffet's a great character--his interrogation style is unnerving--Lois Smith's death was harrowing, and Philip's "You're the problem" to Gabriel was an excellent episode-closer.

S3 & S4 are probably the peak concentration of the show doing what it does best, so enjoy the ride.

Yeah I didn't love it till season 3.

Got to the big episode immediately after I posted last night (and didn't know it was coming so soon--also the first time I watched three episodes in a sitting). Handled perfectly; you really experience it through Paige's eyes. Her relationship with her parents now reminds me of Sally Draper's with her father on Mad Men. (Hopefully that's self-explanatory--don't want to say too much for anyone who has this on their to-watch list.)

I'm at a point early in Season 4 where about six different people could send the whole house of cards tumbling down. Which is great.

aren't you glad you stuck with it?

Definitely--just finished the episode that ends with Roxy Music's "End of the Line." Easily the best use of music so far for me.

Stan's last-time-I-see-you speech to Burov was great. In general, Noah Emmerich's performance gets better and better with every season and every episode--by Season 4, he's my favourite character.

He sure has mastered the eye twitch.

Clemenza, you are going to be up to speed fully when the last series begins right? Awesome to have you on board for the weekly chatter!

March 28!

(xpost) I will be, definitely; finished Season 4 tonight, have 5 ready to go.

One thing I'm wondering--do they ever use pop music over the end credits? I'm watching bootleg DVDs. The quality's great, but each episode stops before the end credits roll.

Frank Langella and Dylan Baker are excellent. Best visual joke so far: Paige and William sitting at opposite ends of the couch when their fathers walk in the room. William's Anton Chigurh haircut's a little off-putting...The three kids are really good.

(Matthew, not William--Stan's son.)

One last thought--I won't be on board when Season 6 runs. I'll watch it when contraband shows up at the flea market...

A heads up on S5... it is slow, it meanders, it is often very frustrating, but it's working towards what I imagine will be a satisfying S6.

I'll watch it when contraband shows up at the flea market...

Just get it off pirate bay!

My brother-in-law does that for me sometimes. I should, I know--no explanation, I'm just okay with waiting a little longer. Anyway, it occurs to me that I get FX in my cable package, so I think I'm okay.

Liked the first two episodes in Season 5 fine, although getting the sample from William (so to speak) took forever. I find Stan's going to bat for Burov touching, almost like something from a Howard Hawks film.

late this year no?

It's started in March the last two years, but not at the end of March.

s5 is a bit of a slog tbh, as an enthusiastic viewer of the first 4 I think I still haven't watched the last couple of episodes

The fact that S6 is going to be two or three years on has massive implications for Paige's character, no idea which way they're going to go on that.

S5 was the first season that let me down. Despite that, acting was as strong or stronger than ever even if the story went nowhere.

There were some broad ideas I liked a lot but they finally botched the tone and made it just a little *too* miserable, which s4 had already so beautifully dodged. I'm fairly certain s6 is gonna rule though

I enjoyed the "what is Martha up to, now?" scenes

I'm enjoying the gloom of season 5 (four episodes in)--maybe that was there right from the start and I just didn't connect with it till the third season. Seems very much in the tradition of Mad Men, The Sopranos, and Six Feet Under right now: all the male leads go through their Michael Corleone, I've-done-a-lot-of-bad-stuff phase, turn to psychiatrists, Esalen, EST, Quakerism, whatever's handy for solace. (Elizabeth going through that too, to a lesser extent.)

I think it's less the gloom and more to what end? Come back to us after the last episode and tell us it was satisfying.

Eighth episode of Season 5 was indeed deadly dull--first one in a while. Deirdre's interesting.

That last scene in episode 10--the subtle humour of her parents throwing together an impromptu Fotomat in the basement, followed by the abrupt shift into Pastor Tim's excerpts--was fantastic. Had to look up the song. So that's why Bauhaus was put on this Earth.

Agree that 5 kind of trails off towards the end. Too much time on Burov for relatively ordinary plot points (did he even show up in the finale?), and Philip and Elizabeth's quick about-face at the end was, again, predicated on something rather ordinary (which I didn't even totally understand at first--had to check a synopsis). I liked the final conversation between Stan and his girlfriend: when she suggests why he should stay you see something click in his expression, and I don't think you can definitively say whether it's because he realizes she's right or he has a flash on what Philip thinks.

Really looking forward to 6, especially (I hope) the great Philip/Stan reckoning.

Final episode confused me as well. It was just this huge build up to them leaving and then "omg, we have to stay!" And his son, what came of that? Nothing, right?

especially (I hope) the great Philip/Stan reckoning

This is maybe the thing I'm looking forward to most? I don't know. With this show, I feel like the writers could either go a satisfying or very unsatisfying direction.

Well, like Deadwood (for example) we know historically where it must end. So I assume it will end with Philip and/or Elizabeth disappearing, and then Philip and Stan meeting up for a beer after the fall of the wall sometime and being all, "huh, that sure was a thing, wasn't it?" The other way it can go is "The Shield," meaning a bad ending for everyone.