A thread for The Americans on FX

yes, it's the only decent killing elizabeth did the entire series; and oddly the only one that seemed to bother her

no, there was that old lady, the secretary, that worked at that factory or whatever. She didn't like killing her either.

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.

See whereas I would have been way mad if they'd used expected plot contrivances or deus ex machinas or AHA moments!

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.

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!

Started season 1 this week. Skipped over the thread right now, but it's fun to read along as it unfolds.

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.

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.

and it's considerably better than the next-to-last season

Watch it LBI! The rare show that truly nails its ending.

Damn I wish I could experience this show anew a second time, what a blast.

Challop: i liked it more than breaking bad.

It is better. it's all about the slow burn. Breaking Bad starts in high gear

Not a challop - I also prefer it to BB, which was always a little too male-centric for me.

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.

BTW, this is easily in my top five of nuTV - up there with Mad Men, The Expanse, The Sopranos, Romanzo Criminale.

It’s absolutely better than Breaking Bad.

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),

and it's considerably better than the next-to-last season

― Simon H.

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.

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.

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.

I think I figured out who they killed for her identity:
https://s.put.re/vpg4RS1v.png

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).

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.

Can only second what JF said: the show really steps up the pace and gets better from season 2 on.

I concur w/ JF's summary as well. s2 essentially takes the form of a murder mystery, and a surprisingly effective one.

Same here; it's well worth your investment.

ok, I'll give it another season

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)

nth'd. show snowballs from s2 onwards.

It's definitely in the mode of "The Shield," where actions taken early compound.

I miss Nina

About to watch this!

Excellent.

My buddy said, "You're a Reagan fetishist, you'll love it."

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.

lol, i see i said the exact same thing three months ago.

That's about when I was hooked too. I was a little lost the first season.

I haven't started s2 yet, but I guess I'll get there someday.

Was considering this when ticking off as-yet-unwatched prestige shows to devour during lockdown. Settled on Rectify for the moment but maybe we'll do Russkie spies next.

I was a little lost the first season.

You have to not mind sometimes being a little lost with this show.

This show became our nightly watch for the past two months - phenomenal show. The acting and writing across the board is so strong, and they got lucky with Holly Taylor becoming a great actor so quickly. Even Keidrich Sellati had some very good moments in the last season. I pretty much agree with what has been said regarding the different seasons - S5 a bit slow but still good, the other seasons excellent - but I wanted to talk about the music! This isn't really a criticism but choices on this show often baffled me. A few upbeat pop songs that clashed with the tone of the show, a few that were almost too on-the-nose ("We Do What We're Told"), four different Peter Gabriel songs that I counted, and then big dumb ol U2 in the finale. Sometimes they went back to the 70s as well. It often stuck out and probably that was the point? There were some moments like Bauhaus' "Slice of Life" that were absolutely perfect, but I felt they were the exception

a few that were almost too on-the-nose ("We Do What We're Told")

Weird, because I thought that was maybe the most perfect marriage of music and narrative ever. Perhaps I'm a simp.

The music didn't do a lot for me either--the Bauhaus scene was great, and normally they're a punchline for me; there were a few other moments--but there was so much else that was good, I didn't really care and stopped waiting for that to change early on.

JF, the fact that it IS the perfect song is what baffled me! I find the music supervisors on a show rarely use songs where the lyrics so obviously address the show's content. So in that respect, it's a bold choice of song. "With or Without You" was similarly bold, and a song that a lot of people probably have their own associations with already

I definitely wouldn't say the music didn't do much for me. If anything, I paid much more attention to it than I usually do

Brilliant use of "Tusk" in the first scene of the first episode is what instantly hooked me on this show. Still have to watch the final season but it's not officially available anymore in my neck of the woods, unfortunately

I like most of the needle drops a lot. I loved the use of Yaz for instance

also the opening/intro theme fucking slaps