Anyone watch the FX series The Americans

And having their kids killed as they were is what sets this show apart from others imo.

 

I still want to know how the sleeper-cell mom & dad ever get any sleep! Between picking up secret messages, bugging government offices, seducing different people, meeting with their Soviet connections, and torturing and killing people, plus they're running a travel agency (with four or five employees) from 9-5, plus they have two school-aged children to raise... for most people, any one of these things would be a full-time job.

BTW, they're sure pushing the limit on how far you can go in a cable show! I fell down laughing when the teenage daughter peeked into the parents' bedroom. Oh, you gotta hate when that happens...

 

That part made me squirm which is just want I want from a show.

 

This is such an incredible show. I'm really enjoying this season with the interpersonal issues and I love the arpanet storyline.

 

I really like this show a lot.

 

Kind of cool. Although the idea that the Russians would be able to develop some sort of stand-alone, plug and play box to surreptitiously connect to the system is comical.

It was very unexpected to see a PDP10--referenced by name, even--in a popular TV show...

 

That was a hell of a acting job by their son at the end.

 

Great show. They just announced the go-ahead for a third season.

 

I really need to buy this series on Blu-ray.
But not until the individual seasons drop into the $20 range

 

There's only the first season available now. Will be a while til it drops. Maybe there will be a Black Friday deal? Season 1 looks really good on Blu-ray.

 

In pilot episode, the wife of the CIA (?) next door neighbor says "you don't have to spend three years with the golden legion..." What the heck is the Golden Legion. I surfed it and found nada, nothing, zilch.

 

It's been mentioned that Stan spent years undercover with a white supremacist group, maybe that is it.

 

I thought the season finale was very good. Interesting resolution to the murdered family subplot, as well as to the Stan/Nina relationship. And the "home grown" twist promises some good story lines next year.

Trying to figure out what they do with Stan next...maybe he finally figures out the enemy lives next door?

 

Or joins them.

 

I think Stan is going to throw hinself into his work against the sleeper agents with a real passion.

Great season finale, great season over all.

 

The producers said they never considered having Stan give up the info for Nina.

They also say we have not seen the last of her.

 

Do you have a link to the discussions with the producers?

 

Here's a couple:

http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-wa...ducers-on-the-sex-murder-and-wigs-of-season-2

http://www.vulture.com/2014/05/americans-bosses-finale-twist-postmortem.html

 

Thanks...very interesting...

 

I enjoyed most of the second season, but I found the season finale to be really disappointing and contrived. The idea of young Jared being a secret second generation sleeper agent seemed totally implausible to me and I still don't understand exactly why he felt compelled to kill his family, or why Larrick was so fixated on tracking him when Elizabeth and Phillip were his primary targets. And enough with Paige already. I understand that the showrunners want to bring the kids in and show how they're all at risk, but she's not a strong actress or a well developed character, IMO. Send her off to Christian camp already, and don't even think about trying to turn her into a sleeper agent!

I knew that Stan wasn't ready to completely betray his country, but I was sad to see Nina go. She was such a complex, multi-faceted character--she would get so deeply buried in her facades that I wasn't always sure what she really wanted at times, though she seemed to form a genuine connection with Oleg, who I couldn't help but like. Sometimes I feel like I'm pulling for the communists more than the Americans, but this show does have a way of playing with your loyalties.

 

I disagree about Paige--I feel the character rings true and I think the actress is quite competent. And I like how they have incorporated her into the storyline. If only they had done as well with Brody's daughter in Homeland!

Looks a post or two above as if we have NOT seen the last of Nina.

 

I was a little disappointed in the finale. I had a much darker and perhaps a bit more sensible scenario going - Larrick honey-traps Jared in response to being pressured by his parents. I just don't see how Jared could have pulled off taking out his well-trained Mom and Dad unnoticed in a room in a busy motel. But I'm still in for next year. My favorite line from the interviews above is that everyone in the writer's room is jockeying to be Annet's next love interest. I could get behind that...

 

The same way that Jarred took out the military guy...he seemed like a sleepy insignificant kid. I am sure the parents weren't walking around armed, in case their dopey teenager turned on them.

The thing I liked most about the interviews is that the producers made it clear that most of the overriding arcs were sketched out before the season started. None of the stupid "well, we all got tanked and came back into the writer's room and decided to go another way" kind of talk that you hear around shows like 24 and Homeland, that results in dangling subplots and character changes that make no sense.

 

Larrick was tracking him because he hoped Jared would lead him to Elizabeth and Phillip, which he did... I guess the kid was easier to find than they were, though I'm not sure when he wired the kid's backpack.

And yeah, the "second generation agent" idea seems like a stretch to me too. Who's to say Jared or Paige would ever have a chance of joining the FBI or the CIA? I find it a stretch that the sleeper agents have kids in the first place -- sure it's good cover, but isn't it a recipe for a serious conflict of interest?

 

That's what people said when they learned of Hitler's little troops.