Anyone watch the FX series The Americans

we love it.

very well done, and keri russelll is definitely getting better as an actor.

 

I dunno. The show is getting goofy to me -- like a low-rent 1980s version of Homeland, plus elements of Rubicon. Not great. There's too many "coincidences" and unexplained events that happen.

For example: the very day they install the bug in the Secretary of Defense's house just happens to be the day he discusses Ronald Reagan's then-new "Star Wars" missile defense system... like that's gonna happen.

 

Definitely not a "cookie-cutter" show, which I appreciate. Yet, it is difficult to find much likeable or sympathetic about any of the characters, regardless of which side they are on. I don't see the show lasting.

 

The reason they were so urgent to get the bug installed was that the secretary of defense was meeting with a high ranking British official. I think they made a point to mention that this was unusual in that the British official wasn't the usual person to communicate directly with the secretary, and so they thought it was something important and wanted to hear the meeting. So it wasn't entirely coincidental. They had an idea something important was about to be discussed.

 

Naaa, it's a stupid plot contrivance. The whole show is flogging some wildly silly coincidences and plot holes. The bizarre side-plots (like the wife having a long-term affair with the black guy) was pure soap opera, as far as I'm concerned.

I'm still trying to figure out how the husband and wife get away with doing all this stuff with a staff of a half-dozen people at a "travel agency," none of whom see to know that they're spies (despite one of them being Russian), plus they're out half the night murdering people and getting stabbed... and the kids never notice. I can barely believe Homeland, but this train is running right off the rails...

 

I think Keri Russell having an affair with Luke Derek is in fact the most believable of all the things going on in this show.

The other stuff. . .yeah. . . but this is a tv show, not a documentary, not a recreation of real events.

 

Still enjoying this show, but I'm wondering who you're ultimately supposed to like. After last night, clearly not Keri Russell's character, who had no issue with killing a friendly security guard just for asking inopportune questions.

 

I thought the last episode was the least interesting of the series. When they placed the episode around the Reagan shooting, it made me groan and think of "The Newsroom".

 

I’m enjoying the series. And the low budget aspects actually add to the realism, as hollywood has grown too dependent on high tech espionage and action, IMO. Although, it often feels more like a ‘70's era rather than an ‘80's one.

 

It's only '81, right? That's still just out of the 'seventies.

 

Just not as much bad hair and the jeans are tighter?

 

I'm having a hard time buying their new handler as a KGB operative, which of course would make her the perfect deep cover spy. But everytime they show her, I just see Maggs Bennett from "Justified".

 

Nope, definitely feels like early '80s, done pretty well...After having to endure so much garbage cartoon nostalgia around that era (That '70s Show...Was anyone who worked on that show actually alive in the '70s?), it's nice to see something better. And it makes me nostalgic for the time when we all got our news from a small number of sources and there wasn't a 24 hour news cycle.

 

Renewed for 13 episode second season

 

I thought the vocals were FM, but I'll listen again. Perhaps I simply wanted them to be. They definitely looped the opening drum track -- REALLY extended -- if that was the original version.

 

i never even considered that the russians might has concluded that alexander haig's gaffe was an attempted coup, i found that point to quite intriguing.

 

Watched this week's episode. And while I think it's a well made and suspenseful show, and I'm definitely in for the season, I'm still having trouble identifying a good empathetic character to care about and root for...

 

Thoughts on this week's show?

I predicted that the abductors/interrogaters were Russians. The side plot with the kids was interested on the face, but pretty much a red herring. I am still not quite sure where they're going with this. The husband/wife have issues and the husband doesn't trust the wife. They both hate their new handler. Is the husband eventually going to become a double agent? Or will this just be a cat and mouse game with the Americans? Or...? Hard to say what the multi season arc is going to be here...

 

This week's ep was great. I didn't predict who the abductors were, and loved Elizabeth's (Keri Russel) reaction when she found out - awesome! These are human beings being pushed in ways that very few of us can truly imagine. They react in very human ways. This is how we can relate to them.

The side story with the kids was probably more to show that the parents can't be running around doing spy stuff all day & night, and still watch their kids. It demonstrated the potential consequences.

I still question the long-term viability of the show, but this week's episode was worth sticking with it so far.

 

Enjoying it so far. Pretty raw and real.

 

Best episode yet. They've hooked me back in. I'm glad the wife kicked the crap out of the boss lady.

The thing with the kids was very, very, very creepy. I kept yelling at the set, "hit him in the head with a beer bottle! This guy is a child molester!"

 

I like the show. Its definitely thought provoking and gives me a better understanding of what the Cold War political climate must have been like. Its fascinating to think about the deep cover KGB agents that lived here, and may still like here following forced integration. At first, I wasn't sure what to make of it, but its winning me over more and more each episode.

 

I kinda got bored with it. Not sure why.

 

The weeks go by and I'm still not sure who we're supposed to like here.

It's interesting, but I wish there were a more clearly defined protagonist.

 

I like the husband. And the last few episodes, Nina (the one who works at the Sovient embassy) has grown on me. I hope things turn out well for her, though they almost certainly won't.