Anyone watch the FX series The Americans

Yeah, I can't imagine that affair between Nina and the FBI agent doesn't end badly...The husband is assuredly more sympathetic than the wife...

 

Last night's episode was pretty good. The big question I have is whether the Russian agent is playing the FBI guy...

 

Do you mean Nina? I haven't really thought of her as a spy. She's supposed to just be working at the consulate, and then began spying for the FBI, but her speech last night about how spies think differently from cops and how spies don't want to arrest enemies, they want to keep them right where they are forever might be a hint that the new head of the consulate is onto her and will use her to feed false information to the FBI. And that she might know that. At this point I wouldn't be surprised if they reveal that she was dangled as bait to lure him from the get go. She's certainly got him emotionally involved to the point that he might even compromise US security to protect her.

Can someone explain to me why Elizabeth is so angry at Phillip? She knows he has to do things with assets to get information from them. I don't understand why she's so upset that he had sex with the woman. Surely she's done the same when getting information from her assets. His daliance, if it counts as such, is in the service of their mission. She was having an affair that had nothing to do with their mission. She seems completely hypocritical on this to me.

 

For those who love to spot the anachronisms, the Cure song used at the end of last nights episode is from the Pornography album, released in 1982. The show is supposed to be set i 1981. Didn't bug me, it worked great as an ending song. It would have bugged me if they showed a character specifically listening to that song, but that wasn't the case.

 

I think the reason Elizabeth is so angry at Phillip is that in this case, she knows that if he slept with the woman, it was out of love/want. You're right: The two of them do not care (or at least accept) that the other will have sex with their assets. But this was different, and Elizabeth knows it. She's also pissed that he lied to her directly when she initially asked him about it. But that's probably more minor. As you note, Elizabeth was having an affair at an earlier point. But that was at a point where I don't think either of them harbored any beliefs that they were a romantic couple. As she noted in an early episode, she feels that, now, she is becoming romantically involved with Philip. Which is, as she noted last night, bad for her job.

 

But it might have been recorded in 1981, and slipped to the FBI by an informant ahead of release...

 

Yeah, I get it now. I forgot about the woman he saw from Russia. Since they kept showing him this episode with the woman who works at the FBI, I was thinking it was her that Elizabeth was upset about. I forgot about his ex from before.

 

Even more so than other antihero-led series like "Breaking Bad" or "The Sopranos," this show is a fascinating experiment in messing with the audience's instincts for sympathy or identification. It's hard to know what to feel about Philip and Elizabeth at any given moment -- usually it's several contradictory things at once. Keri Russell, who I always found rather wishy-washy as Felicity, is fantastic in this part. (And her wigs are fabulous.)

If I have a criticism of it, it's that I think they would have long since decided whether they love each other or not. Some of the emotional developments they go through seem more suited to a pair who are new on the job.

 

Loving this show. I am enjoying the "slow boil" pace. More and more compelling each week. Hope the writers can keep it up.

 

Yes, I look forward to it each week. However, I think the dialogue was weak in this episode. The exchange in the kitchen between Elizabeth and Phillip was a big moment, but it ended up flat. Especially when Elizabeth sums her feelings up with, "It is what it is..." First, was that phrase used in 1981? And I thought the moment called for something more memorable, powerful.

 

She should have prefaced it with "at the end of the day..."

 

This 3 minute reply crap is screwing up my recordings of it on my DVR.

 

Apparently "it is what it is" dates back to the 40s, though I don't remember hearing it before the 90s at least. But it seems like a pretty idiomatic thing for a Russian spy to say.

I was looking at the Wikipedia page about the gang of Russian sleeper agents that were caught a few years ago, who inspired this show. The funny thing is, they totally look like a bunch of Russians.

 

Thanks for the information about that phrase. I didn't realize that.

I want to look into the real-life inspiration as well. Think it continues today?

 

Very funny and well-written review of The Americans by longtime Hollywood comedy writer Ken Levine:

http://kenlevine.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-americans-my-review.html

I agree 100% with everything Ken says -- and not only that, I'm still watching the show. It's a goofy show, but I must confess: the twists and turns have kept me surprised, and I like the weird balance between liking/hating the leads, plus wondering how the F they manage to keep up the appearance of being a happily-married family while secretly being Russian agents and killing and torturing people in their (apparently) vast amounts of spare time.

 

I just started catching up with this show on Hulu and I think it's a blast. I'm not too worried about the believability, just enjoying the sexy spy-jinks.

 

I didn't expect to like this show but I do. I know it has flaws but that hour goes by really fast. One of the few shows I look forward to each week.

 

I agree more with this review:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/presspla...compelling-romance-on-tv#.UVByq-PWDUo.twitter

As with most shows on TV, even the best ones, you can nit-pick the plausibility of the premise, but I agree with this writer that this show is not really "about" the spy hijinks, but more about the two lead characters and their relationship. Actually, like most of the better shows on TV (The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, etc.) I think this show is really about the tension in American life between work and family. The hyper-exaggerated premise of this show serves to draw that tension into even sharper contrast than those other shows, I think.

 

Pretty good episode this week. Everyone (the main couple, the Russians, the FBI) is wrong about who knows what and who did what...

 

I thought last night's episode was amazing, one of the finest hours of television I've seen in the past year. It almost felt like a feature made for the cinema.

 

Yep. This was already one of the best shows on TV, but this week's episode took it to a new level.

 

Anyone know what the soul tune featured at the end of this weeks episode was?

 

I agree. A really great episode. I felt really sorry for Amadon. I wonder if before he died he cottoned on that Elizabeth and the hot chick he asked about at the party were one and the same?

 

Roberta Flack's great cover of The Bee Gee's To Love Somebody.

 

Didn't really like or buy the end of the most recent episode. The romanticizing of going out in a hail of bullets didn't ring true to me for that character.I get that he didn't want to go to Moscow, but still.

Why was Russia the only option? You'd think they could get him to Cuba if they could get him out of the country at all. I know if I had a choice of Cuba or Moscow, I'd pick the one where I didn't need snow-shoes.