Anyone watch the FX series The Americans

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by kwadguy, Jan 31, 2013.

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  1. agentalbert

    agentalbert Senior Member

    Location:
    San Antonio, TX
    Yeah, we're talking about Nina. I called her Irina. I might be thinking of a character on another show, but I'm not sure which. In any case, I meant Nina.
     
  2. Lonson

    Lonson I'm in the kitchen with the Tombstone Blues

    Irina WAS a character on The Americans, the old girlfriend of Philip, who was the woman used to "take down" the priest. . . .
     
  3. agentalbert

    agentalbert Senior Member

    Location:
    San Antonio, TX
    Okay, that explains how I got my Ruskie names confused. Thanks. :)

    I wonder if Nina would have decided to confess her acting as a double agent to her superior if Stan had admitted to killing her embassy co-worker.
     
  4. kwadguy

    kwadguy Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Cambridge, MA
    Very solid season finale, and a very solid season.

    And good use of Peter Gabriel's "Games Without Frontiers".
     
  5. Driver 8

    Driver 8 Senior Member

    We live in the golden age of TV, but this is the best show of our time, or, I'll rephrase that, the one I have enjoyed the most. Stellar job by all involved. I think Season 2 could face some of the same problems that Homeland faced in its second season - it's tough to string out these sorts of espionage plots indefinitely, and there were hints of that problem in the season finale here - I was surprised to see Nina back in her and Stan's love nest at the end, as I was sure that Stan would come back and find the apartment empty and realize that she had double-crossed him, but I guess that would more or less have meant writing Nina out of the show, so their relationship continues. But I'll worry about Season 2 later, and probably re-watch Season 1 at least once before then.
     
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  6. Tristero

    Tristero In possession of the future tense

    Location:
    MI
    I've been increasingly impressed by this show. Overall, they did a great job of balancing the various plot points over the course of several episodes, gradually ratcheting up the tension. What's so striking is that these characters blunder about so much of the time, making bold decisions without completely understanding what they're doing. Philip and Elizabeth were putting their lives on the line for a lie: Although it turns out that the Colonel was apparently for real, he reveals that "Star Wars" missile defense was bogus; and of course, the meeting at Weinberger's house was all a set up, undermined at the last minute by Nina's reversal. Stan seems on the verge of crumbling now, with his marriage in tatters and the clear victories at work being few and far between. I liked the observation that Arkady made to Nina about him: “The kind of man who did what was done to you is weaker and more vulnerable than he seems.”

    I was also surprisingly happy to see Elizabeth ask Philip to come home at the end (in Russian, no less!). Though their marriage was initially presented as a sham, in truth, they're totally committed to each other in their way. We'll see if they're able to convincingly extend this dynamic through a second season. With this show and the increasingly excellent Justified, now it seems like FX is stepping up into the big leagues with networks like AMC.
     
  7. shokhead

    shokhead Head shok and you still don't what it is. HA!

    Location:
    SoCal, Long Beach
    I enjoy it a lot. Now I'm afraid. Crap happens to good shows in the off season like smash. Let's hope they don't screw it up.
     
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  8. Driver 8

    Driver 8 Senior Member

    But, as I think the Colonel himself explained to Phillip, this is the most valuable intelligence that they could possibly deliver to their superiors in Moscow: I think there is a consensus that Reagan was just trying to bait the Soviets into an arms race (against an imaginary technology) that would cause them to bankrupt their economy in the process, causing the Soviet empire to collapse. I think many historians agree that that's more or less what happened. I may be wrong about that, but, still, I think it is extremely valuable information for them to pass on to their bosses that the perceived threat is not real, or at least imminently capable of being deployed.

    One of the reasons I don't feel so bad about rooting for the Russians in this show is that what Stan has done to Nina is at least as crappy as what "Clark" has done to Martha.

    I thought that was a devastating moment, that the series had built toward all year: they're in deep cover, they're never allowed to speak Russian, but only English, but, when push comes to shove, Elizabeth reverts to her mother tongue, which kind of ties in with my observation above that, to me, this show is in some way an allegory about the immigrant experience in America: how long does the culture and memory of the Old World hold sway over an immigrant before they become an American? Who are "The Americans" in this show, anyway? Stan and his FBI buddies? No, I think "The Americans" are clearly Phillip and Elizabeth.

    Along those lines, the prior scene of Elizabeth listening, alone, to the Russian-language tape from her mother back in the old country was heartbreaking.

    I will go out on a limb and say we won't see much more of the "marriage on the rocks" plot lines that drove this season. I think that Elizabeth asking Phillip to "come home," in Russian, signifies that she accepts him as her husband. I very much got the impression from the final scene of the daughter (Paige?) going down in the basement to double-check her mother's story about doing the laundry that the "family" plotline of next season will revolve around Phillip and Elizabeth's relationship with their children.
     
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  9. agentalbert

    agentalbert Senior Member

    Location:
    San Antonio, TX
    I don't agree with that at all. Stan is actually taken with Nina and though he developed her as an asset, using knowledge of her illegal activities against her, he clearly feels very strongly for her. Whether or not his superiors would have actually ex-filtrated her we don't know. I get the feeling "ex-filtration" is almost a complete fantasy in the world of espionage. It's used as incentive, but nobody actually gets it. But I think Stan really believed it was posible for her because he wanted it to be. While he lied to her about the killing of her colleague, I don't think he ever plans to at some point just discard her without a thought for what will happen to her.

    Phillip/"Clark" doesn't have any real feelings for Martha and will certainly abandon her when he's done with her or can't get anything further from her. He'll probably have to kill her or have her killed, as its not as if he could just stop using her as an asset if she ever figured him out.

    If Stan is leading Nina on at all, it's with the potential for ex-filtration. She might not even think this is a true possibility, but I think Stan convinced himself it was. Phillip/Clark is leading Martha on with a sham marriage, pretending to love her, making her think they have a future.

    If both Nina and Martha found out the complete truth about Stan and Phillip, only Martha would actually be crushed.
     
  10. Driver 8

    Driver 8 Senior Member

    And I don't agree with you at all, either. :D

    Despite your apparent fairy-tale belief that true love makes anything and everything OK, I'd say that Stan actually having real feelings for Nina, as you describe, but still callously using Nina as a piece in the U.S./Soviet chess game, is far more reprehensible than what Clark has done to Martha.

    Not to mention that Stan is married to a woman, who, unlike Elizabeth, didn't know before her marriage started that part of the deal was that, from time to time, her husband's job would entail him bonking enemy agents. And now that Stan's wife has intuited that he is cheating, Stan still won't let go of Nina. He's playing the same callous game with his own wife's heart that Clark is with Martha's.

    I also highly doubt that Phillip/Clark would ever kill Martha, but we'll have to wait and see on that. Meanwhile, we've seen that Stan is just as capable of callously shooting an innocent person in the head as Phillip and Elizabeth are, and, again, whatever Stan's puppy love feelings for Nina may be, every day that he doesn't exfiltrate her puts her at a very real risk of getting killed, or, at the very least, shipped off to a Soviet labor camp. Stan is not the All-American Boy Scout he likes to think he is.
     
  11. agentalbert

    agentalbert Senior Member

    Location:
    San Antonio, TX
    Stan isn't deceiving Nina about how or why he is using her. That's a very big difference. Nina knows what she is doing and what is happening with the information she gives Stan. She knows what he really is. This is NOTHING like the situation with Phillip and Martha.

    And now you're conflating what Stan is doing to his wife with what Stan is doing to Nina. If you want to argue who is a better man in the overall scheme of the universe, that's a separate conversation. I only took issue with your statement that "...what Stan has done to Nina is at least as crappy as what Clark has done to Martha." Nina has no illusions about her relationship with Stan. And aside from him lying about killing her co-worker, he's being truthful with her. He even tried to end the romantic part of their relationship because he wanted to save his marriage. Now she's the one working him.

    Why do you doubt this? If its not Phillip himself, it will be his handler or Claire or someone else. What do you think will happen to her when she finds out who he is? They can't leave her alive. She'll be so despondent she may very well take her own life.
     
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  12. Driver 8

    Driver 8 Senior Member

    Stan has been lying to Nina all along about exfiltrating her. The longer he strung her along, the more danger she was in. Before she turned herself in, so to speak, to her boss at the Rezidentura, if anyone from the Rezidentura had ever caught her with Stan, she would have been shipped back to Moscow for trial, if not killed on the spot.

    "Aside from lying to her about killing her co-worker" is a pretty big "aside."

    I think you meant to type, "Stan's wife figured out he was cheating on her, so the next time Stan met Nina, he told her, "We can't do this anymore," until Nina took her bathrobe off, at which point he had sex with her again anyway." What a great guy that Stan is.

    If there's anyone Phillip should have wanted to kill, and/or had a very good reason to kill, it was Gregory, and he didn't pull the trigger when he had the chance. Unlike Stan, Phillip doesn't kill unless he absolutely has to.
     
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  13. agentalbert

    agentalbert Senior Member

    Location:
    San Antonio, TX
    She already put herself in danger with the activities she was engaged in that Stan used against her at the beginning. She'd done enough to get sent back to Moscow and end up in Siberia or another labor camp if caught. Probably not enough to get executed. By giving information to the FBI she's certainly upped the danger factor. So yeah, Stan has had a part in making her life much more risky. But I don't know that its clear Stan has been lying to her about ex-filtration all along. We won't know if it was going to be really given to her, but it seemed like Stan thought it was. That's part of why he was so happy before the operation was a bust.

    No, he isn't. But again, that's him being a bad husband to his wife. That's not him doing something wrong to Nina. Stan isn't a great guy. There are no boy scouts or angels on either side in this game. And I never said there were. I only took issue with your statement that what Stan has done to Nina is as crappy as what Philip is doing to Martha. I still think that is completely wrong. Martha thinks she's in a loving relationship. She thinks she's in a marriage. And the things Phillip/"Clark" asks her for, she thinks she's helping another part of the US Government against the enemy when she's in fact helping the enemy. None of this complete and utter deception is happening with Nina.

    We see it differently, that's okay.


    Well, he let Gregory go to get himself killed. Not really an act of mercy. But I'm curious what you think will happen to Martha when she finds out the truth or starts to get too close? I don't see how they can let her go.
     
  14. Driver 8

    Driver 8 Senior Member

    Martha is pretty far down the totem pole of characters whose fate I care about, so I haven't thought about it much. I suppose you're right that Clark/Phillip may have to kill her if she discovers too much of the truth. We shall see.
     
  15. shokhead

    shokhead Head shok and you still don't what it is. HA!

    Location:
    SoCal, Long Beach
    I think she is going to end up maybe next season as something big
     
  16. JorgeGvb

    JorgeGvb Senior Member

    Location:
    Virginia Beach
    The Americans was my favorite new show this year. Interesting time period in US history and made for great TV.
     
  17. jpelg

    jpelg Forum Resident

    Location:
    The Elm City
    I thought that the finale ep felt rushed & not as polished as previous eps.
    Still, a good first season & one of my favorite series. Hope they can keep it up in the next.

    Oh, and Martha certainly is a "screamer", yes? :agree:
     
  18. Driver 8

    Driver 8 Senior Member

    I knew I was officially old when this show came out, and the Reagan administration was now officially a distant time period in U.S. history. :D
     
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  19. Driver 8

    Driver 8 Senior Member

    I'm in serious The Americans withdrawal now that Wednesday came and went with no new episode. I watch a fair bit of TV on iTunes, but this was the one show I really looked forward to each week.
     
  20. Me too! The season one final screened here in New Zealand last Monday. What am I going to watch this coming Monday?
     
  21. Driver 8

    Driver 8 Senior Member

    I know, we can start over with Episode One! :D
     
  22. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    It's only a matter of time before the two kids realize something's up with the parents. Don't forget: these are two kids so resourceful, they (apparently) killed a child molester in a park on the way home from school.

    (I believe this child molester now occupies the same forest as the body of the Russian mob guy from The Sopranos.)
     
  23. shokhead

    shokhead Head shok and you still don't what it is. HA!

    Location:
    SoCal, Long Beach
    I think I missed the one where the kids killed a child molester.
     
  24. Sean Murdock

    Sean Murdock Forum Intruder

    Location:
    Bergenfield, NJ
    I doubt they killed him by hitting him with a bottle; I think they just knocked him out long enough to escape. That was a creepy scene.
     
  25. Squealy

    Squealy Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Vancouver
    They didn't kill that guy, they just hit him on the head and ran away.
     
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