The Americans sixth and final season approaches...

That highlights a difference between the Russian culture and ours. I cannot contemplate an American spy in another country, with children, not seeing their job as a career in some respect. So if their children were interested in doing the same thing, the costs and benefits of the job would be explained.

Here, that isn't happening. Because it isn't part of the Communist system. From a capitalist perspective, Elizabeth and Phillip are likely severely underpaid for all of the risk they have taken. They should at least be looking to move up and out of the line of fire, as I'm sure many of the more savvy Russians were at this point in time. Hence the fall of the USSR. So simply holding up to a mirror to the characters doesn't work. They are a product of a particular culture.

 

I tell my wife something is going to happen to Paige. I wouldn’t count it out!

 

"I used to think just like you; but now I'm more enlightened because I'm the only one on the forum who's ever picked up a book."

 

And we all know everything that's in a book is true.

 

I’ve been wondering in the last few episodes if they are paid, or how. Can’t their spymasters help them pay for Henry’s school, or bail out their business?

 

I don't get how you read all that into my comment. My opening observation was made as a factual statement of my experience. And because I felt it necessary in my reply to note exactly how common it is in this great big old massively powerful nation for us to insist on the faultlessness of our motives and our behavior, based more on fictional entertainment narratives than the messy complexities of non-fiction history. Complexities of the sort that incidentally also practically always get glossed over in the course of a secondary school history education, for reasons that I find to some extent excusable. Although I think the more blatant shortcomings are worthy of remediation.

Neither did I imply that "I'm the only one on the forum who's ever picked up a book." I admit, I've been reading books about U.S. history since I was five years old. (I got the first tutoring on the subject from my dad, who was a TA in the subject as an undergrad at West Point. He found himself on the Pusan perimeter in a hot war four months after he graduated in 1950. I was born five years later.) But as I pointed out later in my comment, it took me more than 40 years of history study to begin to pick up on some facts of critical importance that- in my personal opinion- should have been obvious to me a lot earlier. So if my current perspective equates to "enlightenment", it's enlightenment of a very modest sort. And it didn't arrive simply as the result of "picking up a book"; I had already read many of them, and was probably older than many of the participants on this forum when I got past my slowness on the uptake in regard to some of these questions.

 

That's a really thought-provoking observation.

One of the most interesting things about it is that it alludes to one of the aspects of Marxism-Leninism that provides its core appeal to its adherents; the ideology partakes of moral absolutism. Ergo, the resulting narrative: the problems facing the Soviet state exist- primarily, if not solely- because it's continually being undermined by impurities and threats originating from outside. (It couldn't possibly have anything to do with flaws in the Grand Design!) So the Russian spies- "the Americans"- are presented as being driven by idealism. Of the most ruthless sort. The same sort of fervid religiosity that sustains inquisitions and campaigns of terror. Also, absolutism and hair-trigger paranoia go hand in hand.(Paranoia betokens an unbalanced cognitive state- ultimately unhealthy, even fatal. Unleavened paranoia- the sort that lacks self-doubt, or wit- cultivates derangement. But paranoia does allow people to sustain hypervigilance. And hypervigilance has a lot of tactical utility, for a covert operative.)

The US had its own True Believer moral absolutists, in the Cold War era; I would argue that such people still exist, and influence American policy in ways that I've often opposed. But- crucial difference- the US is an open society. The absolutists aren't running the entire show, even in the cases where their views prevail in policy. So I get to write this, and lots of people get to read this. And there's a contentious debate on these questions, even within the corridors of American power. In the Cold War era, sometimes the absolutist views prevailed; but the most extreme absolutists were sidelined or discredited. The absolutists had the most influence at the outset, but over time their views came under more scrutiny, review, and criticism. From without and within. Thankfully, liberal democracy isn't a political paradigm that demands fealty to absolutism. If you're doing it that way, I'd argue that you're doing it wrong. (As for capitalism, it isn't even an ideology. It's a method. Turning capitalism into an ideology leads to big problems.)

By contrast, the Soviet Politburo was a top-down central command hierarchy. The state was pretty much uniformly as extreme or moderate as the Politburo determined. And the price of loyalty was unquestioning obedience, of the sort that typically requires serious internal justification, for a KGB spy trying to infiltrate the archenemy. So that's Elizabeth. She has well-maintained, high-functioning reducing filter in her mind. But it's becoming clear that she's also painted herself into a corner. Despite that, she isn't going to flip, though. It's too late for that. She's crossed too many hurdles, burned too many bridges, passed too many tests of fire.

I'll admit, I have not followed this series. (I do want to catch everything I've missed.) But I did hear an interview with one of the creators of "The Americans" just a few days ago, and he mentioned that in the second season, the husband actually broached the idea of going over to the other side with Elizabeth. He wavered some, had some misgivings. Personal risks, family risks, the stress and pressure of it all. Maybe even some doubts about The Cause. But Elizabeth wasn't having any.

side note: what's interesting to me is how- in real factual history- the KGB was so effective, in the Cold War era. Particularly at turning top-level Americans in the CIA and FBI. They did the same thing to the Brits, but that's more comprehensible to me: the Russians had put Philby and the Cambridge spy ring together early on; that was more about infiltration of their own people than whatever it was that happened in the USA, with Americans, to account for their success at flipping the Walkers. And Ames. And Hansen. The books and the movies don't get close to explaining it. Maybe the problem had more to do with the naivete that allowed people with such vulnerabilities of personal temperament and behavior to advance to the top levels of the CIA and FBI in the first place. The people responsible for that weren't minding the store. Possibly because they were more in love with concentrating on their own skullduggery- even when it often resulted in failure, blowback, and various other sorcerer's apprentice-like consequences.

 

If nothing else the first five seasons are streaming on Amazon Prime if you want to catch up to this season. I'm also looking forward to a complete Blu-Ray set once the series ends.

 

Well, I'm caught up and in exactly the place that everybody else is now.

No long study from me this time. I will only say that, yeah, this is the darkest season by far. Elizabeth is despicable. Where I had once held out hope for her, there is none now, and while I realize that the stakes are high for both countries, Elizabeth is just on a bloodquest. Her myopia is at an all-time slender funnel; everything else is total darkness.

I see Beeman putting a bullet in somebody. I see Henry having already been tapped by The Reds, thus the spike in his grades, going to that prestigious school, because one of his targets - and a part of his training - goes to that school. It's an elaborate assignment, just like the son of those Russian spies who were killed. This allows for all eyes to be on Paige, while Henry is the real player that The Center was grooming behind his parent's back. When Philip and Elizabeth learn that they were ultimately betrayed by their country, with Henry, it doesn't matter the outcome. All lives will be shot to hell, even if somebody manages to walk away.

That's all I'm saying.

 

That would be a brilliant twist. Wish I'd thought of it.

 

I'd hope for a Blu-ray set too, but since only the first season was available in that format, I think we'll just see a DVD set.

 

He knows that she doesn't know what she's getting into. Those college guys weren't trained and weren't expecting a college girl to fight like that. A spy would.

Paige is clueless. He knows and she needed to be brought back to reality.

 

Yet when Philip grabbed his jacket and was waking out, he mumbled "Not bad," though of course you're right, any trained spy would have wiped Paige out. Think about all the years Phillip and Elizabeth trained for that gig, before they were even put in the field, and then there is Paige with her perfect nails and church-girl body. A few basic self defense classes aren't going to cut it.

 

What exactly constitutes a "church-girl body"

 

But her mom has her thinking it will cut it.{and maybe her mom thinks so}

 

Heh. Soft. Too soft. It night be shapely, but you don't build muscle by feeding the poor and doing "Footprints" needlepoint.

(I'm just thinking of the young church ladies I knew back in the day, who would be a little younger than Paige is now. In 1987 they would have been around 13 or 14.)

 

That "not bad" was delivered with the same disdain as the rest of their conversation.

 

Some thoughts on the characters

Elizabeth - a true believer. Nothing will change her. We've seen them go through (and do) terrible things. She's never really that conflicted, if at all. Her personality is strong and stubborn. She can't see that things have changed in the Soviet Union or that the country is collapsing.

Philip - He had been a good soldier, but never really nearly as passionate as Elizabeth. He has been conflicted. I can't remember now because it's been too long, but I think his conflicted thoughts were noted as having happened at times prior to the timeline we have seen in the show. But he's not weak. He's also done terrible things and decisively. He also can see things for what they are, unlike Elizabeth. He knows that the Soviet Union is changing. He knows that he and the kids have had a good life here and that's it what their propaganda says it is.

Paige - young idealistic and easily can't be sucked into a cause - first it was the church and now this.

Henry - He's always been the TV sibling who is not really a main character in the show. In all this time, it's been one dimensional. That would be something if in fact he was somehow being groomed for a career in the family business, but I don't think we have much to go on. If the Center was pushing it, then they would also provide the financial support to send him to that elite school...

There's definitely a tragedy that's going to happen, it's just a question of what unfolds...

 

One that goes from hourglass to egg after the first kid.

 

Like this?

 

Starting the first episode with Fleetwood Mac "Tusk" really made sense as Matthew Rhys kind of resembles Lindsay Buckingham. Great show, can`t wait til sixth season.

 

Eh, but I'm Jewish, so what do I know? ✡ Probably nothing!

 

That’s not Paige. I believe the actress is 20 years old so I’ll refrain from comment as to not sound like an old lech.

 

I think Phillip will finally crack due to Elizabeth going off the deep end, and go to Stan and spill his guts. Stan will do his best to try and protect Phillip and the kids, but something will go horribly wrong.