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The Americans - S3 of the KGB spy drama - Keri Russell & Matthew Rhys - Wed on FX

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P

Paganmoon

Member
BeeDog said:
After all the praising this show has received, I decided to start watching it around two weeks ago. I'm almost done with the second season (2 episodes left I think), and it has quickly risen to one of my favorite TV shows ever. Fantastic all around, can't really think of many complaints. I love how smaller points from earlier episodes aren't forgotten and can come back in full force, and the acting is excellent, especially from Rhys and Russell.

I hope the Swedish Netflix puts season 3 up soon, since I wanna catch up with all y'all.
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I think they just recently put up Season 2, so it'll be a while before we get Season 3 on SE Netflix.
 
N

Niraj

I shot people I like more for less.
I'm always pleased to hear more people are watching this. I always try to get more friends to give it a shot during the offseason.
 
D

Discotheque

Banned
was mad men too late for entry? because otherwise it's exclusion would be completely absurd imo.

but this definitely deserves it over the other nominees for sure. though I'm only at season 2 of justified right now (loving this series as well)
 
D

dead souls

Member
RatskyWatsky said:
Out of that list? Hell yes!
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Pretty weird list of nominees but out of them I'd say Homeland, Justified and Orange is the New Black are all better than this show.

Then again, I think most of the 60-80 shows I watch a year are better than this so my opinion is obviously going to be an outlier in this thread.
 
B

BrassDragon

Member
I love this show unreservedly and it should get more recognition.

Putting the wonderful acting and writing to the side, one thing I really appreciate is the realism of the espionage. It's still heavily dramatized and condensed (the two illegals quickly accomplish missions that would require big teams and long preparation in the real world) but I can't think of a more accurate portrayal in recent times (and most of the good stuff is from the UK.)

The jargon they use, the way they run their sources and agents, the use of handlers, obsession with covers, subtle elicitation of information and the tradecraft of communication is all believable. Compared to fluff like Homeland it's really refreshing to see intelligence collection presented as the murky art and craft that it is. It's also charming to see how clunky their surveillance equipment is and how that influences the risks they have to take.

I bet a lot of intelligence professionals watch this.
 
S

scabro

Member
Decado said:
But this was by far the worst season... 0_o

Literally nothing of note happened. Waste of time after an excellent 1st two season. Sad to see fx dragging this one out already.
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ZcHeGd5.gif
 
F

Funky Papa

FUNK-Y-PPA-4
Decado said:
But this was by far the worst season... 0_o

Literally nothing of note happened. Waste of time after an excellent 1st two season. Sad to see fx dragging this one out already.
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The entire season was more or less about bringing Paige in, which would have been a disaster if done in just a few episodes. It had to be a slow burner.

It still gave us some amazing episodes like everything invilving Pakistan's IS and an INCREDIBLE closing scene for the season.

I'm content.
 
E

EmpressInYellow

Banned
dead souls said:
Pretty weird list of nominees but out of them I'd say Homeland, Justified and Orange is the New Black are all better than this show.

Then again, I think most of the 60-80 shows I watch a year are better than this so my opinion is obviously going to be an outlier in this thread.
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Wow, I don't see that at all, particularly after Homeland's third season.

Anyway, Rhys and Russell were robbed, but it's nice to see the show getting some award recognition.
 
G

-griffy-

Banned
Cornballer said:
- IndieWire: 'The Americans' Showrunners on Season 4 Plans, Reaction to the Season 3 Finale and Emmy Conspiracy Theories
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I always find it fascinating how different showrunners try and be aware of the overall conversation about their shows. Joe and Joel seem to keep up on all the reactions of viewers and critics and take it into consideration while trying to remain true to the story they are telling. Vince Gilligan just remains completely in the dark to it all as much as he can and tries to tell a story he finds entertaining. D&D of Game of Thrones seem to fall somewhere in between the two. Bryan Fuller seems to go almost the complete other way and is so active in the conversation that his enjoyment and transparency actually adds to the audience and critic excitement :p
 
R

RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
(slightly off topic)

Just thought I'd give everyone here (IS anyone here? *echo*) a heads up that there's a new show premiering tonight on SundanceTV called 'Deutschland 83'. It's a German language Cold War series that's apparently similar-ish to The Americans. It's getting some pretty positive reviews and I thought it might interest some in AmericansGAF.

If you think this sounds a bit like The Americans, you’re right. In fact, tonight’s premiere begins at the precise moment that The Americans ended its third season: With Ronald Reagan delivering his dramatic “Evil Empire” speech to the applause of his allies and the disgust of his foes. And while fans of that excellent FX drama will find much to like here, so, too, will those scared away by The Americans’s hammer-and-sickle brutality.

It delights in genre absurdity, from lo-fi lock picking to comically snarling guard dogs; it leans into soap-operatic excess. Let me translate this for you into the simplest terms possible: Deutschland is a total blast.

- Andy Greenwald
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C

Cornballer

Member
NY Mag in praise of Holly Taylor for their annual TV awards:

- Best Child Actor
You know a child actor is good when they get to play real scenes, not just moments. These scenes are usually with their parents. You know a child actor is great when they get to play scenes with anybody else. But you know that kid is really something special when they get to play a scene by themselves, talking into a phone, and we don’t even get to see the other side of the call. That’s how season three of The Americans ends, with Paige, played by Holly Taylor, telling Pastor Tim over the phone that her parents are spies. It’s the closest thing television has to a soliloquy, and the fact that the writers of The Americans entrusted this cliff-hanger to Taylor shows how much confidence they have in this 17-year-old actress. She is masterful in this moment: wounded, vulnerable, and sad. The thing that really sells it is the fact that Paige has tried to keep the secret — but she just can’t keep it bottled up inside any longer. In the hands of a lesser actor, it might have seemed moody or even selfish, since she is likely putting her confidante in grave danger, but in Holly’s hands, it feels wrenching and entirely earned.

The Americans has always been a show about the consequences of leading a hidden life, though in previous seasons those consequences were mostly borne by extraordinary leads Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys, or by the people they killed. But in Holly’s performance, we get to see the fallout of these secrets affect someone who’s an innocent victim, who never signed up for the spy game. Holly is grounded and nuanced and allows us to feel the horror of her parents’ bad choices.

The truth is, when you’re casting kids, you can’t know that someone is great. A child actor doesn’t arrive fully formed. They grow into the part, and if they continue to stretch and thrive as an actor, smart writers and producers can’t help but take advantage of it. When we cast the incredible Kiernan Shipka on Mad Men, we knew she was smart, poised, precocious, and, yes, talented, but we could not have known what a phenomenal talent she was to become. It was a leap of faith. I’m sure it was the same for Cami Patton and Christal Karge when they were casting the pilot of The Americans. They had to go with their gut and hope to get lucky. Boy, did they.
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I

IronRinn

Member
The tooth extraction is so fucking good, it's ridiculous.

And I think Holly Taylor is great, but I don't think she beats out Kiernan Shipka.
 
G

-griffy-

Banned
IronRinn said:
The tooth extraction is so fucking good, it's ridiculous.

And I think Holly Taylor is great, but I don't think she beats out Kiernan Shipka.
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The Mad Men casting directors decided that category, so they decided to make Kiernan ineligible for the win there since they were the ones who cast her in the show.
 
C

Cornballer

Member
- Vulture TV awards - Best Drama:
Matt Zoller Seitz said:
How many years in a row will The Americans top lists of the “Best Dramas You’re Not Watching?” As long as it’s on FX, probably — and no matter how long it runs, the writers, actors, and filmmakers involved in its production should take it as a compliment. The Americans’ commitment to its dramatic mission is so uncompromising that the show’s heroine, Elizabeth Jennings (Keri Russell), a warrior for Mother Russia, would approve of it.

Created by Joe Weisberg and co-executive-produced by him and Joel Fields, the series is subtle and quiet and often works in a minor key; it never had the extravagant visuals and grandiose cultural aspirations of, say, Mad Men, this summer’s Vulture TV Award–winner for Best Show, a series which, at its best, combined the exhaustive invention of a John Dos Passos novel and the ebullient showmanship of a fireworks display. And yet, week in and week out, no U.S. drama is more exactingly calibrated than this blue-gray chamber piece about Soviet infiltrators posing as suburban American travel agents. Every scene, line, cut, and performance moment reinforces the characters’ emotional journeys within the episode and the season. And the journey is ultimately tragic, because Elizabeth, her husband Philip (Matthew Rhys), FBI agent Stan Beeman (Noah Emmerich), and most of the other major characters are working in jobs and living out lives that are shaped largely by various forms of ideology and propaganda, and serving masters who are obsessed with replicating those worldviews without question. They seem to have little or no self-awareness, save for what little they glean in the show’s self-help groups. Every now and then you get a spectacular one-off action sequence, like the one at the end of “Walter Taffet,” or a GIF-packed squirm-inducer like the scene where Philip yanks out Elizabeth’s shattered tooth. But these scenes are exceptions. The Americans is more often concerned with the lies that characters tell each other and themselves, and the agony that results when the deception is finally revealed, as it was in the devastating “Stingers,” possibly the most perfect hour of TV I watched in the last 12 months.

Whenever I write about The Americans, I always end up comparing it to architecture and carpentry rather than fine art, because when I think about the totality of the series, I picture blueprints being drawn up, and pieces of material being cut and sanded and bolted or fitted together. This, too, sounds diminishing — the phrase fine art is somewhat diminishing in itself, when you think about all the other kinds of creative expression that implicitly aren’t as “fine” as painting or sculpture — but perhaps less so if you imagine the most elegant and imaginative end product: not an Ikea chair but a Chippendale; not a prefab McMansion but Fallingwater.
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E

Einchy

semen stains the mountaintops
The suitcase scene is one of the most brutal scenes in TV history.

Great season all around, better than the first 2.
 
C

Cornballer

Member
Sounds like no Martindale next season. Too bad. From the twitters:
Sepinwall said:
Character Actress Margo Martindale will have a recurring role on "The Good Wife" next season. "Americans" has had to move on without her.
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Yup. Langella is great, and Gabriel's relationship w/Philip & Elizabeth is more complicated, anyway.
She had, what, one scene the last (best) season? THE AMERICANS is gonna be fiiiiine.
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I

IronRinn

Member
I don't think it's whether or not the show would be "fine". It could always be better, and Martindale was great. I loved her scene with Langella.
 
G

-griffy-

Banned
Another year, another lack of best drama nom at the Emmys for The Americans. And no actor or actress. Or supporting. Margo Martindale made it for guest actress though. And best writing for "Do Mail Robots Dream of Electric Sheep."
 
N

Niraj

I shot people I like more for less.
Yeah, really lame, but I guess I'm not surprised. I'm more annoyed at the complete snub of Justified. Thought it would have at least garnered one nomination since it was the last season. I mean, at least for writing if nothing else.
 
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