duVerre

When every time you hear the words "Mueller investigation," you imagine Noah Emmerich on the Russian detail.

Hi folks. I usually lurk here. Anyway, I thought I'd link to the New York Times on Meghan: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/02/us/politics/meghan-mccain-funeral-trump.html?action=click&module=Top Stories&pgtype=Homepage

For a minute--and I truly mean a minute--of amusement, try this quiz from Vulture. Which Phil and Elizabeth (The Americans, The Crown) said this dialogue? http://www.vulture.com/article/the-americans-the-crown-philip-elizabeth-quiz.html

I have a thing for Stan's screen saver.

Note that they say they'll be featuring THOUSANDS of items as time goes on.

The sketch book! https://www.ebay.com/itm/AMERICANS-ELIZABETH-JENNINGS-KERI-RUSSELL-SCREEN-USED-SKETCH-BOOK-PENCIL-/312152880923

Apologies if this has been posted elsewhere. Buy yourself a little bit of the series. https://vipfanauctions.com/the-americans-series-final-prop-auction/?sf191043218=1

Eleven minutes, I think, would be too long to submit for an Emmy clip, and that could work against him. (Not that I really know--I'm guessing). But oh yes, he deserves it. Or at least a nomination!

The first time I joined an "Americans" thread was to complain that the writers, in Season 5, had seemingly lost interest in Stan. He'd been a confused and damaged man for four seasons--then suddenly, he was just dull as hell--out of counterintelligence, in love with his wife and apparently healed of all his trust and intimacy issues. Talk about giving an actor nothing to play. He may as well have been in a cereal commercial. Thank God they brought back the former Stan for season six, because he fascinated me and I thought Emmerich was terrific. Not showy, not ever, but the layers of intensity were always present, alive and clear. The garage scene was titanic. I honestly think it's one of the greatest I've ever seen anywhere. I will watch it for years. I read somewhere that Stan has to go through all the stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance) in eleven minutes. I agree that he went through most of those, sometimes at once. And all of it was drenched in shock and awe. His emotions were reshuffled second by second, and all the time he was struggling to keep any kind of balance, to find a little piece of logic that would keep him afloat. Instead he just sank and sank right to the bottom. So I think Emmerich's quote is really perfect: Stan did what he could do, and nothing more. His world fell apart just as surely as the Jennings' world eventually did. He was emotionally paralyzed. Disabled. That's wonderfully said. He went into that garage as Stan Beeman the man. He needed to be given something real. And the "something real" (which may not have been totally truthful, and which he may not even totally believe) is his ruination. It was tragic, that scene.

SMH. The cowboy connection was right there and I didn't connect it. As for the hockey team (unlike most Canadians, I have to google anything about hockey)--great detail. Winters in Calgary are bleak (40 below Farenheit at times)--enough to evoke early memories of Russia. And then there's the Rockies--something very Russian and romantic about them.

Why Calgary? (Just curious. I love Calgary.) I agree with your thoughts re Stan.

I know I've been watching The Americans too much when .... I go to the doctor once a week to receive injections in my skull (to stop migraine). I'm a woman who has to wear a wig all day, so I arrive at the building wearing it and go directly to the washroom by the elevator to remove it. It's a routine now: I take the wig off, stow it in a bag, arrive at the doctor's, get injections, and return to the washroom--with the wig. So I stand there pinning my hair up (I don't have a lot of it), shaking out the wig and pulling it on, and another woman enters. She says, "nice wig!" I say, "Thanks!" And I'm really, really tempted to add, "And unfortunately ... now I have to shoot you."

As I remember, in the podcast they admitted that, as writers, they wanted a familiar face and yes, they were running out of characters. A kind of guilty, laughing admission of having painted themselves into a plot corner. Someone please correct me if I remember this wrong. The only way I can justify it to myself is if Tatiana personally wanted to take this on herself, as part of her fury at Oleg ... but that's kind of flimsy too.

And to top it all off, the Js confirmed that it was Tatiana on the Slate podcast. So there you have it, from the source.

I think that's brilliant.