bredcrumbs

On another topic, as if this show doesn't have enough going on ... in our gay household, we smell a gay storyline brewing with Matthew Beeman. First, he expresses a relative (compared to Henry) lack of pubertine interest in Brooke Shields; now, he doesn't seem unhappy to be introduced to a male member of Paige's church's youth choir. (Inviting Paige into the house in the first place? Simple boredom. Or maybe he wants a gal pal.) On the one hand, "The Americans" doesn't really have time for this sort of thing, does it? On the other hand, that is spot-on closeted-young-man behavior. He was three weeks from retirement! Just in the other direction.

Nicest detail in a show that's very attentive to detail: the way the lighting was just slightly off on that last shot of the porch - which of course was not actually their porch (though certainly was the same porch set they always shoot on).

I'm not Team Josh or Team Greg and reeeeeally not Team Paula after tonight, but I am Team Blow Up The Premise, so I liked this episode more than any so far. I don't know where it's all going either. That's exciting.

A (probably not very practical) part of me hopes that trying and failing to get rid of what I can't not think of as That Altoids Tin becomes a running bit for the season. It's nice that after all the metaphors for marriage and family, there's now something so specific (and ironically small) that represents the albatross that hangs on their marriage and family. And is not an actual albatross.

I love the show's ongoing awareness of its opening sequence. "I should probably update that story."

I just started watching with the party-bus episode, because I read it had "blown up" the show's premise - eh, not quite - and I've liked enough things about the show to keep going, but Rebecca's antics have kept me from being fully in. So "VIllain of My Own Story" was very, very welcome. Now I'm even looking forward to a possible hour of Rebecca therapy on the cheap party-bus set redecorated to be a cheap airplane set!

Maybe it's because I'm #TeamRafael, or better yet #TeamForgetTheLoveTriangleAndLet'sMoveOn (which is where I thought and hoped things were heading), but it feels like this show is losing some of its spark - though it's amazing that it took until Chapter Thirty-Four before that happened. Some plots do seem to have hit closure in this episode, though, so maybe some new shakeup is on the way. Maybe Rafael, rejected by Jane, could lash out. That might be fun. Meanwhile ... Michael. Ugh. I don't know if I even want to watch next week. That pouty/angry cop's going to have to wear a LOT more tight black T-shirts to win me over again.