The Americans in the Media

[Trillian]

I keep telling everyone I know to watch, maybe someday it will work.

 

I actually pitched the show to the cashier at my local grocery store on the weekend - doing my part to get viewership up.

 

Good on FX not relying on ratings but keeping a quality show on the air.

[BW Manilowe]

The New York Times interviews Keri about S4 (& her pregnancy).

Http://tinyurl.com/zgokbrp

I tinyURL'd it because the real URL is HUGE. Yes, the tiny version works; I checked it.

It's perhaps indirectly spoilery about a certain character's status as of the end of S4 in 1 of the paragraphs. So read at your own risk. It also said Keri & Matthew are actually living together now (which has never been stated in other mentions of their offscreen relationship; I'm not a prude, or whatever, but it's kinda nice to know that considering they're going to be parents next month, according to the interview).

[suomi]

Want a stronger, more intense marriage? Then you should watch ‘The Americans.’

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/tv/want-a-stronger-more-intense-marriage-then-you-should-watch-the-americans/2016/03/15/60cdc782-e713-11e5-bc08-3e03a5b41910_story.html

[Umbelina]

http://www.vulture.com/2016/03/americans-recap-season-4-episode-1.html

The Americans Season Premiere Recap: Guts, Brains, and Glanders

The Americans deals in a lot of Big Themes, but most of them boil down to the idea of trust. This is a show about spies, after all, and trust is the currency that enables the spy work in which Philip and Elizabeth Jennings traffic. But there's a deeper sort of trust at play, too: The concept of belief provides much of the series' emotional and metaphorical meat. Be it Elizabeth's moral conviction in her cause, Paige's spiritual faith in God, or Martha's blind certainty in the man she knows as Clark, most of the characters on this show have — or had — a baseline relationship with what they know to be "the truth," which provides reasons for why they do the things they do. And when that foundational trust is shaken, it can turn their world upside down.

That's a conclusion Paige is coming to as well, as she struggles to process the new shades of gray in her black-and-white moral universe. Having Paige find religion continues to be one of the smartest things The Americans ever did, as it opens up so many new avenues to explore the central ideas of trust and what is "right." For what is faith if not trust — trust in God, in the Church, in your own conviction? Paige's moral compass led her to out Philip and Elizabeth to Pastor Tim in the season-three finale, but in "Glanders" she's having second thoughts. (Jet lag can make a person do crazy things.) She tries to close Pandora's box, but it's clearly too late — the next episode's title, "Pastor Tim," is further evidence of this — and she must grapple with the idea that her previously steadfast beliefs in truth and honesty could cause irreparable damage to her family and herself.

 

 

http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/americans-back-more-contagious-ever-233873

The Americans is back, more contagious than ever

That scene is a gutting negotiation between Philip the spy and Philip the human. He’s showing Martha his true face now—he wears the Clark disguise to her apartment, but ditches the glasses and wig before entering her bedroom—going the extra mile to maintain the emotional connection they’ve fostered. The connection goes both ways, though: When Martha says that Philip has to tell her everything, “even if it’s hard,” he lets her know about the memory that’s been haunting him all episode. Not the “what” of bludgeoning the bully to death—which is visited and revisited throughout “Glanders” (most chillingly in that Shining-style cutaway to the body during the EST meeting)—but the “why.” That’s Philip the human right there, opening up just enough to let Martha know that he’s questioning the things that he does for a living.

 

As illustrated in this nifty timeline collaboration between FX and The Washington Post,  The Americans is entering a particularly fraught period in U.S.-Soviet relations, a series of events that put the Bulletin Of The Atomic Science’s Doomsday Clock at three minutes to midnight by January 1984. But that’s huge stuff like the Strategic Defense Initiative, the downing of Korean Air Lines Flight 007, and the nuclear false alarm of September 26, 1983.

 

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-cruel-irony-of-the-americans

When Karl Marx wrote that history repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce, he couldn’t have known that a television show would find a way to take those two versions of history and combine them. But over the course of three seasons—the fourth premières this week, on FX—“The Americans” has become one of the most multilayered dramas on TV; nothing else can match its combination of genuine sadness and muted, mordant hilarity. Watching it, you feel both dread and delight—a bitter kind of happiness. It’s the whiskey sour of television shows.

 

http://variety.com/2016/tv/reviews/the-americans-review-keri-russell-fx-1201725721/

TV Review: ‘The Americans
Chief TV Critic
Maureen Ryan

(overall review of the series, not the episode.)

 

http://www.vox.com/2016/3/17/11251580/the-americans-premiere-recap-glanders-fx

The Americans season 4 premiere: on FX's brilliant series, bad decisions create even worse consequences

The Americans, more than any other show on the air right now, suggests that bad decisions compound themselves, that lies multiply, that you can't escape your worst self. God, I'm glad to have it back.

 

 

‘The Americans’ Co-Showrunner Joel Fields Talks Martha, Stan and Planning a Series Finale

http://variety.com/2016/tv/news/the-americans-season-4-premiere-spoilers-joel-fields-1201732016/

This is an interesting inteview, and not really spoilerish.

[maraleia]

Holly Taylor interview (no spoilers). She is so grounded and awesome http://www.interviewmagazine.com/culture/holly-taylor#_

[BW Manilowe]

Happy Belated 40th Birthday (in all timezones, except the Pacific & those west of it) to Keri Russell! Her birthday was yesterday, the same day Pastor Tim aired.

[scrb]

Slate is doing a podcast after each episode.  For this ep. they didn't really talk much about the episode other than how they had to get the bus from the period and how they had to get the pilot uniform -- he was suppose to be a pilot for an Eastern Bloc nation which flew to the US.

 

But the real focus was an interview with Jack Belski, a real-life illegal who was recruited by the Stasi and trained by the KGB.

 

He actually worked as an illegal after the fall of the Eastern Bloc and at some point, he decided he didn't want to do it.  He told the KGB that he had AIDS and they let him go.  He never killed anyone or used any weapons.  His main task was to collect info.

[gwhh]

Intersting article about the show:

http://www.foxsports.com/college-football/outkick-the-coverage/the-americans-review-pastor-tim-032316

[Umbelina]

http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/review-on-the-americans-the-pastor-tim-problem-gets-even-worse

Gabriel, at last recognizing (or, at least, finally feeling free to say out loud) that the decision to recruit Paige was a colossal mistake, finally proposes the best of a bunch of bad options: arranging an "accident" for Pastor Tim and his wife while the Jenningses are down in Orlando. As Philip notes, this will ruin Paige for spy work, since she'll figure it out once she truly understands what her parents do for a living, but even Gabriel's theory that she'll never be sure — "People believe what they want to believe" — seems awfully thin. Paige isn't dumb. Even if everything hadn't gone pear-shaped with Gabriel's illness forcing Elizabeth, Philip, and William to quarantine themselves in his apartment, Pastor Tim's death would have nagged and nagged at Paige until the guilt forced her to do something harmful to herself, her parents, or both. That they now have to cancel the Epcot trip only adds another layer of crazy tension(*) to the episode's end: we can feel reasonably confident that Philip and Elizabeth aren't going to die, but what if the "accident" happens anyway when Paige isn't standing next to them to verify their whereabouts?

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.vox.com/2016/3/31/11336262/the-americans-episode-3-recap-experimental-prototype-city-of-tomorrow-epcot

That moment when Young Hee complains about her kids wanting Cabbage Patch dolls is followed by Elizabeth shaking her head a little and deadpanning, "That’s America for you."

Elizabeth is a spy, but she’s also an immigrant who had to get used to American customs at hyperspeed. While Philip was genuinely excited about buying a Camaro, Elizabeth was blinking at it, trying to figure out why the hell it mattered. She’s never felt at home in the US.

But as she tells Philip in this episode, they’ve ​built​ something here, and going back to the Soviet Union, where their kids would probably need ​years​ to adjust, isn’t a great option, either. She’s stuck between two countries, working for one, living in the other.

It’s not that she can (or will) tell Young Hee any of this, but it strikes me as important that Elizabeth has found someone she can commiserate with on the level of being an immigrant — even if it’s just about how ugly Cabbage Patch dolls are.

 

Edited April 1, 2016 by Umbelina

[Tetraneutron]

I actually think your last few sentences are what intrigue me the most about a pregnancy storyline rather represent negatives.

The fact that they're in love would not be an interesting reason for them to write in the pregnancy for me. That's nice and all but what interests me more is how it might affect their outlooks. They may be in love but we left them seemingly with a chasm in how they feel about the work that they do. How would Elizabeth cope with her desire to do her work and the fact that pregnancy would make it harder? Will Philip have even greater misgivings?

Even though they already have children, this is one of the few TV situations where a baby could be a catalyst for plot and character change in the parents' lives.

But the season likely has already been mapped out and winter 80's fashions will undoubtedly help hide the pregnancy should they go that route.

I think Elizabeth, as written, would have had an abortion.

[BW Manilowe]

Video from People magazine's website, with Alison Wright answering 5 random questions (you have to hear what she calls Keri Russell in the video) & giving shameless plugs to The Americans & HBO's upcoming movie, or whatever it is, about the Anita Hill & Clarence Thomas thing that came up during his Supreme Court confirmation hearings, which stars another Kerry--Kerry Washington--& in which Alison also appears.

http://www.people.com/people/mobile/video/0,,20996708,00.html

[Inquisitionist]

The HBO movie is actually called Confirmation, and Alison Wright plays Virginia Wright, married to Clarence.  I wouldn't say Wright gave shameless plugs to her shows -- WTF else would she (or any actor) agree to do this crap?  ;-)

[BW Manilowe]

The HBO movie is actually called Confirmation, and Alison Wright plays Virginia Wright, married to Clarence. I wouldn't say Wright gave shameless plugs to her shows -- WTF else would she (or any actor) agree to do this crap? ;-)

I was just using the "shameless plug" term they actually used in the video itself.

[SlovakPrincess]

Read an interview with Annet Mahendru, where she talks about being so upset Nina would be killed, but also understanding it was an artistic challenge and being grateful for the 4 seasons of playing Nina.

I thought it was cute that her mom had to talk her down from being so upset for this fictional character. I can totally see getting emotionally wrapped up in this very tragic character that you've put so much work into.

I hope to see her in other shows / movies soon -- she is very talented.

http://tvline.com/2016/04/06/the-americans-nina-dies-annet-mahendru-leaving-interview-season-4/

[Umbelina]

http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/americans-under-pressure-235162

“Under Pressure” isn’t just a great pick for the closing number in “Clark’s Place.” It’s the only pick: The song’s lyrics reverberate throughout Peter Ackerman’s script, from Gabriel telling Philip and Elizabeth “you two still care about people” (“And love dares you to care for the people on the edge of the night”) to Henry asking Stan if he’s high (“Tomorrow gets me higher / higher / high”). There’s a family splitting in two under Philip and Elizabeth’s roof, as their youngest child becomes a surrogate Beeman. Paige grows more and more familiar with the terror of knowing what this world is about, watching her good friends Pastor Tim and Alice having the screws put to them by her parents.

 

I love this recap, it talks about how the song at the end tied into the entire episode. 

 

Directed by Noah Emmerich!  (Stan!)  Last week's was as well.  I had no idea.

 

The PTV recap was wonderful too, I loved the screen grabs as well.

[scartact]

Really awesome article on Vox about the complete production process (from table read to post-production) for "Clark's Place": http://www.vox.com/2016/4/14/11411564/how-tv-gets-made-americans-fx-production

 

Sounds like the Weisberg and Fields run a really great production and it really reflects on the high quality and consistency of the work over these last 3.5 (4) seasons!

[Umbelina]

Just thought I'd mention, had to choose a thread..

 

CNN is doing a special on "The Eighties" this Thursday night at 9PM.

[JennyMominFL]

Just thought I'd mention, had to choose a thread..

 

CNN is doing a special on "The Eighties" this Thursday night at 9PM.

It's actually a series and I think this week's episode is the 4th. One was on Tv/Film, another the AIDS crisis and the last one was the Reagan Admin

[Umbelina]

Thanks.  I lived through it, so probably won't watch.  Ha.

[JennyMominFL]

Thanks.  I lived through it, so probably won't watch.  Ha.

Me too, but I am watching. My 21 year old son watches all the 80's stuff with me.

[Umbelina]

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2016/04/14/speakeasy-podcast-alison-wright-talks-the-americans-and-confirmation/

 

Alison Wright (Martha) interview, hope this wasn't posted already, I didn't see it.

 

(podcast)  may have spoilers, not sure.

 

I had no idea she has an accent too!

Edited April 18, 2016 by Umbelina

[Umbelina]

http://www.slantmagazine.com/house/article/the-americans-recap-season-4-episode-6-the-rat

 

This is my favorite of the recaps so far this week.  It makes a few really good points that I may have sensed, but didn't quite put together in my head, for example the combination of personal and professional betrayal by Philip to Elizabeth.

 

Frankly I'm kind of disappointed with them this week, very few even caught that William talking about the KGB probably Nina-ing his former partner to Clark, who is also skating on thin ice with the KGB really bugs me.

Edited April 21, 2016 by Umbelina

[BW Manilowe]

The showrunners have 7 questions for the fans. From Yahoo!; if you're so inclined, respond by April 29th.

https://www.yahoo.com/tv/ask-the-fans-the-americans-showrunners-want-162814778.html

[Peanutbuttercup]

I was disappointed in this week's Slate TV Club Insiders podcast. Such a rich episode and they didn't mention it at all, it was just very technical details about English-to-Russian translation.

[Umbelina]

I'm disappointed with all the reviews so far, I think we've caught more here than most of the reviewers even mentioned.

 

If someone finds a good one, please post it.

[AliShibaz]

Intersting article about the show:

http://www.foxsports.com/college-football/outkick-the-coverage/the-americans-review-pastor-tim-032316

 

I read most of that article and stopped at a point that confused me.

 

Close to the Nina angle, Oleg and Stan meet and Beeman has to tell his frenemy that the hopeful trade to free her fell through. He then offers condolences on the death of Oleg's son, to which the grieving father asks, "So we're friends now," and then leaves the car. (text omitted)

 

Am I correct insofar as the phrase "grieving father" is a mistake? I thought Oleg was a grieving brother. Am I somehow mistaken about that?

Edited April 26, 2016 by AliShibaz

[sistermagpie]

Am I correct insofar as the phrase "grieving father" is a mistake? I thought Oleg was a grieving brother. Am I somehow mistaken about that?

 

 

Yes, they just flat out got it wrong saying it was Oleg's son who died rather than his brother.

[scartact]

Alison Wright was interviewed by THR recently. It's great that she's been getting a lot of press and attention lately for her work.

[Umbelina]

4 hours ago, scartact said:

Alison Wright was interviewed by THR recently. It's great that she's been getting a lot of press and attention lately for her work.

That was really good!  Thanks!
 

Quote

 

So, what options does Martha have at this point?

Something that was always in my head — It didn't necessarily come from the J's [Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields] — but the idea that she always has the option to kill herself. She considers it in episode seven. It's not clear when she calls her parents to say goodbye if that's what she was actually doing and that she just changed her mind. But I think when Clark is telling her all this about getting on a plane and starting a new life in Russia, even as she's listening to him and taking it in, there's definitely a little voice in her somewhere thinking that if she can't do that, there's another way out. That's seeped into my work and into my ideas about Martha because of all the real-life case stories we have. Three out of four women committed suicide within 24 hours of finding out that their spouses were actually plants and that they married them for the KGB or for the Stasi in the German cases — and not because they had found out that they were working for the KGB or for the Nazi's but because they had found out that the man had never actually loved them.

 

Quote

With these marriages, they wanted to stress the point that they went on for years and there were children and entire families. It was a long-term thing.

I didn't realize that many killed themselves when they found out, but it makes sense.

Edited April 29, 2016 by Umbelina

[Umbelina]

This one is also really good.  http://www.vox.com/2016/4/28/11512768/the-americans-episode-7-recap-travel-agents-martha

Quote

Also, as Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields have said before (and told me in person last November, when I interviewed them for this piece), the real-life inspirations for Martha's character met awful ends. High-ranking secretaries with lackluster personal lives were frequent targets of KGB espionage. The three examples Weisberg and Fields mentioned to me all died. When one was told that her husband was actually a KGB operative, she walked out a window.

How did I not realize this, that so many killed themselves?  It seems I would have come across it somewhere.

Quote

One scene that jumped out at me, though, was the agency's thorough search of Martha's apartment. There's nothing like having law enforcement examine every single tampon to drive home the point that nothing about Martha's intimate life is her own anymore.

 

Quote

 

Todd: Amanda: I must hear your theory that Arkady is the only moral person on this show.

Amanda: ARKADY IS THE BEST!

He is the only person on this show who has always, consistently aligned his actions with his relationships, his country, his colleagues, and his conscience.

One thing The Americans has told us over and over is that one tiny compromise in any of those categories can set in motion a cascade of devastating consequences. When we originally met Nina, for instance, she was prioritizing her relationship with her family over her relationship with her country, by engaging in petty smuggling of goods from America so that her family back in Russia could have a little extra money.

 

[Umbelina]

http://collider.com/tv-performer-of-the-week-alison-wright-the-americans/

Quote

Mostly, she was just a fairly simple woman who was desperate to find love, and Clark exploited that. She went along with it, despite his increasingly unfair demands on her, and seeing her delude herself about any power she might have in those compromises was heartbreaking. Clark took over and essentially ruined her life. He prevented her from finding true love, from having a family, from even keeping a job she was great at and respected in (or at least appreciated). Though I was certain throughout most of “The Rat” and “Travel Agents” that Martha would not be long for this mortal coil, her being shipped off to Russia to live out her days scared and alone seemed potentially even worse. Or perhaps she’ll thrive there with a fresh start — if she makes it.

 

Quote

She returned to a pay phone and to Clark, then, making a decision to live and see this through. Again, the struggle that Wright conveyed as Martha decided whether or not to trust Clark was absolutely incredible. It was the most intimate and knowable look we may have ever had at Martha, and once again (along with the call to her parents) it showed us what we are meant to see with her character. She is not a pawn or a punch line — she is person, a victim. And her death, if it comes, will be the series’ most devastating yet.

http://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/americans-already-renewed-season-five-fx/
 

Quote

 

Although there has been no official word, it looks like The Americans TV show on FX has been renewed for a fifth season. Early this month, executive producer Joel Fields tweeted a photo of what must be The Americans’ writers war room. The picture features a conference table set up with name cards, notebooks, pens, and highlighters. A message on the whiteboard in the background reads: “WELCOME TO SEASON 5.” Check it out, below.

Something is scrawled underneath in smaller letters, but it is illegible to us. If you can tell what it says, hit us up, in the comments. We can report the text of Fields’ tweet reads, “First day of Season 5 Writers’ Camp! ? #TheAmericans.” The series stars Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell as Russian spies, living in the D.C. area, as ordinary, married American travel agents, Philip and Elizabeth Jennings.

Check out Fields’ photo and tweet.

 

Quote

That hectic design also means that when the show drops everything else to tell essentially one story for the hour, that story takes on huge emotional weight for viewers who are accustomed of bouncing from subplot to subplot, and trying to keep track of the different Jennings assets and cover identities.

"Travel Agents" basically drops everything else the season has been dealing with, because it's now Defcon Martha. Even when we cut away to Paige, Henry, and Matthew drinking beer over at Stan's house, the scene is really about how their parents are too busy trying to find one rogue secretary to keep proper watch over their kids. That streamlined focus, coupled with the usual great performances from everyone — but especially by Alison Wright, who made Poor Martha seem more vulnerable and tragic than ever, regardless of what was going to happen to her next — made this a knockout hour of an already great series.

Read more at http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/review-the-americans-zeroes-in-on-the-hunt-for-martha-in-travel-agents#aZjud5M5mS4vdKho.99

[gwhh]

Season 5

 

http://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/americans-already-renewed-season-five-fx/

[BW Manilowe]

While not listed as "Frontrunners", in The Hollywood Reporter's current Emmy (nominations) predictions article, the show & a number of actors in the regular or recurring cast (Matthew, Keri, Alison, Annet & Margo) are seen as definite possibilities for nominations for this year's awards. Most or all are listed in the section a step below "Frontrunners" in their appropriate category--Outstanding Drama Series & Outstanding Lead, Supporting, or Guest Actor/Actress in a Drama Series.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/feinberg-forecast-emmy-predictions-4-837599?utm_source=twitter

[BW Manilowe]

If it hasn't yet aired in your city, Matthew is a guest on today's (Tuesday) episode of The Rachael Ray Show. His  segment starts about halfway through (the clock on my iPhone said 9:29AM when he was introduced, but I'm not sure how accurate it is--though I know it's only a couple of minutes off, at most), it lasts somewhere around 8 or 9 minutes (10 at most), & Matthew was very funny. He talked about the show/spying, him & Keri being expectant parents in real life (at least as of whenever they did the show, which I think is pretaped & not live, Keri was apparently still pregnant), his wine show which is airing on TV in the UK, & the segment ended with him demonstrating various foreign accents. If you've already missed it (sorry), there should be at least a clip on the show's website by sometime tomorrow.

[Umbelina]

https://www.yahoo.com/tv/ask-the-fans-the-americans-showrunners-joe-181251878.html
 

Quote

 

JOE WEISBERG AND JOEL FIELDS ASK: Are secrets necessary to sustain relationships?

ANALYZING THE ANSWERS: Fans’ responses to this question suggest most of them don’t see things as being strictly black-and-white. Alex W. wrote, “I don’t know [that they’re necessary], but they are probably inevitable, not only in romantic relationships/marriages, but probably in all relationships… at work, for example, I have co-workers with whom I will discuss politics and those with whom I won’t, just as I have coworkers around whom I will swear and those around whom I would not.” From Lisa B.: “Some things may need to be kept secret to avoid irreparable damage to the relationship.” Maya T. sees it less as an issue of secrets, and more about the need to have an interior life, writing, “Yes, I believe secrets are necessary to sustain relationships. It is naive to believe they are not… sometimes we need to go through certain experiences to learn and grow — it is a mistake to share everything with a partner especially if it will hurt them.”

Of course, there are those who do think secrets can only lead to relationship woes. Heidi J. wrote, “Secrets between the people? Yes. Secrets from the other person? No.” And Guy K. is even more resolute: “Absolutely not! Successful marriages have NO secrets! I have been married 22 years, and have no secrets.”

 

More questions and answers at link.

Quote

 

JOE WEISBERG AND JOEL FIELDS ASK: Is it weird to root for “the enemy”?

ANALYZING THE ANSWERS: “I don’t think it is any more weird than being sympathetic toward, say, the Corleone family in The Godfather movies, who were, after all, terrible people who deserved to go to prison for their many crimes,” Alex W. wrote. “I wouldn’t say that I am ‘rooting for’ Phillp and Elizabeth, per se, in an operational or political sense, but I am sympathetic toward their humanity,” Alex W. wrote.

From Gary O.: “No, it’s strangely therapeutic and exciting. Seeing the other side as having a cause they genuinely believe in breaks the good vs. evil illusion we grow up under. The military industrial complex on both sides serves as the true villain. And hiding in full sight in America is just plain edge of the seat fun.”

Jennifer A. added, “We’re rooting for people, for a family, for a marriage,” as opposed to rooting for an “enemy,” while Melissa M. expanded on that idea, writing, “Yes and no. Personally, I’ve tried hard to identify and reject American exceptionalism, and the notion that just being a citizen of one country makes you morally superior to citizens of other countries. It’s weird to root for Phil and Liz not because of their communist roots and tenets, but because they’re doing horrible, horrible things.”

From Jan B.: “I really don’t root for any of the KGB folks. Yes, at times, Philip’s almost turned me, but ultimately, with how he’s played, or had to play, Martha, I could never root for him. And given that Elizabeth and Philip have been living this lie and subjecting their innocent kids to it, well, that’s just not for me.”  

And Mary C. said, “Yes, but lately I am rooting for the U.S. I’m glad Stan is finally putting things together.”

 

Edited May 4, 2016 by Umbelina

[gwhh]

A summary of last week episode:

 

http://blog.chron.com/tubular/2016/05/the-americans-get-me-a-small-boat-to-cuba/

 

 

Time jumping on tv shows:

 

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2016/05/06/from_breaking_bad_to_the_americans_why_tv_shows_obsession_with_time_jumping.html

[VCRTracking]

Love this twitter exchange between Mindy Kaling and Americans writer Joel Fields:
 

Quote

 

Mindy Kaling Verified account ‏@mindykaling

One of the reasons I love #TheAmericans is that Keri Russell plays an immigrant mom who won't take shit from her kids. It's so refreshing!

 

Quote

 

Joel Fields ‏@joel_fields May 7

@mindykaling - ha! We actually talk about that a lot. :-)

 

Quote

 

Mindy Kaling ‏@mindykaling May 7

@joel_fields do you really? It's such a compelling immigrant story. Love the show so much. Even though I'm convinced I'm a Martha.

 

Quote

 

Joel Fields ‏@joel_fields May 7

@mindykaling - and we do talk about the immigrant side of the story... So glad that resonates for you... :-)

0 retweets 18 likes

 

Quote

 

Mindy Kaling ‏@mindykaling May 7

@joel_fields experiencing 80's pop culture w skeptical expat parents is one of the most enjoyable parts of the show. Also those sex scenes.

8 retweets 53 likes
 

 

 

Quote

 

Joel Fields ‏@joel_fields May 8

@mindykaling - I believe we have an 80s pop culture sex sc in the next ep, just to complete the circle. :-)

 

[scrb]

Yeah Elizabeth didn't take shit from Paige when she wasn't feeling like spying on pastor Tim and wife.

Look how crestfallen Paige looked (what a terrific bit of acting from someone so young).  Basically she's now an agent too, no say in the matter whatsoever.

How can Mindy cheer that?  Sure Philip and Elizabeth are the main characters but they're cold-blooded killers too.

[VCRTracking]

It's more of the allegory of an immigrant family and less the spy stuff. And I sympathize with Paige, but she shouldn't have told Pastor Tim. She's lucky he and his wife are still alive.

[Umbelina]

Paige has no options.  Her own actions caused this crisis.  She was being petulant and enough was enough.  They IS no other option if the family is to stay together at all.  Her mother just laid it out for her, but honestly, her tone with Paige wasn't much different than many moms who find that the one chore a teenager has once again, didn't get done. 

She was downright cuddly compared to my mother if I did something wrong.

No Paige, you insisted on the "truth" and you got it, then you blabbed it, so yes, that has consequences. 

[sistermagpie]

6 hours ago, Umbelina said:

Paige has no options.  Her own actions caused this crisis.  She was being petulant and enough was enough.  They IS no other option if the family is to stay together at all.  Her mother just laid it out for her, but honestly, her tone with Paige wasn't much different than many moms who find that the one chore a teenager has once again, didn't get done. 

Yeah, I've read some people describing Elizabeth in that scene as if she's being so crazy scary and she sounds like a normal mom dealing with a teenager that's pushed it as far as it can go. The alternative is worse. It's kind of out of her parents' hands now.

I also don't feel like she's been turned into a spy by this either. Plenty of other kids learn early to make nice with people who hold power over them. Paige just stuck herself into a particularly difficult and demanding version of this. One her parents tried to protect her from. (In fact, they still are, since this whole set up is about avoiding them killing Pastor Tim and his wife.)

[madam magpie]

I think it's an interesting twist too that, for the most part, Philip and Elizabeth are pretty indulgent as parents. I'd guess traditional Russian parents would be strict and harsh (though I have no basis for that except stereotypes, I guess), but these two really aren't. They can be harsh with the kids when they're super stressed themselves, but mostly they let the kids be who they are and don't demand strict obedience. Henry hangs out at Stan's, they didn't like it but they let Paige go to church, when Philip flipped out on Henry about his thermos Elizabeth came to the kid's defense, Paige reads what she wants. They didn't even punish Henry when he broke into that house to play video games AND at some point, they bought him his own video game system, which he plays now. The kids both curse and their parents only make halfhearted attempts to scold them, if they do anything at all. Plus they play games with kids, joke with them, talk to them, etc. They're even going to take them to Epcot. Some of their approach probably comes from the lack of religious influence in their lives, but I think it's so fascinating how permissive and American Philip and Elizabeth are as parents. And it doesn't seem like part of the cover. It actually seems to come naturally to them.

Edited May 10, 2016 by madam magpie

[bad things are bad]

The NY Times: “The Americans” has become the most arresting, vital drama on TV — fascinating and beautiful, and somehow getting better and better in its current fourth season.

So glad we'll have Season 5! 6 seasons and a movie, please. Let the movie end with Gorbachev's farewell speech

[scrb]

Permissive parents or absentee parents.

In most cases, they have their hands full with their main job so they can't watch too closely over kids.

Plus that was standard for the era.  Wasn't that when "latch key kids" term came into being?

But during the 7-8 months they have light workload, they got strict with Paige, basically handled her like the way they're handled by the KGB.

[Hanahope]

13 minutes ago, scrb said:

Permissive parents or absentee parents.

In most cases, they have their hands full with their main job so they can't watch too closely over kids.

Plus that was standard for the era.  Wasn't that when "latch key kids" term came into being?

Yeah, both my parents worked and weren't home when I got out of school.  I rarely stayed home after school (provided homework was done).  I just knew to be home by 6 for dinner.

[madam magpie]

I don't think they're especially absentee; they're paying attention. But latch-key kids are a fairly Western construct. That came about because women were entering the capitalist workforce, divorce rates climbed, etc. It also coincided with changes in thinking in western cultures about childhood and how children should be treated. Elizabeth and Philip are doing all of that, as opposed to sticking with old-world values. They also totally indulge. Elizabeth may say those kinds of indulgences are to support their cover, but I call BS. They both get too much joy from making their kids happy for me to buy into that. She suggested Epcot because Henry so badly wants to go, not because it affects their cover.

Edited May 10, 2016 by madam magpie

[Umbelina]

Hell I was babysitting until after midnight for people when I was 14, and up until midnight from the time I was 11.  Being home alone was not a big deal, it wasn't even a big deal to be responsible for 2-5 smaller children at the time.  My mom worked very late many nights, and when we finally succeeded in getting her to dump the ideas of babysitters I was 9, the oldest, and in charge until she got home (11PM or so on many nights.)

Paige is 15 and Henry is hardly a toddler.

Edited May 11, 2016 by Umbelina

[JennyMominFL]

Yup, I too was a latchkey kid. I was also babysitting by 12. It was very very normal back then. Numbers wise  86% of Soviet Baby boomer women  worked outside of the home compared to 42% of American women. Soviets had the highest rates of  female employment in the world

[madam magpie]

I'm moving to the all-episodes thread because this seems like the wrong place for this conversation.

[hellmouse]

Interesting interview with Matthew Rhys. He is charming and thoughtful as usual.  No spoilers.

https://www.assignmentx.com/2016/the-americans-matthew-rhys-interview/