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The Americans in the Media

maraleia

By maraleia
in The Americans [V]

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sistermagpie
sistermagpie

I actually did get all of that, I just didn't see why it would be that satisfying to me. I spent seasons 1-4 hoping that Mischa was a lie created to manipulate Philip, so I was totally disappointed wh

Plums
Plums

Couple of new articles this morning about the end of the series. A Vox piece that is very nice and doesn't give away any spoilers for the finale other than to say the reviewer saw and loved it. 

SlovakPrincess
SlovakPrincess

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/19/arts/television/richard-thomas-of-the-americans-on-agent-gaads-fate-john-boy-and-jimmy-carter.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&_r=1 "Do you

Avaleigh

Avaleigh

5 hours ago, sistermagpie said:

That's the promo I saw on TV before the Paige one was released! It was weird because...that is totally not their house.

Okay, I'm glad it's not just me. I was like 'Is that supposed to be their house?' 

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sistermagpie

sistermagpie

(edited)
3 hours ago, Clawdette said:

I think both of those promos show dreams.  

They're not even dreams, I don't think. They always do weird promos like this that are heavily symbolic and have nothing to do with the actual show except in that way. The point is just a new way to connect their ordinary-seeming lives with secret war. So they're at a different house because they shot it somewhere else.

Edited by sistermagpie
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SunnyBeBe

SunnyBeBe

If someone finds out anything about whether we'll see Martha this season, please post accordingly.  I think there's a spoiler thread around here.  I sure would hate to be looking for her every episode and then we get zip.  That would tick me off. 

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Anela

Anela

5 hours ago, crgirl412 said:

SO HAPPY IT'S HERE!!!!!  CANNOT WAIT!!!!! 

*happy dance*

All of these promos remind me of the build-up to AHS, last year. 

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Avaleigh

Avaleigh

I feel weirdly nervous about this season. I love this show and characters so much, it's like I don't want anything bad to happen to them but know it's impossible for them to walk away unscathed. 

This is also my first time watching the show in real time so it's going to be hard to play the waiting game each week when I was able to binge through the first four seasons. 

Every promo has gotten me pumped and I can honestly say that this is my favorite show on TV. Even more than Mr. Robot or GoT. There's nothing like The Americans on TV and it bums me out that more people aren't watching this amazing show. Are they just not promoting it properly? I don't get it. 

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crgirl412

crgirl412

13 minutes ago, Avaleigh said:

I feel weirdly nervous about this season. I love this show and characters so much, it's like I don't want anything bad to happen to them but know it's impossible for them to walk away unscathed. 

This is also my first time watching the show in real time so it's going to be hard to play the waiting game each week when I was able to binge through the first four seasons. 

Every promo has gotten me pumped and I can honestly say that this is my favorite show on TV. Even more than Mr. Robot or GoT. There's nothing like The Americans on TV and it bums me out that more people aren't watching this amazing show. Are they just not promoting it properly? I don't get it. 

They promote it in some ways like MR being on Live with Kelly (Ripa) yesterday and I think all of the other daytime and nighttime talk shows but they have very, very limited viewing of former and current seasons.  I don't get why they don't take a page from the Bravo playbook in how they promote any of the Housewives shows where you can watch the last season before the new one starts, every week they play last week's show before the new one then that one is on several times during the week!! 

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Christina

Christina

This is a show that you have to actually watch while it is airing. You can't multi-task or you miss things. I think that is why some of the people I know don't like it. They were reading or playing games on their phones while it was airing, and someone started speaking in Russian and they would have to read the screen to know what was going on. They got confused and decided it was the shows fault it was confusing, when it made absolute sense if they were actually watching the show and reading the translation. Sometimes it's not in the dialog, it's a facial expression or something taking place in the background that makes the scene compelling.

Also, some people are dumb and some have crappy tastes in television. I seriously don't understand why Bull remains on the air, but it seems to get decent reviews so people must like it. Those people probably think I have crappy taste in television, but clearly I don't since I watch The Americans.

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maraleia

maraleia

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There are some people who cannot stand subtitles and they are missing on some great TV including this show, Deutschland 83, Fresh off the Boat, Jane the Virgin, Man in the High Castle, The Returned (FR) and I can go on and on.

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Chaos Theory

Chaos Theory

With subtitles it depends on the show and my mood.  I love this show Man In High Castle and Narcos but these are all kinds of shows I like anyway.  And they are all only partially subtitles and partially English.   I am not sure I would like a hard drama in pure subtitles though.

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Moose135

Moose135

1 hour ago, maraleia said:

Does anyone have information about why they changed the exterior of the Jennings' house?

Did they? I didn't notice - they did show a different house at times, but that was the one for their cover as part of their mission with the Russian family.

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caitmcg

caitmcg

3 hours ago, maraleia said:

Does anyone have information about why they changed the exterior of the Jennings' house?

They didn't. As Moose135 said, there was the house they were using for their pilot/flight attendant/Tuan's parents guise, which was shown in one of the preseason 20-second previews, but in the season premiere, both the exterior and interior of their actual own house were the same as ever.

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scrb

scrb

Article on the real-life illegals which inspired the show:

Quote

Indeed, the ten spies were not charged with espionage—a more serious offense—because they all failed to actually access and pass along any classified information. (Phillip and Elizabeth Jennings of The Americans have been considerably more successful than their real-life counterparts.)

https://qz.com/926553/what-happened-to-the-real-russian-spies-who-inspired-the-americans/

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crgirl412

crgirl412

I've never listened to one of these podcasts before so I think I'm going to go back and listen to the others.

The digging scene cost an obscene amount of money to shoot!!  OMG!!  Listen to find out how much!

 

The Americans S:5 | E:1 Amber Waves of Grain

On the Podcast: Joe Weisberg, Joel Fields, Dan Stoloff, Dan Davis, Tim Goodmanson, Dan Fisher, June Thomas

https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/theamericansslatetvclubinsider?selected=SM6058870204

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scrb

scrb

Just got an alert on my iPad from the NY Times app.

US has charged 2 Russian spies and 2 others for the 2014 hack of Yahoo which compromised 500 million accounts and personal data theft.

Of course online hacks could have been done remotely, from Russia.  Would be cool if it turned out there were illegals working at Yahoo.

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RedHawk

RedHawk

7 hours ago, scrb said:

Just got an alert on my iPad from the NY Times app.

US has charged 2 Russian spies and 2 others for the 2014 hack of Yahoo which compromised 500 million accounts and personal data theft.

Of course online hacks could have been done remotely, from Russia.  Would be cool if it turned out there were illegals working at Yahoo.

Maybe these Russian hackers were just trying get FX Now passwords so they could watch "The Americans" on the actual day and time each episode was broadcast. 

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Umbelina

Umbelina

http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/gloomy-americans-written-all-over-casts-faces-252496

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“The Midges” is a bit of a slippery episode. It’s a great collection of scenes—“great” in terms of quality and number—but it’s hard to pin down the connective tissue between them. I guess it’s a certain sense of dread hanging over the proceedings, whether it’s Oleg listening to the incriminating cassette tape or Mischa standing by helpless as he’s shaken down by a stranger who doesn’t seem eager to help get him out of Yugoslavia. Alexi’s anti-Soviet screeds are sticking with Philip, bound together by his memories of being a hungry child and Tuan’s anecdote about scavenging for food among the garbage in Vietnam. The finale at the lab is almost necessary for breaking the episode out of its funk—and it’s not outside the realm of possibilities that Philip and Elizabeth take such extreme measures with poor Randy Chilton because they’re taking these acts of agroterrorism personally.

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Umbelina

Umbelina

(edited)
Quote

As for Stan, “The Midges” kind of stranded him and Aderholt in the very early stages of an investigation involving Aeroflot, a Soviet airline, and Amtorg, which among other things oversaw exports of raw materials for Soviet industry and agriculture. So it’s fairly easy to guess how this storyline might eventually overlap with what the Jennings have going on (funny how that always seems to be the case with Stan’s investigations, huh?). In this episode, however, it amounts to little more than some tense discussions with would-be sources.

Glad VOX caught this.  I missed it.

 

 

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Philip and Elizabeth’s decision to loop Paige into what at first seemed like a fairly unambiguous mission — saving a country’s food supply from being decimated — is looking increasingly foolhardy, and not just because there’s now a dead bystander in the mix.

Paige is still struggling to get her head around something as simple — by spy standards — as lying to her boyfriend. Meanwhile, Elizabeth and Philip are functioning on a much, much higher level of moral ambiguity, and they may be trying to bring Paige up to that level too soon, if she can get there at all

 

.http://www.vox.com/2017/3/21/14983560/the-americans-episode-3-recap-midges

Yay!  I wasn't the only one that read this into that cowboy hat motel scene!  Bolding mine.
 

Quote

 

Oleg and his boss are clearly onto something when it comes to the reasons for the food shortages — in contrast to the investigation the Center has assigned to Philip and Elizabeth, which still has the potential to be a wild-goose chase. But the expression on Martha’s face reminds us that the Soviet Union isn’t just nominal equality as a facade for inequality, but inequality as a facade for widespread dissatisfaction. (I, too, wonder how much Oleg thinks about this in his new life in his old home.)

Philip’s question in the Oklahoma hotel room — “Why can’t we feed our people?” — is the kind of anti-anti-communist heresy we heard from him in seasons one and two, but haven’t heard as much recently, as he’s placed his relationship with Elizabeth ahead of his relationships with either the US or USSR. But it’s clear he’s the one asking the right question, and that it’s not going to be the last time.

That makes Elizabeth’s response terribly interesting. She’s not interested in persuading Philip he’s wrong (beyond a rote defense of the Soviets that even she can see is unsatisfactory); she’s interested in taking his mind off his troubles with a playful seduction. It’s hardly the first time Elizabeth has decided to put her marriage above her ideology, but as Keri Russell plays the scene, Elizabeth is coming from a place of weakness as much as warmth. This is an argument she isn’t sure she can win. And that is new territory for her.

 

I think she deliberately used sex to take his mind off questioning their glorious motherland though, it all felt sinister to me.

Quote

I have never entirely subscribed to the fan theorizing that Philip and Elizabeth might be boxed into having to defect or turn toward the side of the Americans — this show is generally too complex to have the endgame be something that simple. But in that hotel room scene, you definitely get the sense that even Elizabeth realizes some of her cherished dogmas are coming apart at the seams. And considering how poorly Elizabeth deals with bad news in general, this is rich material for Russell and The Americans’ writers to work with.

Edited by Umbelina
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sistermagpie

sistermagpie

8 hours ago, Umbelina said:

I think she deliberately used sex to take his mind off questioning their glorious motherland though, it all felt sinister to me.

I don't think it's sinister when they both know what she's doing. In fact, I suspect that his doubts, whether or not he keeps explaining them to her, and the sex is probably having an even more insidious effect on her than vice versa, just because she's so in denial about stuff. Like, he has the tools to be uncertain and hold opposing opinions at the same time. She doesn't. 

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Umbelina

Umbelina

(edited)

http://uproxx.com/sepinwall/the-americans-martha-returns-the-midges-recap-review/

Sepinwall's review. 

Quote

 

MARTHA!

MARTHA.

MARTHA!

MARTHA.

MARTHA MARTHA MARTHA MARTHA MARTHA MARTHA MARTHA MARTHA MARTHA MARTHA MARTHA MARTHA MARTHA MARTHA
MARTHA MARTHA MARTHA MARTHA MARTHA MARTHA MARTHA

MARTHA!

Followed by “IS THAT ALL WE WILL EVER SEE OF POOR MARTHA?”

There are, I suppose, two ways to look on Alison Wright’s surprise return as Philip’s other wife:

1) We see Martha staring at the barren grocery shelves, and in the same store that Oleg is visiting, because her story will be continuing now that another major character is in Moscow, and perhaps she’ll tie into Oleg’s investigation; or

2) This is a sad little epilogue to Martha’s story: a way to confirm that the Centre was true to their word about providing a place for her back home, rather than eliminating her as an inconvenience, as well as a telling glimpse of how sad and lonely this new life is for her.

I’m inclined to think it’s some version of the former, if only because Fields and Weisberg are pretty economical and straightforward storytellers — more Vince Gilligan than David Chase — and bringing poor Martha back on stage to literally cross paths with Oleg smacks of Chekhov’s Gun (Chekhov’s Martha? Martha’s Gun?). At the same time, we’re close enough to the end, and there’s so much else going on, that having Martha intersect the Oleg story may have been the simplest way to both bring her story to a close and put a human face on the food shortage that Oleg is dealing with in Moscow while Philip and Elizabeth are trying to combat in the States.

 

Ha.  Much more good stuff though.
 

Quote

 

It leads to that great, squirmy scene in the Oklahoma hotel room where Philip — who earlier in the episode recalls his own impoverished Soviet childhood — wonders why the USSR, with an even greater landmass than America, hasn’t been able to grow crops in abundance like they’re seeing outside their window, and Elizabeth pulls him off the edge by seducing him with the cowboy hat. Whenever his faith breaks, she’s always been able to use sex to bring him back into the fold.

Elizabeth gets him back on mission, and they get a step closer to uncovering all the details of the midge plot, even as they have to drop another body to do it. Maybe this eventually leads back to Oleg and Martha, or maybe things move in another direction.

 

Totally agree.

http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/03/the-americans-martha-alive-cameo-season-5-episode-3-the-midges-alison-wright-interview 

Interview with "Martha."
 

Quote

 

The person I was watching with gasped with glee when they saw you. We don’t get a lot of occasions for happy surprises on The Americans. What do you think it is about Martha that makes her connect so well with audiences?

She’s what all of us would most likely be in this scenario. We’d like to think that we’d be the Jennings—that we’d be bad-asses. But the likelihood is that we'd be the Martha. I think perhaps people can recognize that. Let’s forget that the attractive, dashing Jenningses are K.G.B. agents, they have this truly exciting kind of life, and they’re cool. But despite the appeal of their story line, it’s really apparent to see what they did to her and what this machine does to the average person. It chewed her up and spit her out. Yet she’s still fully invested and willingly gave her heart, and I think that is very tragic and sad.

 

Edited by Umbelina
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