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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

BW Manilowe

BW Manilowe

(edited)

People.com has a paparazzi pic of Keri & Matthew out for a Sunday stroll, carrying coffee/drink cups from Starbucks or somewhere. Matthew is referred to in People's caption as both Keri's co-star & "boyfriend", so I guess the private relationship is still going strong. Here's a direct link to the actual photo (for now, anyway):

http://www.people.com/people/gallery/0,,20888337_30276818,00.html

If this takes you to a different pic, just keep looking til you find the right 1--it was pic 4 in the gallery when I looked for it, to get the link, just before posting this.

Also, 1 of the producers, Joel Fields, posted on Twitter today that production started on Ep 307, which he said Noah Emmerich (Stan) is directing. Here's that Tweet link:

https://twitter.com/joel_fields/status/552191423022628865

Edited by BW Manilowe
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Emme

Emme

Does anyone know where to watch Season 3 online in "realtime"?

I watched previous eps on Amazon Prime - but I don't know how far after the fact they aired. I heard the FX App doesn't show them. Maybe I'll have to buy on iTunes?

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BW Manilowe

BW Manilowe

(edited)

Does anyone know where to watch Season 3 online in "realtime"?

I watched previous eps on Amazon Prime - but I don't know how far after the fact they aired. I heard the FX App doesn't show them. Maybe I'll have to buy on iTunes?

I don't know how soon amazon gets their TV video content either; I buy my TV ep videos from iTunes (since I have an iPod & the last time I checked amazon's videos weren't in a format playable on iTunes/iPods). But I would think iTunes & amazon get their TV show videos (& other downloadable content) around the same time of day/night.

Having said that, I know from experience that (when it comes to the show I buy regularly from them which, I have to admit, isn't The Americans) their TV ep videos usually are available for purchase & downloading by around 3-3:30AM US Eastern Time, very late the same night/very early the morning after the ep/show involved airs here. I think they don't post the eps until they've aired in all the US time zones, including Alaska & Hawaii Time.

For example, if you're into Hawaii Five-0 that airs at 9PM US Eastern Time on Friday nights. When they air a new ep, you can usually find it on iTunes 6-6 1/2 hours later, or around 3-3:30AM US Eastern Time that same Friday night/early Saturday morning.

So I would think you could find The Americans on iTunes & amazon around 3-3:30AM US Eastern Time the same Wednesday it airs/aka early Thursday morning of the same week. If it's not there quite that early, it should at least be on both sites within 24 hours of airing on FX.

Hope this helps & wasn't too confusing.

Edited by BW Manilowe
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BW Manilowe

BW Manilowe

USAToday: 'The Americans' Spies Wrestle With Family Issues

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/tv/2015/01/18/fx-the-americans-keri-russell/21965947/

Also, today was FX Network's day at the Winter 2015 Television Critics Association (TCA) Meeting, held in Los Angeles--kind of a big deal in the entertainment/TV industry.

Their last show panel was for The Americans, held within, maybe, the last 6 hours or so (maybe a little more, maybe a little less). It included showrunners, Matthew, Keri, & Noah Emmerich (maybe others; that's all the actors I know were there).

If you're interested there are a lot of Twitter Tweets (really too many to link to here) from the panel in Twitter accounts for, like, TVGuide & Variety (TV/entertainment industry publications); I haven't really seen any in the more show-, showrunner, actor, or FX network-related accounts. You kinda just have to read the last few hours of Tweets in the appropriate feeds until you start seeing the show/actors/etc. mentioned. Sorry...

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BW Manilowe

BW Manilowe

(edited)

Keri was apparently on Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show this past Tuesday night, & she played 1 of those games he periodically gets guests involved in. Here's an article/clip from the game she played, which she allegedly cheated at (according to the caption, at least).

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/keri-russell-cheats-at-flip-765717?utm_sour

Here's an item from TVGuide's MegaBuzz from earlier this week. It's about the whole "Will or won't Martha discover 'Clark' isn't really 'Clark' & her marriage is a sham, & what will she do if she does discover it?" plot point.

http://www.tvguide.com/news/mega-buzz-the-americans-martha/

Edited by BW Manilowe
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gwhh

gwhh

Anyone know the background on these 4 cases?  The why, the how, and the how of this background?

 

The four documented cases that we know the history of, three of the women who were married to KGB officers, when they were confronted by the police after many, many years of marriage and found out about it, within 24 hours, committed suicide," Fields ominously teases. "One of them simply wouldn't accept it and never accepted it."

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Uncle Benzene

Uncle Benzene

Keri was apparently on Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show this past Tuesday night, & she played 1 of those games he periodically gets guests involved in. Here's an article/clip from the game she played, which she allegedly cheated at (according to the caption, at least).

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/keri-russell-cheats-at-flip-765717?utm_sour

 

I never watched Felicity, The Americans is/was the first exposure I've ever had to Keri Russell. She's awesome as Elizabeth, of course. But Elizabeth is always so.... sullen. Deadly serious. All that stuff. So I guess that clip is my first exposure to Keri herself. And I'm pretty sure I just fell in love with her. Wow. 

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Mozelle

Mozelle

Does anyone know where to watch Season 3 online in "realtime"?

I watched previous eps on Amazon Prime - but I don't know how far after the fact they aired. I heard the FX App doesn't show them. Maybe I'll have to buy on iTunes?

I don't know what cable company you use, but Xfinity has a Chrome app that provides certain networks' programming on a live stream.

Actually I don't know if it's available if you're only on their Internet plan. I don't have a TV (and therefore no cable), but I do have access to my parents' Xfinity online account and they have all the cable at their house. In turn I have access to programming the day after it airs.

All that said, check and see if a browser extension app exists for the Internet/cable company you use. I know with the Chrome Xfinity app, FX is available. I'm excite because this will be the first time I get to watch the show live.

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BW Manilowe

BW Manilowe

(edited)

Anyone know the background on these 4 cases? The why, the how, and the how of this background?

The four documented cases that we know the history of, three of the women who were married to KGB officers, when they were confronted by the police after many, many years of marriage and found out about it, within 24 hours, committed suicide," Fields ominously teases. "One of them simply wouldn't accept it and never accepted it."

Unfortunately, all I know is what you/we all know, which is in the quote above from Joel Fields, 1 of the Executive Producers, & he only cited cases without sources, etc. You could try Googling/Yahoo! Searching/Wikipedia Searching it, I suppose, but I don't know specific search terms you'd use or how easy/hard it would be.

Edited by BW Manilowe
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gwhh

gwhh

Wow! Did not know that. How long have they been dating?

People.com has a paparazzi pic of Keri & Matthew out for a Sunday stroll, carrying coffee/drink cups from Starbucks or somewhere. Matthew is referred to in People's caption as both Keri's co-star & "boyfriend", so I guess the private relationship is still going strong. Here's a direct link to the actual photo (for now, anyway):http://www.people.com/people/gallery/0,,20888337_30276818,00.html

If this takes you to a different pic, just keep looking til you find the right 1--it was pic 4 in the gallery when I looked for it, to get the link, just before posting this.

Also, 1 of the producers, Joel Fields, posted on Twitter today that production started on Ep 307, which he said Noah Emmerich (Stan) is directing. Here's that Tweet link:https://twitter.com/joel_fields/status/552191423022628865

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BW Manilowe

BW Manilowe

Wow! Did not know that. How long have they been dating?

If I remember correctly, Keri & her husband separated at some point in Season 2 (it made the news around the same time word got out that Keri's/her family's home in Brooklyn, I think, had been broken into while Keri was actually sleeping in the house--if you internet search something like Keri Russell burglary, or marriage separation, you can possibly get the relevant timeframe for those events). At least when S2 was airing, if not airing & still filming.

At the time the marital separation was announced it seemed like they would be headed for (apparently amicable) divorce, but as far as I know neither Keri or her estranged husband has yet filed papers to take the next legal step in dissolving their marriage. So she's possibly still legally married, unless they did file for a legal separation when they split. Regardless, if they wanted to, Matthew & Keri couldn't marry in real life until Keri's legally divorced, & I haven't heard she is yet.

If I also remember correctly, the press started referring to Matthew & Keri as a couple on *both* sides of the camera/TV screen shortly before or after the upcoming season (S3, which starts Wednesday night... Yay!) started filming. They, as I remember, were "outed" (if you will) by another paparazzi-related sighting (I think they were supposedly antique shopping, & "looking cozy together", in 1 of their neighborhoods, but it's unclear as to whose place any purchases would've gone).

That was over this past Summer (Summer 2014), if I again remember correctly. I think around July; as I remember they started filming around the same time as my other favorite show, & my other favorite show started filming on July 8th (I remember the date specifically 'cause it's shortly after my own birthday & 'cause 1 of the leads on the other show became a father for the 1st time--of a daughter--July 9th, the day after his show started filming, for the season that's airing now). If I remember correctly, 1 of the Executive Producers posted to Twitter about the 1st day of S3 filming & the Tweet was posted somewhere around July 11th. That Tweet may actually be somewhere upthread in this subject, posted/linked to by me.

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thewhiteowl

thewhiteowl

 

 This sounds good to me. I need a break from so much gratuitous violence and I like it a bit more cerebral. Just a small break and a bit more thought-provoking. The thought-provoking got a little lost for me amid the violence. I like that they have a direction and I like that it is not written in stone.  I'm glad this is back.

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BW Manilowe

BW Manilowe

From Entertainment Weekly's website:

Video of Keri, Matthew, Noah, Annet (Nina in the show), & the 3 showrunners attempting to successfully recap the 1st 2 seasons within 30 seconds (all of them in the same video). This is in the topmost video screen at the link. And it's cute/funny. And yes, apparently some plot points are missed.

Under that screen are video screens of Keri (for some reason she has 2 separate ones posted), Matthew, & Noah individually attempting to recap the 1st 2 seasons within 30 seconds.

Here's the link:

http://popwatch.ew.com/2015/01/27/the-americans-video-recap/?hootPostID=1503dd39c32915f7c008e68c59f355e3

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Inquisitionist

Inquisitionist

Best Show on Television is always debatable, but this VOX article makes some very good points, including:

 

On its surface, The Americans looks like a drama of action. The characters do have goals — discover the secrets of the American stealth program, recruit Paige, find a way to infiltrate the FBI — but what's interesting is how the show grounds all of those goals in relationships. First and foremost, The Americans is about charting the course of the many relationships within its confines, not just between Philip and Elizabeth. Every character on the show, no matter how minor, has a point of view, or at least a suggested one.

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Umbelina

Umbelina

http://www.vulture.com/2015/01/the-love-of-god-watch-the-americans-tonight.html

 

Another good one. 

The Americans is the best show most people aren't watching. Given how uncompromising it is, and how many  games it plays with our sympathies, that's not a surprise. The whole show is so slippery that it's hard to find anything in it to hold on to. No sooner has a scene or subplot become emotionally concrete, and sometimes hugely affecting, than it takes a surprising or alarming turn and flips your sympathies upside down. This Reagan-era time capsule about Russian spies posing as American travel agents is one of the better current examples of antihero TV. The entire point of that mode has been — or at least should've been — to let us approach familiar institutions and bits of received wisdom from strange moral and ethical angles so that you can see the things in mitochondrial form. It's one thing to look at marriage, parenting, fidelity, and patriotism through the eyes of conventional middle-class bourgeois Americans, as the vast majority of TV shows do. It's quite another to see them enacted, subverted, or mocked, in an alternately sincere and calculated way, by Soviet secret agents.

 

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Umbelina

Umbelina

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/28/the-americans-review_n_6563502.html

The second season of "The Americans" ended up on many 2014 Top 10 lists (including mine), and there's no reason to believe Season 3 won't be a contender for 2015 best-of rosters as well.

The first four episodes of Season 3 are every bit as taut and finely crafted as the stellar prior season of the show, and below, I offer a roster of reasons to get caught up if you've never seen "The Americans." I actually envy anyone who hasn't sampled this Keri Russell-Matthew Rhys spy drama before: New comrades have an enjoyable TV binge ahead of them.

 

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wisteria

wisteria

Slate has just started a "behind-the-scenes podcast on the making of The Americans." The first episode was pretty great: it's hosted by the show's script supervisor and featured a long interview with Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg. (From what I can tell, the podcast will be entirely created by the show's writers and production staff, and Slate is just providing the distribution.) They mentioned some of their research for things that might show up in later episodes -- like a TV show Henry is watching, for example -- but seemed to be careful not to spoil any plot arcs or important events. And the description says, "Over the coming weeks, we’ll talk with some of the show’s actors, prop and set designers, musicians, craftspeople (including those who design all those great disguises), and the other artists who together make The Americans." I'm pretty damned excited about this! Interviews with the cast are welcome, of course, but I really want to hear more about how the show is put together.

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BW Manilowe

BW Manilowe

(edited)

Apologies for the late notice... Matthew Rhys is on Live with Kelly & Michael TODAY, February 3rd. It looks like he's the 2nd guest; they just introduced Glenn Close as the 1st guest & it's almost 9:30 Eastern where I live (the show airs live here, from 9-10AM Eastern).

Hopefully this will still help many of you who get the show at the beginning of the day, like me, but it might help those of you who get the show later in the day more (sorry). If you miss the show, hopefully you can find the interview on their website (I think it's livekellyandmichael.com) or elsewhere online.

EDITED TO ADD: He's on in about the last 20 minutes of Kelly & Michael, for up to 10 minutes (where I am, it was from about 9:40-9:50AM if the clock on my iPhone--from which I'm posting--is reasonably accurate). The Welsh accent is in full force; he's being funny & charming & showed a clip, I think from an ep/the ep we've already seen this season, where Elizabeth & Phillip talk about The Centre wanting to recruit Paige into the Jenningses *real* family business (as opposed to her working at their travel agency).

Edited by BW Manilowe
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topanga

topanga

Matthew Rhys is so lovely in interviews. It always surprises me that his natural voice (Welsh accent) is a higher octave than the voice he uses for Philip.

 

I found out he used to be roommates with Ioan Gruffudd, my other favorite Welsh actor. Seriously, he's awesome on "Forever."

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jb0495

jb0495

I don't understand why the only thing interviewers talk about are the slapping story &/or Ioan. I mean, the show is in Season 3! There are so many other things to talk about. I wish Matthew brought wigs or part of a disguise like Glenn Close brought clothes. It would have been cool to hear him switch between his own & Phillip's accent.

But he is lovely in interviews!

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Umbelina

Umbelina

(edited)

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/04/the-americans-recap-baggage-check-for-elizabeth/

 

Propaganda Point. Elizabeth: “Paige, don’t worry. Your father is not having an affair.”

Translation: “Well, Paige, it’s complicated. In our business, Dad and I have all kinds of sex with all kinds people, sometimes even with people we’re attracted to, and sometimes with partners we pretend to marry, which can be hugely inconvenient unless you really love your country — umm, job — and now I have to leave you and Henry alone all night again and take this giant suitcase to a hotel and stuff one of those people Daddy has been having sex with into it. I’ll explain later!”)

 

 

http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/americans-baggage-21479

1Philip’s vision of his children’s future is an impossible American Dream for Paige and Henry that’s threatened from every angle. And the kids are one of their own greatest threats: She notices things, like the fact that her dad works odd hours, despite the relatively 9-to-5 nature of running a travel agency. (In “Baggage,” she suspects Philip is having an affair. Elizabeth tells Paige he’s not, marking one more in a long series of half-truths told between mother and daughter.) The Americans treats Paige like a being who’s capable of thought, curiosity, and awareness, and that gives her storylines a certain drive and purpose that’s missing from, say, The Misadventures of Dana Brody. The Americans derives tremendous power from kids striving to know their parents; on the flip side, it gets a lot of mileage from the horror of being a parent who’s watching their child turn into a real person. There’s only so much control you can exert in that situation, but there are some proven methods. Take it away, Tatiana Evgenyevna:

 

Edited by Umbelina
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Umbelina

Umbelina

What is your reaction when you read that script and get to that scene where you have to recruit Paige?

Matthew Rhys: I’m like, “Oh my God. This is terrible.” Because I think I’ve always maintained this thing that for Philip to say in the first episode of the first series, “I want to defect,” to someone like Elizabeth is enormous. It’s enormous. And that thing doesn’t go away. That sits with him and it has sat within him for a long time prior to that. And the way I got to that place was thinking he’s realizing this is a career that (without) secure futures. This has a time limit and he wants to secure the future of his children. Therefore, the only way to do that is defection. To turn to the Russians and say, “We want to stop now,” they would say, “You’re basically gonna do this until you’re caught or dead.” And so the only way to secure the kids is to defect, and I think that still sits within him. It’s his super objective in life is to see them grow up as Americans. And therefore for (Elizabeth) to take it one step further and say, “Actually, it’s not just enough for them to be raised here with a slight socialist slant to their upbringing; I want them to do what we do,” all his nightmares have come true.

So if Elizabeth wakes up one morning and says, “You know what, honey? Let’s defect,” he would do it in a second?

Matthew Rhys: In a heartbeat. That’s my take on it.

Read more at http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/the-americans-star-matthew-rhys-philip-would-defect-in-a-heartbeat#7Ui5obP1OJpT1gEh.99

Read more at http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/the-americans-star-matthew-rhys-philip-would-defect-in-a-heartbeat#7Ui5obP1OJpT1gEh.99

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topanga

topanga

Great interview.

 

 

And so the only way to secure the kids is to defect, and I think that still sits within him. It’s his super objective in life is to see them grow up as Americans.

I'll ask my question in the Philip thread.

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Umbelina

Umbelina

(edited)
Idealistic young Paige, conversely, is worried about her parents, but for all the wrong reasons, naturally. She nervously suggests to Elizabeth that Philip's late nights might mean he's having an affair, and Elizabeth manages to contain her laughter. "I don't think about that too much," she says, reassuring her daughter. After all, you don't exactly worry about your husband cheating on you when you know he's already sleeping with countless people as part of his regular spy duties. If we're being honest, she's probably far more concerned about him cheating on the U.S.S.R. with America.

 

http://www.vulture.com/2015/02/americans-recap-season-3-episode-2-body-luggage.html

 

One more, I love these reviews.

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/02/the-americans-season-three-episode-two/385174/

 

And there’s the scene where she returns her mother’s audiotape to Gabriel. "Maybe she’s a little happier now because her daughter’s … making a difference in the world," he tells her, in a moment of sublime manipulation. (Again, I love Frank Langella.) Nor is that all. Gabriel also comments on her mother’s beauty and the fact that she’s “aged well”—which are essentially refracted compliments on Elizabeth’s own looks. And he subtly tries to move her away from Philip and toward Paige. When Elizabeth mentions that Paige is worried her dad might be having an affair, he waves it off—nothing to worry about!—before segueing to the all-important “but she trusts you.” Indeed, it’s hard not to assume that Gabriel gave Elizabeth the tape of her dying mother as part of his whole maternal-responsibility pitch to get Elizabeth onboard with Paige’s recruitment. Anyone else think there might be a chance that Elizabeth’s mother isn’t even really dying?

 

Edited by Umbelina
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dramachick

dramachick

Costa Ronin interview:

http://okmagazine.com/meet-the-stars/exclusives-meet-the-stars/costa-ronin-the-americans-interview/

 

Is Oleg and Nina’s relationship a flirty hookup? A truly honest, meaningful connection? As the man behind the character, Ronin has some pretty interesting insight to it. “Well, it can’t be honest. Because nothing in that environment is what it seems. Nothing is honest, and they can’t afford to be honest with each other because their lives depend on it. And not just their lives, but the lives of their families, the lives of their countrymen and any wrong move can lead to a war breaking out. Imagine being in a relationship with somebody you love and you look into their eyes and you know that you cannot open your heart and be completely honest, even in the most truthful and honest moment when you’re making love? But these are the lives of those characters. I can’t speak for Nina, but Oleg is definitely in love with her. He loves her deeply and cares for her and we see glimpses of it throughout the season, but he cannot open up. So when he tells her, ‘Look if you don’t get Agent Beeman to turn then you have to run.’ I mean if you think about that action, he’s basically putting his life on the line. All it takes is for Nina to go and tell Arkady or anybody else that this is the game that Oleg is playing, he’s done. He’s absolutely done. And he’s effectively committing an act of treason himself. He’s putting his life on the line and his job on the line to say look, right now I’m going against my superiors, I’m going against my country, and for Oleg, treason is such a massive betrayal for him. He can tolerate deception but not from someone he loves. He understands betrayal and lies are the tools of the trade but that’s about those two, not about the country. Once you betray the country you cross the line. He feels so strongly about Russia that to find himself in a situation where he’s in love with a woman who has betrayed the country, it’s perplexing.”

 

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BW Manilowe

BW Manilowe

Keri & Matthew interview from Paste magazine (which I'd never heard of before).

Small, & not very many, spoilers herein--mostly for things like certain kinds of costumes worn by Phillip & Elizabeth during at least 1 upcoming mission. Certainly nothing, spoiler-wise, that (in my opinion, at least) would ruin anyone's enjoyment of future episodes if the interview were read.

http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2015/02/keri-russell-and-matthew-rhys-talk-subtlety-and-se.html

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Umbelina

Umbelina

(edited)

http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/americans-open-house-215121

It’s all worth the risk, though, because the bugs planted during Paaswell’s open house uncover a way to infiltrate the otherwise squeaky-clean CIA Afghan group. Yousaf’s good, but the rebellious daughter of the group leader is better. Considering the current sticking point in the Jennings’ marraige, I have to wonder how eager they’ll be to do the exact thing they’re arguing about at home: Rope an unwitting teenager into a counterintelligence operation.

 

 

http://www.vulture.com/2015/02/americans-excruciating-tooth-pulling-scene.html

 

interview with Keri about this episode

 

http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/the-americans-star-keri-russell-this-whole-seasons-a-little-hard-for-me

and another.

 

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/11/the-americans-recap-a-most-painful-extraction/

Now, did my eyes deceive me? The light is about to change at the intersection (of Liberty Road, no less). Agents grip their steering wheels; they can’t hear one another with all that static; they stomp the gas and BOOM! F.B.I. and C.I.A. cars smash into each other with the screeching splendor of what they would call a multivehicle crash.

 

Did that happen? 

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2015/02/11/the-americans-recap-season-3-episode-3/

Captain Oblivious takes the CB radio with him to his car and Philip and Elizabeth are hot on his tail. They’d been warned repeatedly not to take the CIA for granted, but still they follow Captain Oblivious for hours before they realize they’re being followed, too. They get to a dark corner where Philip can tuck and roll out of the car to make the distress call, but Elizabeth is still driving around. How good was the gas mileage back then? Because they were gone for a while.

 

Edited by Umbelina
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Umbelina

Umbelina

It’s been a long while since the show has taken us so deep into the convoluted sexual dynamics of this marriage, in which both partners are occupationally required to sleep with other people on a fairly regular basis. (It’s just as much a part of Philip’s recruitment repertoire as it is Elizabeth’s. He actually went so far as to marry someone else.) I found the scene a fascinating dance, immaculately executed. Elizabeth, who is on some level a professional seductress, tries to seduce her husband to defuse the tension between them. Philip, himself a professional seducer, essentially says, no dice, why don’t you go seduce someone else. The show doesn’t often take us to this dark place in their marriage—and I think that’s the right choice—but for me that scene gave the entire episode an unsettling vibe. It was also an example of how FX’s sparing use of nudity renders it a much more powerful device than it is in the hands of, say, HBO. I’m a huge fan of Game of Thrones, for instance, but the show’s constant reliance on naked bodies has completely devalued the coin.

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/02/the-americans-episode-3-roundtable/385414/

So true, and well said.

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