Did you watch The Americans? Spoilers

[Garga]

I just finished the final episode yesterday and I can’t stop thinking about it.  Did anyone else watch and now can’t stop thinking about it?

I had been watching on Amazon prime and bought the last season, so I’ve been binge watching all along.  I started to slow down as I hit epsiodes 8, 9, and 10, because they were all so solid and I didn’t want to watch them so fast that they didn’t sink in.

Spoilers, and it’s all a jumble:

I was so sure that they were setting up for Elizabeth to take that cynaide pill, but I’m glad they didn’t in the end.  It was too predictable.  I was also pretty sure that someone would be killed (wasn’t sure who), so that whoever was left would suffer the same sadness and grief that they’d caused soooo many people in their lives.

Mostly I struggled with wanting them to be ok but also wanting them to pay for the agony they caused other people.  I mean, Martha?!  That poor, poor woman!  I was sooo glad that they decided (in season 5) to let her have a child to love.  

I read somewhere that the ending of the show was very Russian—no happy American ending, no violent American ending...just an ending filled with loss and grief.  I cried and cried when they called Henry and then cried and cried some more when Paige was on the station platform.  That was a jolt to the heart, when Elizabeth saw her and swung around in her seat to watch her fade away in the distance...and then for Philip, too, and how he came and sat by Elizabeth, because the loss was too great to bear alone, even if it blew their cover.  And then in the end, when they’re trying to come to grips with losing their children and they’re somewhat lying to themselves and saying their kids will be ok.  When they said  “we raised them” in the past tense, it was them letting go of their kids and accepting that they’d never, ever see them again.  I cried then, too.  

I think the writers were spot on that instead of one of them dying, they all lived: they had to live with the knowledge of what they’d lost and that would be the grief; that would be the balancing of all the horrible things they did to people.

But poor Stan!  He wasn’t horrible, yet he also suffered loss.  Poor, poor Stan.  And he had to let them go.  There’s no way he could have stood in the way of his best friend.  They really loved each other.  

And Oleg.  Urgh.  I wanted Oleg to be let go.  He was trying to do the right thing.  It seems like Stan would tell him that the people he was protecting were gone (Elizabeth and Phillip), and so he could translate the message and prove he wasn’t trying to harm the US and they’d let him go.  In fact, I’m going to believe that it went down like that after all.  ?

Renee is totally a spy.

 

Did the ending impact you?  Are you still thinking about it?  Did you like the ending?

[ThisIsTheDay]

I recently started watching Season 1, it's been on my Things to Watch list for quite a while. I pretty much like it, but my sister said there's more sex in Season 2, so I've kind of stopped watching. Maybe I'll pick it up again, parts of it have been good!

[PinkyandtheBrains.]

I haven’t watched the most recent season yet. But the show catches my attention and leaves me thinking.

[Bootsie]

i was thinking of The Americans in the other thread about the 80s...

DH was in a panic because our electricity went out 10 minutes into the show--which meant the DVR wasn't working--luckily it was on later that same night.  

They did leave a lot pieces that could make some type of spinoff in the future. I wasn't clear whether Oleg could translate the code and was refusing to or if he was just the messenger and could not translate it if he wanted to  I kept thinking someone would turn up as a double agent.

[CAJinBE]

We watched it. My dh loved the unpredictable ending. I was hoping for more action and more punishment for Elizabeth and Philip. I felt most sorry for Stan and Henry. I didn't think Paige was a very sympathetic character. I couldn't believe she would fall for all the Communist propaganda having gone through the public school system in that era. I was sort of hoping she would be the one to turn in her parents. I wonder what happens to Stan and his relationship with his wife. It was a good series overall, dragged for me in parts. 

[TheFollower]

I hear many great things about it and still didn't watch it yet.

[Garga]

5 hours ago, CAJinBE said:

We watched it. My dh loved the unpredictable ending. I was hoping for more action and more punishment for Elizabeth and Philip. I felt most sorry for Stan and Henry. I didn't think Paige was a very sympathetic character. I couldn't believe she would fall for all the Communist propaganda having gone through the public school system in that era. I was sort of hoping she would be the one to turn in her parents. I wonder what happens to Stan and his relationship with his wife. It was a good series overall, dragged for me in parts. 

 

Paige was a very sensitive person and I think the only reason she was “falling” for the propaganda was because she wanted a mother.  Her parents were always leaving her and Henry alone for their work, and now that Paige knew what they were doing, and now that it took her a year or so to come to grips with it, she realized the only way to have a relationship with her mother was to work with her mother.  I don’t think she really in her deepest heart agreed with the propaganda, but she longed for relationship.  So she did what her mother did for a relationship with her mother.

That scene where she asks her mother if she sleeps with people and says “if you lie to me now I will never forgive you” is pivotal.  Because her mother did keep lying until Paige finally dragged the truth from her.  And then when Stan told Paige about all the dead FBI agents over the past years, Paige knew that her parents had continually been lying to her ever since she was 16. They told her and told her they didn’t kill people, and now here at the end, her suspicions are confirmed and she knows it’s just one more lie. I always found it heartbreaking when Paige would ask direct questions and they’d smile and lie lie lie to her.  That poor girl.  Once she found out the truth, they treated her like every other recruit and lied to her constantly.  They made their relationship with her hollow and rotten at the core.

And so finally, on that train, she knew she couldn’t continue. At her core, she never wanted to be a spy or to be Russian; she’d just wanted a family.  And she had to face the fact that her family was unknowable and utterly untrustworthy.  She couldn’t follow these people to Russia where they’d manipulate her and lie some more to her.  She’d tried and tried and tried to trust them, only to be let down time after time.  She wanted a mom and dad, but that was never going to happen for her—not in the normal, healthy way she wanted.

So she left them.

 

I think the punishment for Phillip and Elizabeth was perfect.  Someone on my FB page posted a meme yesterday (not about the show) that said that the hardest grief is to mourn the loss of someone who is still alive.  You know that they’re out there and you know that you *could* see them, but you can’t.  You still love them, but they are beyond your reach.  Or even, you still love them, but now they hate you.  

If Philip or Elizabeth had died, they would never have to live with the consequences of what they did.  But now they will.  They destroyed their children and will have to live with never seeing them again.  For as bad of parents that they were, they did love their children.  They will grieve for them every day for the rest of their lives.  And those children will hate them.  

And now they’ve come back to a country that isn’t what they left.  The country that they fought for and gave up their families back in the USSR and now theif family in the USA for is gone.  The USSR crumbles and becomes more westernized.  The leaders become greedy mobsters.  There’s nothing left for them.  Everything they fought for is gone.  Their lives were wasted.  They’re smart enough to know that.

The punishment is that they have to live with the consquences of their actions and knowledge that they gave up everything for nothing. 

 

[rjand6more]

I couldn't help but click on this thread.  I avoided the spoilers though because I am only on epi 2 of the last season.  I love it(although I don't like the racy scenes), but the story is worth dealing with those-some seasons are worse-Season 4 was better because she was pregnant irl.:)

[Alice]

4 hours ago, Garga said:

 

Paige was a very sensitive person and I think the only reason she was “falling” for the propaganda was because she wanted a mother.  Her parents were always leaving her and Henry alone for their work, and now that Paige knew what they were doing, and now that it took her a year or so to come to grips with it, she realized the only way to have a relationship with her mother was to work with her mother.  I don’t think she really in her deepest heart agreed with the propaganda, but she longed for relationship.  So she did what her mother did for a relationship with her mother.

That scene where she asks her mother if she sleeps with people and says “if you lie to me now I will never forgive you” is pivotal.  Because her mother did keep lying until Paige finally dragged the truth from her.  And then when Stan told Paige about all the dead FBI agents over the past years, Paige knew that her parents had continually been lying to her ever since she was 16. They told her and told her they didn’t kill people, and now here at the end, her suspicions are confirmed and she knows it’s just one more lie. I always found it heartbreaking when Paige would ask direct questions and they’d smile and lie lie lie to her.  That poor girl.  Once she found out the truth, they treated her like every other recruit and lied to her constantly.  They made their relationship with her hollow and rotten at the core.

And so finally, on that train, she knew she couldn’t continue. At her core, she never wanted to be a spy or to be Russian; she’d just wanted a family.  And she had to face the fact that her family was unknowable and utterly untrustworthy.  She couldn’t follow these people to Russia where they’d manipulate her and lie some more to her.  She’d tried and tried and tried to trust them, only to be let down time after time.  She wanted a mom and dad, but that was never going to happen for her—not in the normal, healthy way she wanted.

So she left them.

 

I think the punishment for Phillip and Elizabeth was perfect.  Someone on my FB page posted a meme yesterday (not about the show) that said that the hardest grief is to mourn the loss of someone who is still alive.  You know that they’re out there and you know that you *could* see them, but you can’t.  You still love them, but they are beyond your reach.  Or even, you still love them, but now they hate you.  

If Philip or Elizabeth had died, they would never have to live with the consequences of what they did.  But now they will.  They destroyed their children and will have to live with never seeing them again.  For as bad of parents that they were, they did love their children.  They will grieve for them every day for the rest of their lives.  And those children will hate them.  

And now they’ve come back to a country that isn’t what they left.  The country that they fought for and gave up their families back in the USSR and now theif family in the USA for is gone.  The USSR crumbles and becomes more westernized.  The leaders become greedy mobsters.  There’s nothing left for them.  Everything they fought for is gone.  Their lives were wasted.  They’re smart enough to know that.

The punishment is that they have to live with the consquences of their actions and knowledge that they gave up everything for nothing. 

 

 

I thought it was a fabulous finale. I did not see the ending coming al all but when it was over it seemed so obviously the only way for it to end. Phillip and Elizabeth needed to be punished and really it is the most horrible punishment, it’s like a death. The only thing worse would have been for either Paige or Henry to have been killed due to their spying and I think that would have felt too unfair to the audience. 

I’m also sad that it’s over as a show. It was so good. 

[Farrar]

I'm on the fence about some aspects of it.

The show was brilliant at pacing in a way that nothing else I see on TV these days is. I mean, it used whole songs. What other show does that? It would build up things for episodes and episodes, only to have them turn out to be red herrings. And it would go bang at unexpected moments and suddenly everyone's chopping up a body.

I think the ending was true to that. The red herring of the cyanide pill, the lengthy conversation between Stan and them in the parking deck, two great songs (Brothers in Arms!). And I like a little ambiguity. I like that Renee was left open ended. Like, IS SHE? I have no clue. That worked well for me.

On the other hand, I have no idea what happened to Paige and it's really been bugging me. Like, she got arrested probably, but then... And what about Oleg long term? Like, did he stay in prison after the fall of the USSR? What about after Gorbachev's people prevailed? I wanted more of a sense of resolution there. I was sure there was going to be a vague flash forward of an epilogue showing something.

Also, how hard would it have been to have Martha walk past with her kid in the park when Oleg's dad and Arkady were having that conversation. Like when we spotted her in the grocery store!

[lmrich]

I love the idea of getting a glimpse of Martha happy. I was disappointed that we did not see her in the last season. 

I am also glad that Paige left. I wish Elizabeth had shown a little more love to Phillip. You were sure that he loved her, but I was never sure she truly loved him. I would say she never loved anyone, but then there was the guy in Philadelphia that she was dreaming about... But, yeah, I get how we did not get the American happy ending. 

 

Overall, great show if you can get past the hanky panky.

[Bootsie]

Did Paige stay behind because she couldn't trust her parents?  Because she couldn't see herself in Russia?  Because she didn't want to leave Henry?  Or, did she think she could stay behind and somehow continue her parents work?  

DD had Robert Hanssen's (FBI agent who spied for Soviet and Russian intelligence agencies) daughter as her history professor this past year;  so she as been very intrigued with The Americans--and especially the impact on Paige and Henry.

 

[Roadrunner]

Loved the ending. I think losing the kids as a punishment was the cruelest thing that could have happened to them. The scene with Stan was great.

I agree with Farrar about Page. I couldn’t understand what on earth she was doing taking vodka shots. Is she in the KGB apartment? Why? I would have liked to see some resolution there, and since I detest that girl more than Elizabeth, I would have liked her to face consequences. Whatever is implied, I would have liked a visual. 

[CAJinBE]

You guys are like my dh. He sees all the deeper things and notices the songs, etc. I don't see all that or really even notice the music. I appreciate hearing everyone's thoughts. I probably need some kind of TV series version of Cliffs notes or something. On the idea of not seeing their kids anymore being the worst punishment, I see what you mean in an emotional sense, but many people suffer that fate for many reasons short of international espionage and murder. I'm on season 2 of Poldark right now and enjoying it, but now I wonder what I'm missing! ;)

 

[katilac]

On 6/6/2018 at 9:03 PM, ThisIsTheDay said:

I recently started watching Season 1, it's been on my Things to Watch list for quite a while. I pretty much like it, but my sister said there's more sex in Season 2, so I've kind of stopped watching.  

1

 

It is almost impossible for there to be MORE sex than in season 1, lol. 

On 6/7/2018 at 11:15 PM, jdahlquist said:

Did Paige stay behind because she couldn't trust her parents?  Because she couldn't see herself in Russia?  Because she didn't want to leave Henry?  Or, did she think she could stay behind and somehow continue her parents work?  

 

 

Because she couldn't see herself in Russia, along with a dash of not wanting to leave Henry. Paige is an American and not particularly knowledgable of, or dedicated to, the Soviet cause. Also, worst spy ever.  

On 6/8/2018 at 12:03 AM, Roadrunner said:

Loved the ending. I think losing the kids as a punishment was the cruelest thing that could have happened to them. The scene with Stan was great.

I agree with Farrar about Page. I couldn’t understand what on earth she was doing taking vodka shots. Is she in the KGB apartment? Why? I would have liked to see some resolution there, and since I detest that girl more than Elizabeth, I would have liked her to face consequences. Whatever is implied, I would have liked a visual. 

 

I liked the scene with Stan, but I had really been hoping for a one-on-one with Philip. Maybe just hanging out, having a beer, and Stan hears or sees something and immediately knows. 

That vodka scene was stupid, imo, the one scene that really rang false to me. I know Paige is the worst spy ever, but who goes back to the KGB apartment after everything when they are in hiding? It would have made more sense to show her walking into the FBI office (she would have chosen them because of the Stan connection). If she stays, what choice does she have other than throwing herself at the mercy of the authorities? She doesn't have the knowledge or resources to hide even short-term, much less make a life for herself. 

I don't understand why the idea of defecting wasn't even considered. They had crossed some very powerful people in Russia, so I'm not sure why they assumed they wouldn't just be killed (sanctioned or not). They had powerful information to offer, and had foiled a plot against Gorbachev, which would have been hugely in their favor.  

Also, still crying for Oleg . . . 

[Farrar]

I thought Paige went to Claudia’s apartment because she was essentially waiting to be caught. Dh thought she had finally seen through the “we don’t kill people” lie and couldn’t live with that. I thought she was going to stay in Canada at first. I’m just not sure what happened next...

[Roadrunner]

I am crying for Oleg as well. Loved that carecter.

I think their departure was so quick and they were so close to being caught that there wasn’t even time to consider a defection or arrange one. I mean when you are hunted, your run, and there wasnt even the hint from Stan offering a deal when they got caught. I don’t think they saw it as a viable choice. 

As for Paige, agggg that girl. I can’t stand people constantly looking for some causes and she just particularly bugs me. From devote Christian to KGB spy just for some validation. I think it could have only been better if they were walking her out of that apartment in handcuffs. If I were to speculate, she probably struck a deal with Stan blackmailing him about letting her parents go for freedom. I don’t know that FBI had any proof of her involvement since on the train it looks like the wanted poster only had Elizabeth and Philip. Who knows. People like her are just not my cup of tea. 

 

I rewatched the finale. Love, love, love it.

would love a spin-off post USSR, but I know it won’t happen.

[Farrar]

I really felt for Paige. Remember the kid in her situation who killed his family? I think that was pretty realistic. The realization that your family isn't who they say they are... I think it's pretty extreme. I think they really manipulated Paige at every turn. Her youthful need to change the world struck me as pretty normal - but they really twisted that into something dark.

I didn't even think about how she has dirt on Stan now because of what happened in the garage. Oy. Now I really don't know what happened to her. Like, how long would it take the FBI to find that apartment? I'm thinking awhile. They might not ever find it necessarily. I mean, they were onto the cars and the garages and they never managed to find theirs. The implication of her ending is that she was arrested, but I'm less and less sure of what happened to her. Stan might have taken pity on her. Or not. I really don't know.

[Rachel]

Ok, I’m not reading this thread because I may want to watch this show, I’ve heard a lot of good things about it. I watched the first episode the other night and there was quite a bit of sex. Are all the episodes that way? 

[Roadrunner]

Manipulation or not, that girl decided to spy on a country. I don’t care who her parents were, she could have kept their secret and not have anything to do with that. She was old enough to know better. I understand her desire to know her roots (say when she watches Russian movies .....), but nothing about her character suggests she was dumb to not have know what sort of crap she was stepping into. 

 

Martha, Oleg, Stan, Henry, even Philip, I weep for them. Well at least Philip gets to know her son in Russia. I don’t know what I feel for Elizabeth. She is the cold blooded killer with one dimensional devotion to her cause. I liked watching her suffer. 

I havent heard about a kid who killed family. Off to research. 

And maybe watch that finale again ? 

[Farrar]

2 hours ago, Rachel said:

Ok, I’m not reading this thread because I may want to watch this show, I’ve heard a lot of good things about it. I watched the first episode the other night and there was quite a bit of sex. Are all the episodes that way? 

There’s a lot of sex, though it does lessen over the seasons. This final season there was very little.

[Farrar]

1 hour ago, Roadrunner said:

Manipulation or not, that girl decided to spy on a country. I don’t care who her parents were, she could have kept their secret and not have anything to do with that. She was old enough to know better. I understand her desire to know her roots (say when she watches Russian movies .....), but nothing about her character suggests she was dumb to not have know what sort of crap she was stepping into. 

 

Martha, Oleg, Stan, Henry, even Philip, I weep for them. Well at least Philip gets to know her son in Russia. I don’t know what I feel for Elizabeth. She is the cold blooded killer with one dimensional devotion to her cause. I liked watching her suffer. 

I havent heard about a kid who killed family. Off to research. 

And maybe watch that finale again ? 

The kid was the other character on the show. Maybe season two? It was so creepy.

[Roadrunner]

12 minutes ago, Farrar said:

The kid was the other character on the show. Maybe season two? It was so creepy.

I just read an article in the Guardian about the identical case (but nobody got killed). Those kids grew up thinking they were Canadian but their parents were Russian. They all got deported from the US and Canada also stripped them of the citizenship. Really sad for those boys. I guess we now what would happen to Paige and Henry; they will be deported to Russia. I didn’t realize that you can be a citizen if you are born in a country but not if your parents are working for a foreign government. 

[Alice]

I thought Paige went back to the apartment sort of looking for Claudia. She probably knew she wouldn’t be there but I think maybe she also wanted closure. Claudia had become kind of like an aunt to her and it made sense to me that now that her parents were gone she was looking for her...maybe for answers. I don’t think she knew about Claudia’s part in the overthrow Gorbachev plan. Then it seemed to me that when she got there and it was obviously deserted that she just sat down because she didn’t know what to do next. 

For those who like to read that sort of thing there are some interesting interviews with the actors about their takes on the show and what happens to the characters. Keri Russell said she wanted to believe that they got to see their kids again after the Cold War ended. Matthew Rhys had an interesting comment, that he though there would be issues in the marriage over the fact that Phillip had wanted to defect back in Season One. He said something to the effect that he kept thinking, if they had defected then that they would all be together and he imagined that Phillip would have a hard time not thinking about that now that they have left the kids. I believe the actress that played Paige said she thought Paige stayed for Henry. 

[Farrar]

1 hour ago, Roadrunner said:

I just read an article in the Guardian about the identical case (but nobody got killed). Those kids grew up thinking they were Canadian but their parents were Russian. They all got deported from the US and Canada also stripped them of the citizenship. Really sad for those boys. I guess we now what would happen to Paige and Henry; they will be deported to Russia. I didn’t realize that you can be a citizen if you are born in a country but not if your parents are working for a foreign government. 

Apparently they actually had their citizenship restored:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jun/28/canada-son-parents-russian-spies-citizenship

Since it was Canada, I’m not actually sure what would happen in the US.

[Garga]

3 hours ago, Roadrunner said:

 

I havent heard about a kid who killed family. Off to research. 

And maybe watch that finale again ? 

 

It was a character.  In another season (can’t remember which one), Philip and Elizabeth are meeting with another KGB couple like themsevles.  There’s a scene where they pass information to each other (or something along those lines) at a carnival.

Shortly after meeting up with the couple, who also have two kids, there’s a scene where the other couple and their daughter are shot in their hotel room.  Philip walks into the room and sees the dead bodies.  He quickly walks down the hall and sees their teenaged son coming down the hallway from the pool.  He can’t say anything because the son doesn’t know who Philip is.  

The son unwittingly opens the door to find his mother, father, and sister shot dead and collapses in the hallway, screaming.

Eventually, after a few twists and turns, the boy is shot in an action scene and lies there dying next to Elizabeth.  He admits in his dying breaths that he knew his parents were with the KGB and he is the one who shot them, and then went to the pool as an alibi, and pretended to find the dead bodies later.  And then he dies from his injuries.

(Can’t remember why the sister got killed...I think it must have been an emotional exchange and the shots were fired and when all was said and done, they were all dead except for him.)

 

[Garga]

On 6/6/2018 at 10:31 PM, jdahlquist said:

 

They did leave a lot pieces that could make some type of spinoff in the future. I wasn't clear whether Oleg could translate the code and was refusing to or if he was just the messenger and could not translate it if he wanted to  I kept thinking someone would turn up as a double agent.

Oleg told Stan he wouldn’t translate the code because the message might give a clue as to who sent it.  And at that point, he didn’t want to blow Philip and Elizabeth’s cover.  So, even though the message could save his own skin, he was giving up his freedom to protect Philip and Elizabeth.

If Stan is the good man that I think he is, he will provide some sort of proof or information to Oleg to let Oleg know that their cover is fully blown and that the Russian operation there has fallen apart.  At that point, it would be safe for Oleg to translate the code and prove that the message wasn’t against America, but was actually a good thing for America.

Now, he’s still a spy doing spy activities, and just because this one message was good, everyone would still know Oleg was some sort of spy.  But I’m not sure how much of that could hold up in court giving him time in prison.  Don’t know about the laws for something like that.  

So, I am comfortable with believing that Oleg manages to avoid prison and get kicked out of the US without being allowed to come back.  Of course...who knows what might be waiting for him in Russia.  He might be branded a traitor there by certain factions and taken out.  That’s a story for another series, I suppose.

 

I really wanted to see a “Today” flashforward.  It would be 30 years in the future and Philip and Elizabeth and Stan would be about 75 and Paige would be about 50 and Henry about 47 or so. So, I’m not sure how they could have really worked that out without it ending up being cheesy.  Maybe it could have jumped 10 years into the future, after the cold war was solidly over, but not much further than that.

[Roadrunner]

1 hour ago, Garga said:

 

It was a character.  In another season (can’t remember which one), Philip and Elizabeth are meeting with another KGB couple like themsevles.  There’s a scene where they pass information to each other (or something along those lines) at a carnival.

Shortly after meeting up with the couple, who also have two kids, there’s a scene where the other couple and their daughter are shot in their hotel room.  Philip walks into the room and sees the dead bodies.  He quickly walks down the hall and sees their teenaged son coming down the hallway from the pool.  He can’t say anything because the son doesn’t know who Philip is.  

The son unwittingly opens the door to find his mother, father, and sister shot dead and collapses in the hallway, screaming.

Eventually, after a few twists and turns, the boy is shot in an action scene and lies there dying next to Elizabeth.  He admits in his dying breaths that he knew his parents were with the KGB and he is the one who shot them, and then went to the pool as an alibi, and pretended to find the dead bodies later.  And then he dies from his injuries.

(Can’t remember why the sister got killed...I think it must have been an emotional exchange and the shots were fired and when all was said and done, they were all dead except for him.)

 

I remember!!!! Finally! 

[Mbelle]

I just finished watching the whole show.  It is a fantastic series and I really love it.   Although they do kill people and stuff them in bags etc.. and that really seemed awful at first on the other hand they are soldiers in a war.  Nasty things happen in war and no one is punished for doing it.  Obviously people suffer for generation on both sides of wars so punishment seems a moot point to me since punishment is built in to living this kind of life.  I really felt like the overarching them of the show was all about relationships.  Philip and Elizabeth are, for most of the show, outright totally honest with each other, but not honest with their kids.  Work and friendships got entwined with the Mary Kay lady and that was difficult for Elizabeth.   Stan became their actual friend and yet the still reported on him, but he was very much their friend.  The ending was very good and there is room for a spin-off, but how can it ever be as good!! I'm in mourning that this show is over! LOL

[katilac]

19 hours ago, Rachel said:

Ok, I’m not reading this thread because I may want to watch this show, I’ve heard a lot of good things about it. I watched the first episode the other night and there was quite a bit of sex. Are all the episodes that way? 

 

Well, not every single one of them, lol. There's so much explicit sex in the first season that  I would not have kept watching on my own - not because I have moral issues with it, just because it went on and ON, and I was like, I get it, they're having sex, I don't need to watch the entire thing. It wasn't sexy sex, ifkwim, more like 'eww' sex. I think the first season is the worst. 

17 hours ago, Roadrunner said:

  I guess we now what would happen to Paige and Henry; they will be deported to Russia. 

1

 

Stan would never let that happen to his son Henry! 

[Roadrunner]

I think the show gets better from more spy sensationalism to deeper human/family relationships. It’s worth surviving the sex scenes. ? 

 

And I do hope Henry gets adopted by Stan. He was more of a father to him anyway. 

 

Nina’s execution. That’s another scene that was just gut wrenching. So clinical (I mean the janitor was ready already beforehand to mop up the blood) and yet in some ways humane since the inevitable is over sooner. After so many years, it still hurts.

[Mbelle]

Another relationship that is intriguing is the one the Jennings have with Pastor Tim.  He is interesting.  Especially in the end when he flat out lies to Stan.  

(Also that church is an interesting mix of christian traditions.)  

It feels like the Jennings and Stan have made their work as patriots their religion.  In the end all of that was confusing and conflicting for them in the midst of genuine relationships, as it had been for Philip for a long time.  They are all figuring out what is real.

 

[Farrar]

I have nothing inherently against sex scenes myself... but it's true that The Americans had a particular way of making you feel kind of grossed out watching them. Usually I just roll my eyes. Or, occasionally, you know, widen them. With The Americans, I often felt like looking away from the sex the same way that I often cringe when there's gruesome violence.