The Americans - Season 5 (1 Viewer)

[MarkMel]

The Americans starts back up tonight. I wonder what this season will bring?

Is that a new Henry?

 

[TravisR]

Is that a new Henry?

I haven't seen the episode yet (I'll catch the rerun in half an hour) but I think he's just one of those kids that looks very different when he became a teenager.

 

[ScottH]

I haven't seen the episode yet (I'll catch the rerun in half an hour) but I think he's just one of those kids that looks very different when he became a teenager.

You don't DVR or On Demand?

 

[TravisR]

As a minor league germophobe, I was creeped out when they were digging up the contaminated body.

You don't DVR or On Demand?

I use On Demand when I miss an episode but I like watching an episode as it runs. I chalk that up to habit or nostalgia.

 

[Walter Kittel]

FInally got around to the premiere episode. While I really like the show, I thought the exhumation was kind of weak in two ways.

a) Nearly ten minutes of digging felt like an attempt to pad the episode (which clocked in at 71 minutes with commercials).
b) It seems likely that the corpse would have been cremated, considering the nature of the contagion.

On the other hand, I loved the out of left field opening. Glad it is back.

- Walter.

 

[MarkMel]

Is anyone still watching? This weeks episode was great, Plus Bauhaus, did I mention Bauhaus?

 

[ScottH]

I thought this week's episode was a snoozer. I did like the closing scene though - thought it was very well done.

I haven't been that into this season but will certainly stick it out through the end since I've made it this far.

 

[MarkMel]

As much as being a spy seems so cool, there is no way I would be able to go through what they went through with the Russian women in her dining room after the story she told. Who are they to be judge, jury and executioner? I think I would've told the woman to move and to not come back.

 

[TravisR]

^ Russell and Rhys are always great but it was the two guest actors that took the scene to another haunting level.

 

[MarkMel]

The Jennings are caught between a rock and a hard place. Can they go back to Russia with the kids? They can't quit the spy game and stay in the USA. It's looking bleak.

 

[TravisR]

The Jennings are caught between a rock and a hard place. Can they go back to Russia with the kids? They can't quit the spy game and stay in the USA. It's looking bleak.

It's messed up but it seems like the best move would be to wait for Henry to become an adult and then leave the U.S. I assume they would be able to get them financial help for college, etc. but I can't imagine Paige or Henry adjusting well to the communist-era Soviet Union.

 

[MarkMel]

"Here, you have all of these things, food, clothes, schools. Use them, enjoy them."

...Back in the USSR "Why can't we have the things we had in the USA? That was just for show, Henry. And, they were the products of an evil capitalist society."

 

[MarkMel]

I've been thinking of all the options the Jennings have;

Status quo - continue to spy, business as normal. This will not be good as it's taking an emotional toll on them and the worse that gets, the greater the chance of them making a mistake and getting caught.

Pull out - Go back to Russia, we all know why this won't be good - the kids will have a very rough time and it kind of sucks there.

Run - Take off and go to Canada or Mexico. They're spies, they know how to disappear. But, Mother Russia will always be looking for them. See what happened to the Russian lady many years after her infractions.

The Beeman contingency - Tell Stan everything, become double agents, feed US info for as long as possible and then go into WITSEC.

I'd like to see the Beeman contingency, I think that would offer the most exciting conclusion to the series.

 

[Paul D G]

This season has felt weak for me but this week's episode was really good. Felt like all the pieces were falling into place.

 

[TravisR]

This season has felt weak for me but this week's episode was really good. Felt like all the pieces were falling into place.

I think since they knew had two seasons left, they've planned a larger story across both seasons rather than the usual one season arc.

 

[MarkMel]

Wait, what? That was the season finale? Very unsatisfying to me. I understand that they are going to spread the series end over the last two seasons but that felt like they filled a season and just chopped it in half.

 

[Walter Kittel]

It was a pretty solid season, but it did feel like it was a setup for the denouement of the series. I thought the use of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road was particularly effective. And it was nice to see that maybe a little happiness will make its way into Martha's new life.

Other random thoughts:

Man, that Tuan is a cold-blooded SOB. He'll go far in his profession.

I was very happy to see quite a bit of story time devoted to Oleg who plays like an Eastern bloc version of Stan Beeman in some ways.

Speaking of Stan, the series is certainly hinting that there is more than meets the eye with regards to his new love interest.

- Walter.

 

[TravisR]

Speaking of Stan, the series is certainly hinting that there is more than meets the eye with regards to his new love interest.

It's a credit to the writers and the actor that I'm positive she's a Russian agent but at the same time, I could absolutely believe that she's just a regular person. You'd think that they hired Laurie Holden for more than just a standard girlfriend role (she was on The X-Files and did a fine job at playing the paranoia of the shades of gray of her character) but I'd also imagine that she'd want to be on a show as well-respected as The Americans even if it was just a relatively small role.

 

[DaveF]

Watched the latter nine episodes the past week -- lagging so far behind I haven't followed the thread.

I enjoyed the season. The previous four seasons have mostly left it unsaid, more contextual, about the Soviet Union's moral and social failings. But this season they've been explicit about its problems, and its failings compared to the US. The show has re-engaged strongly with Philip's malaise and growing distrust for the motives and means of The Center. Undoubtedly the show is setting up for the finale, which I've always expected to be about Philip's loss of faith in the USSR and his job.

But at the same time, he and Elizabeth are more strongly united than they've been since the start. And Paige is has moved past her dismay, resolving her cognizant dissonance by taking up her parents' views.

And Stan...once again the show is setting up Stan and Phillip is semi-parallel stories with concerns about work brought into tension with newly positive relationships.

Oleg, interestingly, is given a newly strong story in Russia, working in a weakened KGB after Andropov's fall, trying to root out corruption and learning its endemic. Which loops back to the show showing explicitly how broken Russia is at this time.