'The Americans' on FX HD - Page 5

Originally Posted by darthrsg 

We still sold corn to them too. Weird how that works.

Originally Posted by archiguy 

We do billions in commerce with Communist China (we buy their products, they buy our debt), yet Communist Cuba has been under embargo for half a century. They're driving Edsels held together with duct tape and you can't find a decent cigar on this side of the Keys. I hope somebody explains that for me some day.

Originally Posted by gwsat 

You beat me to it. Reagan wanted the Soviets to think he just might be a bloodthirsty madman. He wasn't, of course, but the policy he implemented of large increases in military spending sounded the death knell of the Soviet empire. They simply didn't have the resources to keep up. The cracks in their unsustainable economy became fissures and the rest is history. Nobody in the US at the time realized that the defense buildup would have such dramatic consequences but that's the way it turned out.

Originally Posted by archiguy 

We do billions in commerce with Communist China (we buy their products, they buy our debt), yet Communist Cuba has been under embargo for half a century. They're driving Edsels held together with duct tape and you can't find a decent cigar on this side of the Keys. I hope somebody explains that for me some day.

Originally Posted by kromkamp 

Well that's simple - China is half a world away, Cuba is 90 miles away.

Originally Posted by lonwolf615 



Simple maybe, but it doesn't make any sense. Cuba is in poverty while China is close to owning us.

Originally Posted by NetworkTV 

How is that any different than rotting for characters like Dexter or some other criminal in a show? Vic shoots a guy on his own team in the first few minutes of the premiere episode of The Shield, yet we root for him to keep out of trouble.

When you watch Matlock, it's not about seeing the accused get off. It's about seeing how Matlock gets them off (innocent or not).

In this case, we want to see how they keep out of hot water and cope with our culture.

Besides, we all know they didn't win in the end...

Originally Posted by Shaded Dogfood 

As far as the show goes, I just look in to see what good people see in it. To me it's simply too dark, too depressing. A KGB family where hubby is in love and wifey is not, played out Bondian and Manchurian Candidatian rather than in the manner of Le Carre, which would be more how this whole thing would have worked out in real life. No thank you.

Originally Posted by Steve Mehs 

Good series so far, I absolutely love it! But does anyone else notice the extreme amount of compression artifacts and shimmering pixels during the darker scenes in this show?

Originally Posted by DSperber 

Very much so. High compression (more so than on other FX series, like "Justified") combined with lots of darker scenes makes this very apparent... especially on larger high-quality HDTV display screens.

Definitely not the best video

Originally Posted by Shaded Dogfood 


Why are you stumped? Both parties have always desperately needed Floriday's electoral votes, and the Cuban transplants remain fiercely anti-Castros (can't really blame them; he took all their stuff) and they actually go out and vote. Plus they're violent if you cross them. Plus it's a holdover from the anti-Communist scare tactics of post WWII. Plus it's upholding the Monroe Doctrine (Venezuela is on the receiving end of this these days too).

Originally Posted by TitusTroy 

terrible grain in the darker scenes...really bad HD picture quality...looks even worse then Walking Dead on AMC

Originally Posted by replayrob 

I heard on the news this morning to avoid two areas of Manhattan tonight due to "controlled explosions" happening during location filming for the cable series "The Americans".
Interesting....

Originally Posted by ToddR 

I fear this will be yet another show that leaves the viewer to wonder how the characters manage to take care of their kids. Added bonus: keeping those kids completely in the dark about what they're really doing.

You can't be all super spy all the time while still maintaining the appearance of "Mommy & Daddy hired a sitter so that we could go out for dinner."

Originally Posted by darthrsg 

It's the 80s they get awesome TV to babysit them.

Originally Posted by Steve Mehs 

Good series so far, I absolutely love it! But does anyone else notice the extreme amount of compression artifacts and shimmering pixels during the darker scenes in this show? It was really apparent and annoying during this past weeks episode during the car ride scene at minute mark :46 or so, but throughout both episodes it’s been noticeable. The outdoor market scene with the FBI agent telling the girl to nod if his accusations were correct that occurred around the same time was also pretty bad. I record this (and most of my other shows) on both the Time Warner and DirecTV DVRs. I watched The Americans on TW, but rewatched certain scenes on DirecTV and it was just as bad if not worse as far as the compression artifacts go. I don’t recall American Horror Story: Asylum being this bad.

Originally Posted by UGAd13 

Agreed that the pq is one ofthe worst I watch but I think it's also intentional to a point to help bring us back into the 80s. Could be totally wrong and fx didn't have the budget for decent cameras or editing...

They could probably achieve the same with stunning HD but, for me it's not that big of a deal.

Originally Posted by UGAd13 

Agreed that the pq is one ofthe worst I watch but I think it's also intentional to a point to help bring us back into the 80s. Could be totally wrong and fx didn't have the budget for decent cameras or editing...

They could probably achieve the same with stunning HD but, for me it's not that big of a deal.