'The Americans' on FX HD - Page 6

The wife/baby situation was handled brilliantly. One could see there was no intention to let them escape, but the twist of having the baby returned to Robert's parents made perfect sense from the Soviet point of view. To their way of thinking there was no way the child of a russian father was going to be left in Cuba, raised by its Puerto Rican mother. To them the baby was russian and one can see they would be thinking they were doing the right and proper thing. The fact that Phillip/Elizabeth didn't see it that way is an indication of just how americanized they have become, which I'm sure their new boss is aware of.

didn't realize that was Mags. very cool. need to watch when I'm not half asleep.

Margo Martindale is one of the most "gifted" actresses on TV. I loved her in "A Gifted Man" which apparently nobody but me watched.
Edited by BoilerJim - 2/14/13 at 1:01pm

I think you are kidding yourself if you believed Phillip/Elizabeth didn't know what was going on with the mother & baby. Hell, even I knew the mother would be killed and the child would be spared. I will admit that I did like the nice twist of returning the child to the Russian grandparents however.

Who's' Mags? She reminded me of the Total Recall disguise Ahnold used.
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

Nice...

'Mags Bennett' from Justified

Ok, thanks. That's another show I've been meaning to catch up on. I think Netflix has the first few seasons available.

Demo rating for this week was .7 vs .8 last week, so if it can bottom out there the show should have a good shot at another season. It killed Southland on TNT at the same time, so that can't hurt. Justified has lived at around .8 or .9 for a few years now on FX, and it wasn't that high at the beginning of it's run. One nice thing about cable shows versus network ones-critical acclaim means something for cable shows and renewal.

I wondered how the situation with the wife and child would be handled and thought the solution was brilliant.. I agree with you that Phillip and Elizabeth no doubt strongly suspected that the gigue was up for the mother. That's why I liked the writers' solution, to kill off the mother but return the baby to the Rodina. I also enjoyed the ambivalence Phillip and Elizabeth still feel toward one another. It's clear to me at least that they are in love in a very complicated way but both are still ruthless intelligence officers in a foreign land. The Americans is a great show.

Its almost like they're thinking "we've been together 15 years, might as well have a relationship." I like how at first it seemed Elizabeth was the cold professional while Phillip seemed to have grown soft and more interested in preserving the life they have created than doing his job.. Now we've seen a more human side of Elizabeth while Phillip has been shown to be ruthless if thats whats called for. There relationship isn't cut and dry, they take different roles and feed off each other like real people. As far as the wife/child, its immaterial really what Phillip and Elizabeth thought. What I like is the how the show humanized the ones running the operation.Instead of cardboard cutouts of evil they were shown to be driven by their own moral code, They have their values, its just that they are russian and see things differently than americans would.

It's still sad that the mother had to die "just" because she was (had been) married to a Russian spy, even though she was unaware of his "profession."

I find it hard to cheer for these characters, knowing they are the bad guys, which makes me not enjoy the show as much as I could.

How can you enjoy The Following with all of its senseless, graphic gore and not "enjoy" The Americans "as much as you could?"

"Two weeks!"

One thing I really like about this show is how much more can be done with the plot due to the absence of cell phones. The delay in communications really helps to stretch the drama and add to the suspense. If you can call it suspense. I also like how they can weave Reagan era events into the story like the Missile Shield. I imagine we will have to leave it to our own conspiracy mindedness to determine whether any of the espionage is in anyway reality based and had any impact on the events of the time.

It is also interesting to see that the closeness of our couple and sexual desire always increases when they kill or any tense situation occurs. Not sure how many times they can keep going to the well with the parenthood issues. But, so far I am enjoying what i am seeing.

But, she figured it out. She told them they were spies, that was her undoing!

It's still sad because I firmly believe they would have killed her no matter what. They just couldn't take the chance one way or the other.

Which probably means the maid who planted the bugged clock has had an unfortunate accident...

The maid wasn't the mother of a Russian spy's baby. However, they may have also killed her and her brother.

The following is starting to show its holes to me as I pointed out. But I enjoy it more because I can root for the good guys. In Americans you are forced to root for the bad guys (Russian spies) because they are the star of the show. They even try to make our FBI look incompetent and unmatched for them. Just harder to hope the bad guys win on this show. On the following I am not hoping he kills more people and destroys our country.

And The Following makes the FBI look good?

spoiler alert - we (USA) win the Cold War

Enjoyed the part when Philip was delivering the cash for the "Stars Wars" plans.

"I did warn them, twice."

I think you hangups that go far beyond the boundries of this show.

There have been literally dozens of shows that have anti-heroes at the center of the show, from Breaking Bad to Dexter to The Shield to Oz to Deadwood. I'm not sure why you're so hung up on this. The reason to like the characters isn't because we want them to win - it's because they're interesting to explore.

damn. you blew the whole show for me!

+1000.

I don't get how the FBI is portrayed badly either. The way they tracked down the mother was handled very well, and the guy across the street looks to be a match for any of the spies.

Exactly. And, I think it's also that we (or at least, I) hope they will see the light and switch sides, becoming true "Americans."

Then you're hoping for a different show.

Probably.

In real life, the people this show was based around were arrested for what they did. Granted, this was only recently, not in the era this show takes place in. I have no doubt these operations really did take place back then, though.

I find anything that reveals to us and reminds us just how little we know about our neighbors compelling. There are plenty of sex offenders that have yet to be caught, serial killers, drug dealers, members of the mob, terrorists andspies living quietly around us in many places. Yet, when they're caught, there's always the neighbor that says "he always kept to himself, never caused any trouble - he seemed like a nice guy - I can't believe something like that could happen here."

John Wayne Gasey had at least a dozen bodies stashed on his property before anyone caught on to him. Many of the guys who hijacked planes on 9/11 were living quietly right here while they trained and waited for orders.

While the ending feels a bit contrived, I suggest watching Arlington Road if you really want to become suspicious about the people on your street.
Edited by NetworkTV - 2/16/13 at 7:48am

Maybe so, but that was hinted at in the 2nd episode, I believe.