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The Americans - S2 of the KGB spy drama - Keri Russell & Matthew Rhys - Wed on FX

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C

Cornballer

Member
- Sepinwall's review
- Sepinwall Interview: 'The Americans' producers on the sex, murder and wigs of season 2
FX’s period spy drama “The Americans” went to a new level this season, going from a very good show to one of the very best on television by delving deeper into the emotional, moral and even sexual implications of two KGB spies pretending to be American spouses for decades and raising kids all the way. The season finale was devastating in the way it paid off the arcs about family, about whether FBI Agent Stan Beeman would betray his country to save Nina, and more. I reviewed the finale here, and I interviewed producers Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields about the season, coming up just as soon as you tell me where your corkscrew is…
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A

A Serious Man

Member
Fantastic finale. Very impressive how they tied everything together and turned the Paige plot line into possibly the most important of the season with that one reveal. A really solid season all around, I'm pretty happy with how this show is turning out. It's FX's best right now, I think.


Jason's Ultimatum said:
Beemans wife is hot as shit. Why would he cheat for that pinko commie?
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For real tho.
 
C

Cornballer

Member
- Onion A|V Club's The Walkthrough: The Americans’ showrunners walk through a terrific season character by character
Though The Americans’ first season was hugely successful creatively and critically, the second season started attracting the kinds of raves that are usually reserved for the upper echelon of TV dramas. This was for good reason: Through 13 episodes, the show’s missteps were minor, and the overall story arc for the second season proved to be a powerful tale of what it means to believe in something larger than yourself, while still trying to carve out space to be your own individual, as well as what it means to be a parent when you have to keep huge secrets from your children. Shortly before the second season finale aired, showrunners Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields talked to The A.V. Club and walked through their second season, character by character.
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P

-Pyromaniac-

Member
I did NOT notice this, as mentioned in the AVclub review:

Speaking of Stan’s dream, here’s an excellent little detail from it that’s easy to miss (and that I swear I caught before Weisberg and Fields mentioned it in that interview): When Stan greets Martha as he enters the office that morning, she’s putting files from the mail robot into her purse. Stan’s subconscious knows, even if he doesn’t.
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V

Verdre

Unconfirmed Member
Really good season finale. That story they've set up for 3, though... they're gonna have to handle that perfectly or it is going to sink this ship.
 
A

AngmarsKing701

Member
Niraj said:
Wonder if there's anything to him seeing Martha putting files into her purse in that dream.
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I thought the same thing. I hope that comes back in s3.

Fantastic finale. This show hit on all cylinders this season. Rhys deserves to be nominated for best actor. He fucking knocked it out of the park.
 
S

Sectorseven

Member
-Pyromaniac- said:
it's weird. The fact that he DREAMED IT means that on some level he knows or suspects Martha is a spy of some kind.

Or maybe the creators didn't realize that and made a mistake with the dream.
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But wouldn't he be dreaming in the first person, which means he never even saw that and it was only for the viewers?

Well, I guess you can dream in the third person, but can't say I've experienced that in recent memory.
 
Z

Zapages

Member
-Pyromaniac- said:
it's weird. The fact that he DREAMED IT means that on some level he knows or suspects Martha is a spy of some kind.

Or maybe the creators didn't realize that and made a mistake with the dream.
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Also he said hello only to Martha as well when he was awake and not to to his fellow colleagues. So he knows that something is fishy….

Also taking Martha training… Hmm I think Clark is going to be found. Martha is going to pay the price though in the end or is going to help Beeman get Clark for the season 4/ series finale or something along those lines... :\
 
P

-Pyromaniac-

Member
Sectorseven said:
But wouldn't he be dreaming in the first person, which means he never even saw that and it was only for the viewers?

Well, I guess you can dream in the third person, but can't say I've experienced that in recent memory.
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that whole scene is pretty weird lol. I guess he was seeing it in first person but we were seeing it in third person of course.

But you can't include something like that in a dream sequence for the viewers because if it is in his dream that means it's in his subconscious somewhere. But yeah maybe they decided to go for something cheeky like that despite it not making sense.
 
C

Cornballer

Member
Regarding the dream sequence, they explain in the interviews. The information is there in his subconscious somewhere, but he hasn't really processed it. Whether or not you buy that is another story.
Having said that, we very clearly see Martha taking files. Does that mean that somewhere in Stan’s subconscious he senses something going on with Martha?

Weisberg: His subconscious knows! His subconscious knows! Everybody’s keeps saying, he’s such a good detective, and now that he’s in love he’s being a lousy detective. But that side of him doesn’t totally get turned off just because he’s in love.
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L

Lord_Byron28

Member
Might be spoilers but the interview did give something else interesting.
Nina will still be on the show next season. So im curious what she will be doing now.

Also curious what they will do with Stan next season as most of his scenes were with Nina. Maybe he will connect with Martha, almost in a way how he caught and blackmailed Nina. They seem to already laying a little groundwork.
 
Dominican Power

Dominican Power

Member
Did Jared kill his parents spontaneously from them freaking about him telling them that he joined the program?



Martha did tell Stan that classified files are out in the open in those mail carts.
 
R

ReturnOfTheRAT

Member
Oh boy, they've gone and caused another rift between Philip and Elizabeth. To tell Paige, or not to tell Paige? that is the question. That's something that has to be joint decision based on their own experiences and what Jared told them in his prolonged death scene. I'm worried about their union again and I don't want that feeling.
 
C

Clevinger

Member
Spent the last week catching up on the show. This season's been excellent. That review above was on the money. Last season was good, but this season made it one of the best shows airing. Rhys and Russell are so fantastic - especially Rhys. He's become one of my favorite actors.

RIP cute handler girl
RIP(?) Nina

Honestly, I dunno what the critics were going on about with the finale. Yeah, it was very good, but the same consistent good as the rest of the season.

The only things I didn't like this season were: Stan's boss is still a terrible actor (I got all excited when he lost his post, but then he quickly gets reinstated...), and I don't think Jared's confession was well done.

-Pyromaniac- said:
I did NOT notice this, as mentioned in the AVclub review:
When Stan greets Martha as he enters the office that morning, she’s putting files from the mail robot into her purse.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

I started cracking up when I saw that.
 
A

ambientmystic

Member
Holy shiet at the season finale.

Jared my boy was in on it all along. Dayum.

Stan my man finally thinking with his head, not his cock. He definitely got the last laugh in this Season after being mostly played for a sucker throughout the series.

Dat upcoming rift between the lead Jennings in Season 3 though. Hope they'll handle that properly. Will they/Won't they storylines are usually handled poorly in a lot of plot driven shows, to point where the audience just stops giving a damn. The actress who plays Paige, whilst performing rather admirably at the moment as a side character with limited screentime, will definitely need to step up her game if she's to be the focal point for the next Season.

Loving the return of Claudia too. Kate's no where in her league, and if there's one thing lacking in this season, it was the tension between the handler and her charges which was very palpable in the first Season.
 
H

HIGH DEF JEFF

Banned
Re: Finale
What a dud.
The Paige stuff is the only interesting carry over for next season.
Nina's story ends very uneventful and with her gone Beeman is now a boring character.

Larrick, who seemed pretty menancing through the season goes out with such wimper.
Shuffling through the forest holding a gun to Liz's back. In full "don't try anything funny or I'll shoot ya" mode. Meanwhile earlier in the episode the guy is everywhere he needs to be. Liz goes to visit Jared, hes there. Phil goes for coffee he's there too. Liz and Jared go for a walk, now hes there. He's like Michael Meyers.

Then theres the....confessions of a dying killer scene. Ayeeee. That old cliche.
So Jared was the killer and on his death bed he needs to make us give a shit about why he killed his parents and he has to do it in a 90 second monologue. He does so with a bunch of words from a page that you can hear through his bloody gasps. I hate scenes like that. We need to wrap up a season long murder mystery and for no real reason we need the killer to die and explain some shit.

How about this..Jared lives. He turns, shoots/kills Larrick,saves Liz and Phil then tells them about who he really is. They arent going to kill him. And now we have a character for next season that has some interesting things going on OR those extraction people Phil spoke to show up and already know what Jared is and whisk him away. Leaving us wondering if Mother Russia is going to still use him or dispose of him since he is kinda compromised (foster mother/ missing person, etc).

Instead he's dead and so are some of interesting plot threads.
 
breakfuss

breakfuss

Member
HIGH DEF JEFF said:
Re: Finale
What a dud.
The Paige stuff is the only interesting carry over for next season.
Nina's story ends very uneventful and with her gone Beeman is now a boring character.

Larrick, who seemed pretty menancing through the season goes out with such wimper.
Shuffling through the forest holding a gun to Liz's back. In full "don't try anything funny or I'll shoot ya" mode. Meanwhile earlier in the episode the guy is everywhere he needs to be. Liz goes to visit Jared, hes there. Phil goes for coffee he's there too. Liz and Jared go for a walk, now hes there. He's like Michael Meyers.

Then theres the....confessions of a dying killer scene. Ayeeee. That old cliche.
So Jared was the killer and on his death bed he needs to make us give a shit about why he killed his parents and he has to do it in a 90 second monologue. He does so with a bunch of words from a page that you can hear through his bloody gasps. I hate scenes like that. We need to wrap up a season long murder mystery and for no real reason we need the killer to die and explain some shit.

How about this..Jared lives. He turns, shoots/kills Larrick,saves Liz and Phil then tells them about who he really is. They arent going to kill him. And now we have a character for next season that has some interesting things going on OR those extraction people Phil spoke to show up and already know what Jared is and whisk him away. Leaving us wondering if Mother Russia is going to still use him or dispose of him since he is kinda compromised (foster mother/ missing person, etc).

Instead he's dead and so are some of interesting plot threads.
Click to expand...

Larick's demise was pretty unceremonious. I actually enjoyed the Jared twist, though. It would've been really cool had he survived. Rather he become their protege than Paige.
 
C

Cornballer

Member
Joel Fields said:
Final glimpse into @TheAmericansFX writers room: Peter Ackerman's pitch for the Stealth arc end.

XUEsTuZ.jpg
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.
 
T

Tamanon

Banned
I keep thinking back to how Paige found the church and the Pastor. I'm pretty sure that the KGB has already started the second-generation illegal program with her, or at least that's involved in it.

The concept of sacrifice, greater good, anti-US government. It also might explain why the pastor was ultimately cool with Philip threatening to kill him.

I know Religion and Communism didn't work together well, but aside from the God part, Christianity and Communism sure had a lot of similar themes about the world.
 
S

Sectorseven

Member
I'm curious how they're going to handle the time jumps moving forward. There was only a gap of like three months between seasons one and two. I don't think anyone would be surprised for this show to end with the fall of the Berlin Wall or perhaps the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 90's, but both would require big jumps in time, and I don't think this show can realistically run for 10 seasons or so.
 
M

Munin

Member
HIGH DEF JEFF said:
Re: Finale
What a dud.
The Paige stuff is the only interesting carry over for next season.
Nina's story ends very uneventful and with her gone Beeman is now a boring character.

Larrick, who seemed pretty menancing through the season goes out with such wimper.
Shuffling through the forest holding a gun to Liz's back. In full "don't try anything funny or I'll shoot ya" mode. Meanwhile earlier in the episode the guy is everywhere he needs to be. Liz goes to visit Jared, hes there. Phil goes for coffee he's there too. Liz and Jared go for a walk, now hes there. He's like Michael Meyers.

Then theres the....confessions of a dying killer scene. Ayeeee. That old cliche.
So Jared was the killer and on his death bed he needs to make us give a shit about why he killed his parents and he has to do it in a 90 second monologue. He does so with a bunch of words from a page that you can hear through his bloody gasps. I hate scenes like that. We need to wrap up a season long murder mystery and for no real reason we need the killer to die and explain some shit.

How about this..Jared lives. He turns, shoots/kills Larrick,saves Liz and Phil then tells them about who he really is. They arent going to kill him. And now we have a character for next season that has some interesting things going on OR those extraction people Phil spoke to show up and already know what Jared is and whisk him away. Leaving us wondering if Mother Russia is going to still use him or dispose of him since he is kinda compromised (foster mother/ missing person, etc).

Instead he's dead and so are some of interesting plot threads.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Larrick's death was pathetic considering the skills demonstrated before. The Jared monologue was insanely contrived. Nina subplot went nowhere. The Paige stuff was telegraphed in a hilariously obvious fashion. And the show still has not capitalized on the big draw from the first episode - that Beeman lives right next to them. Nothing whatsoever has happened with Martha over the course of the season either.

Thought the penultimate episode was really good but it all went up in smoke instead. Will be watching half of S3 next year and then possibly drop it. Show's slowly going off the rails just like Homeland did.
 
F

Fantastical

Death Prophet
Clevinger said:
RIP cute handler girl
RIP(?) Nina

Honestly, I dunno what the critics were going on about with the finale. Yeah, it was very good, but the same consistent good as the rest of the season.
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Yeah it didn't seem that crazy or anything. I don't understand all the hype. The Paige stuff was interesting and it was a good episode but I was expecting a lot more. I thought Phillip was finally going to kill Martha.

Also, I don't accept that Nina is off the show.
 
J

jett

D-Member
Elizabeth, you unbelievable militant russian bitch! Phillip ain't gonna have none of that.

And poor Nina. :( Beeman why you gotta suck like that.
 
R

RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
Munin said:
Nina subplot went nowhere.
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What? Beeman chose to send Nina (his love and only constant in his life) to her (possible/probable) death instead of betraying his country. Now she's going back to Moscow for a trial. The whole Rezidentura angle has been totally upended.

And the show still has not capitalized on the big draw from the first episode - that Beeman lives right next to them.
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You mean the groan worthy cliche that everyone hated when the show first premiered? I'm relieved that the show isn't a game of cat and mouse between KGB/FBI neighbors. Breaking Bad managed to pull off something similar with meth tycoon/DEA brother-in-laws, but even on that show things got wobbly from time to time. In general, I don't think that's a good direction to take any story in.

Nothing whatsoever has happened with Martha over the course of the season either.
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The show is about marriage just as much as it is about spies, but if you're only into the show for kool spy stuff, I could see why you'd dislike the Martha storyline. We did have movement on the spy front this season though, with Clark manipulating Martha into stealing documents for him and whatnot. The Clark/Martha relationship is still prime for the picking so I'm glad they haven't decided to end it yet. I have no idea why people expected Philip to kill her this season.

Show's slowly going off the rails just like Homeland did.
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Nope.
 
E

Effnine

Member
Munin said:
Thought the penultimate episode was really good but it all went up in smoke instead. Will be watching half of S3 next year and then possibly drop it. Show's slowly going off the rails just like Homeland did.
Click to expand...

The finale was good, just not spectacular ... let's not go overboard here ...
 
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