Support NeoGAF

[IronRinn]

Bugs are running at 15 fps.

 

[Niraj]

Ouch

 

[IronRinn]

Damn.

 

[Sean C]

Promo:

Spoiler

Hey, Pastor Tim!

 

[IronRinn]

That casual brutality.

Good music choice there.

 

[Niraj]

-Onion A.V. Club review

 

[-Pyromaniac-]

Fuck I missed this.

 

[Cornballer]

- Onion A|V Club review
- Onion A|V Club: Here’s the scoop on [REDACTED]’s return to The Americans
- Sepinwall's review
- Vox discussion
- NY Mag interview: Holly Taylor on The Americans, Doing Stunts With Keri Russell, and Why She Wants Paige to Be a Spy
- NY Times review
- Esquire: The Americans Star Explains Tonight’s Shocking Cameo
- Warming Glow: ‘The Americans’ Featured A Brief Appearance By A Blast From The Past
- Promo for next week's episode (please spoiler tag any discussion)

 

[Sadsic]

I missed the first 6 minutes of this episode, anything important?

 

[RatskyWatsky]

Maaaaarrrthaaaaaaa!

 

[Grizzlyjin]

Maaaaarrrthaaaaaaa!

I'm glad to see I wasn't the only one who screamed this at the TV. lol

 

[The Elite]

The Martha appearance seems out of place to me. Why show Martha unless you are planning on doing something with her? I just don't see how she fits into anything at this point. Guess I will just wait and see.

 

[caliph95]

Well that was nice to see

 

[MisterFalcon]

Yay, Martha is back ! Alison Wright had been secretly the best thing in an already great cast and I can't wait to feel bad for her some more. Did Oleg ever meet Martha ?

 

[Cornballer]

- Slate podcast is up for this week

In Episode 3, ”The Midges," writer Tracey Scott Wilson talks about the main characters' psychological states and her favorite characters to craft dialogue for. Then Thomas talks with costume designer Katie Irish about her personal connections to this season's outfits, the meaning of Claudia's pin collection, and why she searches the scripts for mentions of beets.

Yay, Martha is back ! Alison Wright had been secretly the best thing in an already great cast and I can't wait to feel bad for her some more. Did Oleg ever meet Martha ?

I get the feeling that it's just a one-off check in, but they're somewhat vague about it in the interviews that I read.

 

[VeryGooster]

The Martha appearance seems out of place to me. Why show Martha unless you are planning on doing something with her? I just don't see how she fits into anything at this point. Guess I will just wait and see.

I mean, putting her in the same place as Oleg at that moment has to pay off at some point... right?

I was minutes behind watching from the DVR but 1) oh my god Svetlana from The Sopranos!! 2) OH MY GOD MARTHA. 3) Roxy Music? Sure!

There's something amusing about a Russian spy using an American image like a cowgirl to seduce her husband and get his ass motivated.

 

[Cornballer]

I mean, putting her in the same place as Oleg at that moment has to pay off at some point... right?

They very deliberately won't say if she'll be back. I just kind of got the feeling from some of the comments that this was supposed to give some closure to it. Who knows.

“The Midges” only briefly touches base with the former FBI secretary who turned accidental traitor when she falls for Philip Jennings (Matthew Rhys) in disguise. After Oleg (Costa Ronin) leaves a supermarket he’s investigating, the camera lingers on a female shopper from behind. When she turns around we see it’s Martha, examining the labels of items on the depleted shelves. So how did Wright prepare to revisit Martha in such drastically different circumstances? “I asked [showrunners Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields] how they wanted her to appear,” Wright explained. “What is she doing mentally? Is she getting on with it? Is she devastated? They had an idea what they wanted her mental state of mind to be, but the rest they leave up to me, which is a tremendous blessing.”

Weisberg and Fields didn’t want Martha to be traumatized by her new surroundings. “The story they wanted to tell was that she was doing okay,” Wright said. “That she was making the best of her situation, that she was getting on with it, that she was moving forward. She wasn’t in a state of stasis. She was doing the best with her situation, god bless her, and somehow she was moving forward and moving on. Stronger than I would be.”

There's something amusing about a Russian spy using an American image like a cowgirl to seduce her husband and get his ass motivated.

Good callback to the pilot where he dances in a pair of cowboy boots at the mall.

 

[Soroc]

Did we see Martha in ep 3 and I missed it? I watched it pretty late last night but don't remember seeing her. Can someone point me to what scene?

EDIT: just scrubbed back through the ep, wow I can't believe I missed that! I must have started dozing off a bit (honestly I've found the Oleg stuff this season kind of boring so far)

 

[Cornballer]

Did we see Martha in ep 3 and I missed it? I watched it pretty late last night but don't remember seeing her. Can someone point me to what scene?

She's shopping when Oleg walks out of the store where he was doing the investigation.

 

[tearsintherain]

I'm guessing Martha will be used to show how the food situation in USSR is getting worse. Its gotta be around mid 1984 now (Feb 1984 in first episode), Gorbachev is elected in 1985, and collapsing oil prices in 1986 cripple the soviet economy.

 

[VeryGooster]

Even if it's to check in on Martha and give that kind of closure I'm okay with that, honestly. She already played an extensive role on the show. Even "Hey she's not dead!" is more than I would have expected lol.

 

[Ristifer]

Am I the only one who thought they were also going to kill the spotter lady at the end when she was just looking ahead in her car? It felt like another Hans moment for a second. Philip just asks if she's okay and then walks away. I keep assuming that anyone who screws up is pretty much toast, but it didn't happen (obviously). I look at things in a pretty grim way with this show. It's crazy.

 

[Cornballer]

Podcast is good again this week. They talk to the writer of the episode who points to Tuan as gateway to what Elizabeth was like when she first arrived in the US (true believer, ideologically pure) whereas now she's softened a fair bit because of her family and living in the US.

 

[Cornballer]

- Warming Glow: ‘The Americans' Anxiety Report: Meanwhile, In A Russian Supermarket

Hard to watch the gif of the back breaking. :x

This is amusing:

Good call on their part for guessing that Tuan is going to kill the Russian father at some point, and I lol'd that everyone is writing "MARTHAAAAAAA!" in some form after that scene.

 

[Grizzlyjin]

Podcast is good again this week. They talk to the writer of the episode who points to Tuan as gateway to what Elizabeth was like when she first arrived in the US (true believer, ideologically pure) whereas now she's softened a fair bit because of her family and living in the US.

I'm loving that Slate podcast. Thanks for posting it. There are so many good insights. The writer of the episode mentioned she enjoys writing Paige & Elizabeth scenes, and I have to admit that those have become highlights for me now. And apparently Martha is wearing the same coat she left D.C. with. Oh my goodness, they did such a good job with that reveal.

 

[Cornballer]

- NY Mag: Every Excuse The Americans Has Used to Hide Henry Jennings Offscreen

 

[Cornballer]

Highlights from the Holly Taylor interview:

Nobody warned you it was the big episode? You just found out reading it?

No one warns you about anything on this show at all! [Laughs.] You just get the script and you’re like, “Oh, okay! My mom is murdering someone in front of me next Friday. Cool.”

Last season, Paige witnessed her mom killing someone. This season, we see her really struggling with that. What was it like to film that scene with Keri?

It was interesting. As an actress going into season five, I kind of forgot about the whole Keri scene because I’m so used to watching the show and seeing Elizabeth kill people all the time; I’ve kind of been desensitized to it. But you have to remember that’s not something Paige sees every week. It’s a really traumatic experience for her — not just to see somebody be killed, but to see someone be killed by her own mother. I thought she would’ve been more angry with her mom about it, just because of how she’d reacted to things in the past, so I was happy that they didn’t go down that road as much. It was more just about her being scared and not being able to sleep, which is such a realistic thing. And I’m so happy that they have Elizabeth teaching her self-defense. I heard someone bring up the other day that you don’t always see a mom teaching her daughter self-defense; a lot of times, it’s the dad. I think it’s so cool how the writers reversed the gender roles.

You mentioned that Paige interpreted the killing in a way that surprised you. What was filming that like?

That was a pretty rough night. Keri was pregnant while she was shooting it. She was wearing heels. We were outside until two in the morning, in the freezing cold, in the dead of winter. It took so long to shoot and Keri did most of her own stunts, despite the fact that she was pregnant in heels. We’re all like, “How’s she doing that?” It was crazy. But it was also kind of a funny day because the guy who was playing the man who got killed, he was doing his interpretation of how he would die on the ground. The director walked up to him and was just like, “Just die already!” We couldn’t stop laughing, because at how many jobs do you hear somebody tell a co-worker to just die already? It’s just so bizarre what we do.

When they say they’re going to teach her a technique, I thought she was going to learn some cool spy trick. And then it was like, “That’s it?”

I know! I thought the same thing when I was reading it. I was like, “Oh my God, that’s so cool. She’s really becoming a spy!” And then on set, one of the crew members was like, “We call this thing that you’re doing ‘the little boogie,’” because it looks like I’m rolling around a booger. When I was doing it, I was thinking, Oh, God, don’t pretend you’re a spy, pretend you’re rolling a booger. It was not what I expected. I thought I was going to be beating people up. But nope, I’m doing the little boogie.

What can you tease about the rest of the season?

The rest of season five is very different from the other seasons. I haven’t seen the full episodes, but the little clips I’ve seen here and there are a different atmosphere. It’s a lot more about relationships between people, as opposed to beating people up and the crazy stuff that the past seasons have been. It’s more intimate and more of a slow burn. It’s very intense.

 

[metsallica]

Martha's just gotta be a cookie for the fans, right? Checking in, she's doing OK (or as OK as could be expected) given the alternative? Would love to be wrong!

Also, I know we're still early, but "we have stuff for Henry to do" = we've seen him for a few seconds in three episodes. Heh.

 

[Ristifer]

So when is Paige going to her first EST meeting?

 

[Dominican Power]

Elizabeth and Phillip are monsters.

 

[Funky Papa]

Catching up right now.

Edit: this "back in Russia" guy is so annoying.

 

[KingKong]

The subtitles for the Russian speaking parts are so inaccurate. The general idea is the same but nearly every sentence is different and usually for the worse

 

[Discotheque]

Catching up right now.

Edit: this "back in Russia" guy is so annoying.

He's like Yakov Smirnoff minus the jokes/punchlines lol

"So much to choose from the menu. Wonder what's good..."

"Yes you have much choice. Back in Russia we starve and die"

That Asian kid is a big bummer too haha

 

[Cornballer]

- Decider: The Sound Of Silence: How ‘The Americans’ Lets The Action, Not The Actors, Do The Talking

So is this intentional? Is the FX drama including a dialogue-free scene in each episode just for funsies? We asked showunners Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg what the deal was with the continued use of these silent scenes, with Weisberg noting, “It’s funny to hear you say that because I don’t think we were aware that there was a progression season to season. If that’s happening for us unconsciously I’m a little scared to think what’s coming next season!”

He went on to say, “When I think about the scene at the end of the first episode of this season, our goal was what it often is, which is to try to just make a realistic scene. If they’re not going to be talking and what we’re going to be showing is just the physical labor and the hard work, then it’s not going to have dialogue. And what we try to do is not be pushed into a corner or afraid, so we try not to feel that, ‘Well its gotta have dialogue because you can’t do that long of a scene without dialogue.’ Well let’s see, maybe you can. Maybe if it’s real and you’re with them and you feel like what they’re doing makes sense, maybe it’s fine. We thought it worked out pretty well.”

Fields added, “Part of what Joe’s saying is that both the subconscious answer to the question and a conscious answer. Consciously, we talk A LOT about letting the actions speak for themselves. So we’ll go through our scripts and we’ll take out any clever lines of dialogue that feel like they were written by us and smart writers to show off our writing, and we try to whittle things down to the scenes as we feel they really would have played if these characters were real and these things were happening. And that is a conscious effort on our part, but if less and less dialogue is emerging and you’re noticing it in certain places in the show, I guess the best we can do is let our subconscious take credit for that. That’s just happened.”

 

[Funky Papa]

He's like Yakov Smirnoff minus the jokes/punchlines lol

"So much to choose from the menu. Wonder what's good..."

"Yes you have much choice. Back in Russia we starve and die"

That Asian kid is a big bummer too haha

Vietnamese kid is being borderline sociopathic right now and I'm relishing it. That dude is seeing white 24/7, I swear.

Also, count me along the ones cheering for Martha.

 

[Niraj]

- NY Mag: Every Excuse The Americans Has Used to Hide Henry Jennings Offscreen

lol excellent

 

[RatskyWatsky]

The subtitles for the Russian speaking parts are so inaccurate. The general idea is the same but nearly every sentence is different and usually for the worse

Could you provide an example of how it's been diluted?

 

[jett]

I haven't seen the latest episode, but I really dislike how Paige-centric this show has become. It's really borderline killing it for me. Just rename it The Paige next season if this is how things are going to carry on.

 

[KarmaCow]

Vietnamese kid is being borderline sociopathic right now and I'm relishing it. That dude is seeing white 24/7, I swear.

Also, count me along the ones cheering for Martha.

I don't understand how he was recruited. What's in it for him, especially since he seems to be fully aware of who he is working for.

 

[Dominican Power]

What were Beeman and his partner trying to do?

 

[Ristifer]

What were Beeman and his partner trying to do?

I don't think that's known yet, but they did mention Amtorg, who handled exports for Soviet agriculture.

 

[KingKong]

Could you provide an example of how it's been diluted?

I already deleted the episode but I'll try next time. It actually got better later in the episode but I specifically noticed it during the market scene. It might be because they subtitles are from a script thats changed by the actors since they do get native russian speakers

 

[Alpende]

Elizabeth and Phillip are monsters.

Yeah, sometimes I'm rooting for them to complete a mission/not get caught and in this episode I hated them for killing that harmless lab guy.

 

[Disgraced]

Ah, yes. This episode featured my favorite Americans recurrence next to the awkward dinner scene—horrific murder set to a bangin' jam.

Vietnamese kid is being borderline sociopathic right now and I'm relishing it. That dude is seeing white 24/7, I swear.

I like how he's that way one moment and the next he's like "Can I take this pizza home?" or "Hey, could I have a dog to take on walks?"

 

[Funky Papa]

I don't understand how he was recruited. What's in it for him, especially since he seems to be fully aware of who he is working for.

Hate. He may not believe in the cause (he's obviously enjoying the fruits of capitalism and is even morbidly convinced of America bombing the Soviet Union like they did with Vietnam), but he hates America with fury.

 

[Audioboxer]

Totally forgot the date this came back. Have been catching up. Such a consistently excellent show and criminally underrated.

But LOL at them basically hiding Henry as puberty has hit and he looks "too old" for his character

 

[Grizzlyjin]

Do y'all think the Henry jokes are just them having fun or is there some payoff there? I'm suspicious of everything!

 

[dLMN8R]

What were Beeman and his partner trying to do?

Since they're with the FBI, they could be investigating the CIA doing inhumane things?

 

[Ristifer]

Do y'all think the Henry jokes are just them having fun or is there some payoff there? I'm suspicious of everything!

I think there will be a payoff with Henry, knowing how the J's are and how they like to be coy about these things.

 

[RatskyWatsky]

I already deleted the episode but I'll try next time. It actually got better later in the episode but I specifically noticed it during the market scene. It might be because they subtitles are from a script thats changed by the actors since they do get native russian speakers

Cool, I'm looking forward to it!