OK, is it just me or has anyone else noticed how it’s literally always either fall or winter in the show? I don’t think I could name a single scene that takes place in the summertime.

My first watch-through, and things are getting so tense everywhere! I’ve only watched the first few minutes, so I don’t need to spoiler-tag anything. I had to laugh when Stan and Dennis were going down in the elevator and they had to wait for the goddamn mail robot. That thing shows up like a bad smell, at the most inopportune times!

Dennis - “Got any more steam you wanna blow off?” 😄😄

DISCLAIMER: I am not advocating premeditated fraud or violence towards others for personal gain.

I mean things like putting on a disguise in public (wigs, accessories) for anonymity, starting a friendship with someone and not using your real name

OR

You've been the victim of someone doing something P&E would do?

Man, is this the best opener episode of any season. I’m doing a rewatch, and this Ep just brilliantly set the groundwork for such an interesting central tension for this season.

I love how they have used Elizabeth and Philip to embody two different political positions that seemed to have arisen during Gorbachev reign. With Gorbachev ultimately being more diplomatic towards America, this seems to have ultimately created two groups: people who were open to his progressive approach, and the old-guardian, who still fostered their conservative, anti-American sentiment…..and it seems Elizabeth and Philip represent these two different positions. This makes totally sense, as Elizabeth has always been cynical of everything American, so the thought of the two countries being nice to each other must be a plan hatched by America to screw Russia. While Philip, who has always been more susceptible to America’s capitalistic qualities and left feeling cold by his earlier nationalist tendencies, is more that happy for Russia to take a different approach and put the brakes on anti-American sentiment. Brilliant episode!

Before anything else, watching the final episode last night my wife said that she cannot remember any show she’d been so emotionally invested in since Breaking Bad and I agreed.

But my thought was; if it’s any consolation,
since it was 1987, Henry and Paige would have at least been able to visit their parents within 3-4 years after the Soviet Union collapsed.

I recently made a post about how genius of an actress she was. She gave mind-blowing performances in the show (and for those who watched Felicity back in the day, she was already good in that show) I need to watch The Diplomat, do you recommend it ? .

I always been fascinated by her beauty (and her hair in the 90s) but never was able to describe it. I think she kinda belongs in the Alexis Bledel beauty kind (?) (link : https://www.reddit.com/r/GilmoreGirls/comments/1rymmch/what_is_it_about_alexis_bledels_ethereal_beauty/ )

Also, love that she never touched her face with all the Botox going around (her expressions when Matthew won that award was so touching). Her, Linda Cardellini, Amanda Seyfriend and Monica Bellucci are such examples to me in that regard.

If I had to make an argument for that, using season 4 as an example, they try to get Nina out of prison at great risk to themselves and Oleg puts him in a lot of danger to expose the KGB's plan to steal biological weapons which Stan then tries to stop.

Honestly, Season 5 has probably felt like the worst season of this show, especially in comparison to the excellent first four seasons, but man, this episode is easily one of the best of the entire series.

The show has been phenomenal at creating ethically murky situations, and this one might top the lot. I think it’s probably the best encapsulation of the tension between the Centre’s simplified view of the world, and the moral complexity of actual reality.

Of course, it seems like a simple mission for Philip and Elizabeth, where their revenge is entirely justified. But as soon as the old lady starts telling her husband the truth, the situation becomes so morally ambiguous. This lady was taken by the Nazis when she was 16, does she really deserve such a response? Would Philip and Elizabeth be any different if they were in similar circumstances? And what a tragedy it was to watch the wife tell her husband that his belief in her goodness helped her deal with the guilt.

And then, bam! Elizabeth shoots them both. Another plan orchestrated by the Centre that has resulted in more senseless death. I found it a fairly powerful metaphor that following this scene, the first shot is a highway that is barely visible from the car lights. The lack of clear direction clearly reflects Philip’s and Elizabeth’s circumstances: why are we even doing this anymore, and what for?

You think she knew Phillip?

I finished the show last Sunday but my brain has refused to let go. So I watched all of the interviews and panels I could find and then started season 1 again.

We all know the show is brilliant. The acting is next level, the story telling is masterfully done, the directing and editing is fantastic, the music is amazing. However, I think we can all agree that there are some lines that just stick out like a sore thumb, lines that just feel awkward, clunky, or even cringey. My best examples for this are in season 1. The "You're not my daddy" line is one that just makes me cringe so hard. The other example is the "I have you in my soft mouth" line that just makes me laugh every time. And it's not meant to be a funny moment.

What are your favourite examples of awkward, clunky, cringey lines?

Ik this is petty, and I’m already not a fan of Paige as a character. The lack of physical resemblance just bothered me.

And I understand that some characteristics skip generations… but she does not look Russian in the least bit.

Always felt like I was unreasonably annoyed with a detail so small, but I wanted to know if I was alone with this sentiment or not.

Russia is now bragging on Twitter about how it's partnering with America against Europe and the UK.

How did we get here? Utterly inconceivable a generation ago, the land of the free siding with a brutal, genocidal, communist, imperial dictatorship in a fight against their staunchest allies.

1. It’s incredibly slipshod of Phillip to play street hockey out in the front driveway. If Americans knew anything about the Russians in the early 80s it was that they were hockey fans and serious players. It’s an actual subplot later in the series. Philip should have installed a basketball hoop and should be playing one on one with Henry.
   
2. Even if they did admit their hockey fandom, they should have been fanatical Capitals fans and merch wearers. But we see no posters in Henry’s room and we never hear them discuss the team.
   
3. The Washington football team (I won’t say the team’s name back then) was the best in the league in the early 80s. Phillip’s indifference to the team (he nonchalantly blows off watching the Super Bowl!) would have been a huge red flag no pun intended to Stan.

I only recently discovered The Americans thanks to the New York Times’ list of the top 100 shows of the 21st century. After seeing so many people celebrate its inclusion on Twitter and be sort of, but probably jokingly, annoyed that it wasn't as high as they wanted, plus knowing Matthew Rhys' wonderful work on Widow's Bay, I decided to give the show a try.

Well, here I am, a few weeks later, having just closed the curtain on the series finale about fifteen minutes ago!

What a fucking finale. What a show! Philip and Elizabeth Jennings are perhaps the most complex characters I've ever had the privilege of following. They do some truly awful things; actions that, if any other character made them, would instantly make them an irredeemable villain. And yet never once did I lose faith (no matter how many times Elizabeth especially tested my patience, lol) that they would one day realize that family is the most important thing, that family is the revolution, not blindly following orders.

As Philip said near the end, "They tell us what to do, I know. That's how it works. But we do it. We do it."

Perhaps controversially, I found the spy stuff in this show to be the least interesting aspect of it all.

Which is fascinating to me! What I loved most was the family drama. How the job affected Philip and Elizabeth's relationship with each other, their kids, and Stan; the same goes for Stan and Sandra, and Oleg and Nina. The aftermath is what I craved. Any scene of those characters talking about what they went through, how it affected their psyche, their relationship with the other person, whatever. I lived for that stuff.

Philip's arc was incredibly moving for me. Of course, Elizabeth's was too, especially when we got to the paintings and that whole beautiful metaphor, but I see myself in Philip. His desire to bury his feelings, to sacrifice his happiness for others, those he loves, bottling it all, morals, ethics, and his own sanity be damned. I fucking loved his arc.

The ending was so beautiful. I knew Stan would never turn them in, yet that moment drew the most tears and heavy breathing from me. Paige staying behind is CRAZY, and the fact that we don't know her fate, if Rene is truly a spy, what Henry truly thinks, and even if Philip and Elizabeth will be welcomed home or not is so beautiful, annoying, poetic, and perfect. It's life, I think. This show is realistic as fuck.

Will that stop me from hopefully finding some good fan fic that takes place after season 6 to give my weak heart some closure? Probably not. But dammit, that was a good ending.

My favorite episode of the entire show, however, is still the one in season 3, I think, where Elizabeth stays with that old woman and talks about her life until she ODs on heart pills. That scene was fucking flawless.

I have many critiques of the show. I do not think it was perfect. I'd give it an 8.5/10 or a 4.35/5 depending on the scale. I could go into my issues, but I'll save that for my review on Serialized lol.

If anyone wants to yap about the show or get my thoughts on whatever, I'd be glad to chat!

I'm glad to join you, Comrades!

Once Phillip called Elizabeth and said they had been made why did they then run away with no disguises?!? Stan would have cornered them anyway but it made no sense to me that they went to pick up Paige in hats lol. After all that they didn't think that anyone would be watching her apartment? I found they started getting really sloppy in the final season but I guess that is the point as the whole thing starts to unravel. Curious to hear what others think!

British guy here. I’ve just started watching this series. Absolute belter of a show!

Close to finishing series 2.

Really enjoying the slow burn character development.

I seem to be dipping more into this espionage genre. I’m also watching Spooks and Slow Horses. Also adored Deutschland 83/86/89 (but that’s far glossier)

Are there any other complete series which have the same feel anyone can recommend? I’m likely to finish the whole thing by the end of the month!

I’ve recently completed the shield and it took me while to find something as good until I came across the Americans. I’m 3 episodes in. I process to open TikTok and see a shield edit about best Tv show endings and the next second I see one of the hashtags is #TheAmericans and I immediately hear Phillip say that he has abandoned his son…

Please delude me and say this isn’t true 😭

In the very first episode, when we flash back to the day they arrived in America, Philip says to Elizabeth “The Centre will probably expect kids soon”. We also know that it takes a few years for her to trust him enough to actually have kids with him.

Thing is: we know the Centre probably put pressure on them (though we don’t know how much). But it seems like it was much more a suggestion/pressure than a full blown obligation. P&E could have easily maintained their cover without kids: they could just say they were having fertility problems and didn’t feel comfortable with adoption, valued their career… Also, once they did have kids, having to hide from them often made their job much more difficult.

(I know the centre wanted the “second generation illegals” program, but P&E didn’t know this at the time: they just wanted the kids to have their independent lives.)

Jumping forward: when Paige finds out about them, Elizabeth tells her “me and your father wanted you and your brother more than you can imagine”. It could be true. Of course, in the finale, you see that dream sequence where Elizabeth is with Gregory, smoking while pregnant, and saying “I don’t want kids anyway”.

Like everything in this show, I think it’s all obscure on purpose. We never fully know whether or not P&E wanted kids all along (Philip probably more than Elizabeth), and how much their love for the kids was always there or just appeared after they were born and grew up.

Anyway, this is one of the more harrowing parts of the show for me: thinking that the kids might have been born just for a cover story.