The Americans Season 5

Is this the most recent thread? I'd be shocked if people gave up on this between seasons 5 and 6 - these were the most fantastic last two seasons of any tv show I've seen. They stuck the landing so damned well.

Oleg is the biggest hero in the show, but for the mark of a good show is that everyone is a moral shade of grey. Elizabeth is for a time the biggest villain, but even she gets her redemption arc, via art, after her peak amorality in murdering gennady and sofia, in piecing together the betrayal from the rezidentura etc - at the last minute, instead of killing nesterenko, she trusts her own judgment.

Martha was the most likeable character. Everything she did was for love, pure and simple. She demonstrates one of the main themes of the show - that spying is far more about seduction than murder, getting people to betray their people for love was their biggest weapon - as philip alluded to by lying to stan in the parking lot that 'they don't kill anyone'.

For me the biggest theme in the show was about friendships and relationships. The relationships between the characters and their countries. Philip & Elizabeth being sh**y parents and their son developing a closer bond with the FBI agent. It seems unlikely to me that Stan let them go because he believed them in the importance of their mission to get that information back home to prevent a coup - he did it because of their friendship.

The pacing of the show impressed me greatly. They really took their time on everything, refusing to be sensational too often, not relying on grand twists or reveals, letting the spaces speak. One scene that really stands out to me was when Dan Murton (Harvest, the sleeper agent they go to rescue) is dying and recounts messages for Philip to relay - stunning acting, and that guy could have got a whole season - but they gave him, what, 5-6 minutes airtime at most? That was a CHOICE, and by god, it was an incredible one.

The music adds tension and sets a scene rather than telling you how to feel. The usage of brothers in arms by dire straits in that final episode sorta broke me as I associate it strongly with the 'Bartlett announces he's running for reelection' scene at the end of season 2. I love that the final episode had a few firsts. Obviously the first time Stan talks to the real Михаи́л & Надежда; the first time we see a dream sequence; the first time we hear that song (I'm pretty sure); the first time Paige grasps for independence. They had so much damned patience - they avoided the pressure and expectation to be whizz-bang all the time.

My first feeling was that this was going to resemble Breaking Bad - the secret double life of the guy who personally knows the lawmaker trying to catch him - but for me it more closely resembled Mad Men. Not from the period angle, but Mad Men is about deceit, personal relationships, and character arcs - it's far more character-driven than plot-driven - and while the plot is important in the americans, in that it's set out for us fairly clearly at the beginning what we can expect to happen by the end - it's still about the characters and their cognitive dissonance and moral ambiguity and conflicting principles - all the way down. That's why we see Andre the priest turn unexpectedly - Adderholt was very clever in exploiting his duty to the church over his duty to himself.

The whole show was full of so many little plot and editing subtleties that I managed to pick up on, but I'm not at all trained in media so I suspect I've only picked up on a minority. Another huge thing that impressed me was the general absence of ideology, certainly tries to avoid ideological bias as much as possible, to the point where even american viewers can start to understand and sympathise with the Jennings at times.

Arkady was damned cool. Ninas story was incredibly compelling.

I doubt Renee was a spy. I did from the start - it felt like Philip being protective over Stan. First off, why would the KGB go after Stan when they've got the Jennings living next door already? If she were, wouldn't she have made contact, or the Jennings been informed? Was the suspicion that she was also there to spy on the Jennings as well? If she were a russian spy, why would Philip want to expose her? The most plausible alternative is that she's just not a spy at all, but if she is, she's much more likely to be mossad or something. Philip saw a beautiful woman attach herself to a man who was pretty beat at the time and wanted to protect stan from his fear that he was getting taken advantage of.

Other relationships that impressed me: Stan and Henry. Henry got possibly the rawest deal on the whole show, arguably tied with Nina. I'm so glad they bonded the way they did and that he got to have a father figure in his life.

Paige clearly not cut out to be a spy. Rubbish at lying. Maybe she could have been if they'd started on her earlier. Good instincts and perception and I could see her becoming some from of academic in politics and history or something. I'd be interested in a spin-off set 5-10 years in the future centering around her and her new life but having some post-berlin wall politics and spycraft in her life.

Disliked Amador. Every scene with Kimberly in made me squirm. William (biochemist) really got his moment in the sun - what a beautifully acted and directed death scene. I was a fan of Hans and was sad to see him go like that but it didn't shock me too much. Same with Gaad. Gregory was a G. F*** Tatiana and Claudia. Not sure what the point of Mischa was. I liked Gabriel but he's implicated in the coup attempt.

Most shocking moment was when we find out that Jared Connors murdered his family.

I just can't get over how buzzed I am since finishing this and I can't wait until enough time has passed to binge it again

That was Gregory in her dream with her; that dream sequence serves to underscore her late-found humanity after her loss of it, with a reminder of her love for Gregory, and the biggest driver for her to regain her humanity - the paintings by Erica Haskard and her engagement with art (which serves for her a similar purpose to EST). Her saying 'I didn't want kids' is probably a memory - where previously we saw a lot of Philip flashbacks, we only start seeing them for Elizabeth in season 6 with the traffic accident and the dying horse and policeman. The point is that 'I didn't want kids anyway' takes on a new meaning from when she originally said it and didn't have kids, to now when she's lost both her kids forever.

haha i've just noticed:

clark and martha - superman
elizabeth and philip - queen and king
i wonder if oleg is a reference to Oleg Gordievsky
paige and henry might be a reference to something too

Keri Russell is amazing in the diplomat too

Diplomat good

Need to watch the Diplomat. The Americans was a fantastic show. Need to recommend it to more people.