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This show is primarily a drama, then come the suspense and action. It is supposed to show us how they deal with their job on a daily basis as realistically as possible. And it can get depressing. IMO, it is getting better.
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The show has been getting boring, so its become harder for me to pay attention...or I guess care.
Who knows, if you have Spectrum you might not have to worry about watching it soon.
I like the direction of this year. Really developing the characters, learning about Philip's past and family. Watching the changes going on in both Paige and Henry. Oleg storyline is very tense if you ask me. I do agree, they are not moving fast, but I enjoy the dialog and if you notice, just about every major character is changing. Heck, even Gabriel made me well up when he visited Abe Lincoln before he decided to call it quits.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right?
I agree. Like I said above, the show is trying to be as realistic as possible and, in reality, things move even slower than in the show.
shareYou're looking at the trees and missing the forest. The conflict of this season is being slowly set up by showing the cracks in the resolve of Phillip and Elizabeth's commitment to their mission. The unnecessary killing of the wheat laboratory worker, Elizabeth questioning her feelings for the people she deceives and wrecks their lives, Phillip having dreams about his father and finding out why his family was hated, Gabriel going home and abandoning them but warning them they know too much and will never be trusted by the Center... All these sub-plots are going to cause major conflicts to come to a head by the end of this season. And personally, I find these to more dramatic and tension-filled than merely stuffing more espionage chases, fights, and daring capers into the show.
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You're expecting an action thriller. This is a drama.
shareI think you should watch the series "24" as that might be more of what you're looking for, espionage-wise. That isn't a dis or an insult, as I think 24 was a great spy tv show (most of the seasons, anyway). If you've seen that already, check out a British series called MI-5 (aka Spooks)...also good and more "caper-oriented."
The Americans is never going to put action at the top of its storytelling arsenal, it's just not that kind of show. It fits more into the spy-thriller category of John Le Carre than it does Jason Bourne.
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Ralph is right. Seasons 1-3 were wicked good. So suspenseful and exciting. I think that could still be the case with the current season while maintaining the aspects associated with the character changes. I like the fact that they are growing disillusioned with their jobs but by golly, spice it up. We have one season left and the show is sorta limping its way to the finish line.
shareExcellent post Sandoz. We are of one mind on this. I guess some people who like more action might be feeling somewhat disappointed but you can't please everyone all of the time.
I believe this show is going to have a powerful climax because you could see all the major characters are struggling with their assignments. Something has to give, right?
That had been the case from the start - how they deal with their job and reconcile it with the day to day routine and their own morals.
Back on imdb, there had been plenty of people bashing Elizabet for being a cold blooded killer (not me) and then we had the episode last season, where she fell apart for using Young Hee and her husband. This is a very emotional show and a lot of people miss that.
They also have to deal with Paige being close to fully buying into the program without knowing the full truth about what that means. My favorite episode was probably when she was taken to meet her grandmother, meeting Gabriel was very similar to that episode. After struggling with the order to bring her in a couple seasons ago, her parents are mostly open to answering her questions and teaching her some techniques, but now they are realizing a lot of what they believed to be true was based on lies.
shareSpeaking of Paige... There was a very telling moment in the last episode that showed that although Phillip and Elizabeth care about her, they aren't above manipulating her into "buying into" their mission by keeping certain truths from her that might jeopardize her cooperation.
Chiefly, when P&E first told Paige about their mission to get a sample of the grain, it was when they still believed the wheat was being cultivated in order to cause starvation. Since then they've discovered the wheat is actually part of a program to HELP feed starving nations, but yet when Paige commented about how making killer wheat was indeed evil, neither Phillip or Elizabeth bothered to update her that that assumption was wrong. How the show will expand on this I don't know (whether Paige will find out, or like you said, it will just contribute to P&E having more doubts about their mission in America), but I'm pretty sure Paige's fate (and Henry's, to a lesser extent) within the story is
going to become a key element of how The Americans resolves.
If you look closely, it's not about "buying into" any program. You have two parallel stories revolving Phillip: the first being his parents keeping his father's real occupation from him for his own good, and the second where Phillip doing the same thing to Paige.
shareIt's not quite the same. Phillip and Elizabeth revealed to Paige their real occupations last season; they're still keeping it secret from Henry, but not from her. Whereas with Phillip, his father wasn't around except when he was very young so he has few memories of him. He didn't know anything about his father's work until Gabriel gave him the facts recently. And since his father had disappeared when he was very young, the decision to keep his father's real job from him was made by his mother, who wasn't a guard herself and not an equal of his like Elizabeth is to Phillip.
shareIt's not the action that's missing (I personally never cared about the action), it's a compelling storyline. There's lots of half-baked/half-abandoned storylines this season and it's difficult to see how any of these will pay off in the finale:
- Philip's son: I was expecting this to be one of the major plot points this season, but it's like they pulled him out and are now saving him for the final season next year.
- The crops story (killer bugs / resilient seeds): Also felt like they changed their mind on where this was going - so far it seems that the only role of this now aborted storyline is to act as one more reason for P&E to start doubting the importance, moral ground, and meaningfulness of their job (along with the deadly virus storyline and the aborted "new Martha" mission).
-Tuan & Russian family: OK, there is some build-up there and a little bit of bonding with Tuan (who, ironically, may be the son Philip is spending the most time with) but not enough to warrant the last episode focusing on them (as the penultimate episode indicates).
-Paige & Henry: We finally see a bit of Henry (who in previous seasons was only present in exchanges of the sort "-Where is Henry? - At his friend's") but obviously we need a lot more to have a full storyline about him, whereas all of the Paige drama is quite deflated this season since she seems to be coming to terms with her parents' situation and even starting to warm up to their "mission".
-Stan: What's with the lady-friend storyline? It isn't developed enough for us to invest in it / enjoy some suspense.
- Oleg Burov in Mother Russia: I do like Burov as a character, but boy is this story slow-moving and boring and largely detached from what's happening in the rest of the show.
-Gabriel's retirement: so what? (yeh OK it MUST have some link with them deciding to go back, and we got to see him visit Martha, but come on, give us something more than that!).
In sum: I'm not saying these storylines suck, all of them have some merit, but none of them has developped enough throughout the season (and up to the penultimate episode). I like slow-burning storylines, but now we got to the point where basically nothing has happened this season and it all feels like *if there's ever going to be a payoff* it is going to be in the next season, making this current season one giant FILLER.
shareI agree.
shareYou make a good point about the " half-baked/half-abandoned storylines" that the show has had over its run...it is certainly guilty of that.
To sort of piggy-back your criticism, the thing that bothers me most about all these dangling sub-plots is that MOST of them shouldn't exist in the first place. Spies who are in entrenched and hiding within a culture NEVER leap-frog from operation to operation the way Phillip and Elizabeth are doing...as sleeper agents their purpose is to remain hidden and NOT risk discovery. Yeah, they could assist teams or other agents in getting the results they've achieved, but they wouldn't be super-spies jetting all over the country and living a half-dozen other "lives" while trying to remain normal American suburbanites.
I know the show pursues this angle for its protagonists to keep things exciting, but for me, it's one of the most implausible things about this show and does tend to bother me from time to time (and more often now that P&E have a half-dozen alternate missions going on).