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Author Topic: The Americans on FX  (Read 18402 times)

oneaprilday

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Re: The Americans on FX
« Reply #10 on: February 03, 2013, 01:06:05 AM »
Yes, Hulu has worked just fine on my iPad for other things - there was a specific note with this show that it doesn't support iPad yet.

I just ended up DVR'ing the show. Looking forward to checking it out!

saltine

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Re: The Americans on FX
« Reply #11 on: February 03, 2013, 01:08:26 AM »
That's great.  Don't miss the first ep ... entire set-up.
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FLYmeatwad

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Re: The Americans on FX
« Reply #12 on: February 06, 2013, 01:35:56 PM »
Looking forward to watching this.

Now to go off on FX. Seriously, I get I can watch this stuff on their website (or I think, I can with this first episode), but this computer is old and doesn't do HD without getting choppy and all that. FX refuses to update their OnDemand channel for any show until a day after the week after the show first airs. So now I imagine I'll be spending about two and a half hours working through a constantly buffering one hour first episode in hopes of catching up to watch it as it premieres tonight. Wednesdays are also bad nights for me (as are Thursdays when Archer, Louie, and The League are ), so I wish they would be like mostly every other channel (even FOX itself!) and just put the episodes OnDemand the next day with commercials I'm not allowed to fast forward through because FLY the plebeian doesn't have a damn DVR.

FLYmeatwad

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Re: The Americans on FX
« Reply #13 on: February 07, 2013, 08:57:04 AM »
Just posted this on The AV Club, and I imagine it mostly sums up how I feel thus far after two episodes:

So far found the first couple of episodes to be pretty good, but it also seems like it's trying way too hard to be 'the next big drama' without really doing much of interest on its own. I think we can agree, regardless of what one thinks of the shows, that (in no qualitative order) Mad Men, Homeland, and Breaking Bad are at the top of the pile and then there's everything else. Sure there are the Justifieds, Game of Thrones, etcs of the world that come close, but those are the big three.

So take the period piece aspects of Mad Men, toss in the gripping anti-hero of Breaking Bad, and the internal national terrorist tensions of Homeland (plus the opening credit sequence because why not), add in a score that is way too obtrusive, and hope the rest takes care of itself.

I'm going to keep watching for the foreseeable future (at least until the end of the season, I would imagine), but despite some good scenes here and there it's tough to shake how redundant most of this feels.

EDIT: Could also just be that it's tough to get invested in people attempting to attack the US, but that's idiotic patriotism talking I guess. USA all the way! I'm also wondering how long it is until one of them defects because this is TV after all.
« Last Edit: February 07, 2013, 08:59:34 AM by FLYmeatwad »

Katebo

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Re: The Americans on FX
« Reply #14 on: February 08, 2013, 12:49:49 PM »
I'd put Homeland nowhere near Mad Men and Breaking Bad, personally, especially after this past season. I don't see this as a combination of those 3 at all. We don't have a central villain like Walt (only 2 episodes in, it already feels like this will become the story of Elizabeth's disenchantment with Russia and potential eventual defection) and, while both are period pieces, Mad Men feels far more languid and nostalgic. More than anything, though, we've only seen 2 episodes. There are almost no TV shows that have ever been particularly established after 2 episodes.

FLYmeatwad

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Re: The Americans on FX
« Reply #15 on: February 08, 2013, 02:46:44 PM »
Well yeah, but after five seasons of Breaking Bad I wouldn't even put it on the level of The Pauly D Project, though I was speaking on more of a critical level. When awards shows come around I imagine the next couple of years will continue to be BB, MM, and Homeland as the front runners for the big awards in the drama categories.

It's also not like Walt was a bad guy at the start of that series anyway, though at present both Phillip and Elizabeth seem to be much more early anti-heroes than Walt was (both big on the "for my family" motivations though) so early in BB. There are similarities as well between the mysterious past ala Don Draper as well, but I think the MM aspects I see are more in line with the overt period piece parts (albeit without as much importance thus far, aside from simply establishing the setting). If it does become about defecting, as I also imagine it eventually will be, then there are even more opportunities to fall in line with a "who is working for whom" sort of Homeland thing going on even beyond the behind the scenes, high stakes espionage that both shows share.

I'm still definitely going to keep watching the show and don't want to give the impression that I didn't enjoy both of these first two episodes to a degree, but there seem to me to be clear aspects that are attempting to emulate 'the best' without actually doing too much of note. It's early though and we're still getting to know the characters, so there is still plenty of time for it to establish its own identity. I just hope it happens sooner rather than later, because at present I've had a sense of deja vu.

FLYmeatwad

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Re: The Americans on FX
« Reply #16 on: March 06, 2013, 11:47:20 AM »
Catching up on the past two episodes, and it still underwhelms with similar problems of being this amalgamation of 'better' (and 'worse') shows rather than feeling like its own thing. But it took House of Cards five episodes before finding its footing, so perhaps this next episode I'll watch will be the turning point. I don't know, I'm still not seeing all that much special going on here. Except this one thing in episode four. That thing being, of course, that Daniel Flaherty is part of the cast. Maybe he's been around the first three episodes, but I feel like he hasn't talked or anything so I didn't recognize him (or maybe he wasn't even there) until that time he and the Jennings's daughter were on the couch watching the Reagan news. This is theoretically a huge get for this show. Flaherty is both a NJ! NJ! NJ! native and also, arguably, the best part of the short-lived Skins (US) where he played Stanley, the reworked version of the UK's Sid. He needs to be on this show more.

heisenbergman

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Re: The Americans on FX
« Reply #17 on: March 06, 2013, 07:07:48 PM »
The only flaw was the agent conveniently moving in next door unless that will figure into the plot later as not a coincidence at all which I hope is the case because otherwise, it's lazy writing.
I agree with this. When that happened, I felt that it was too coincidental, almost in a deus ex machina type of way.

(The other flaw is that women didn't wear their jeans below the waist until much later in time.  The belted Guess jeans in the first scene were perfect for the time.  Then they switched to the low jeans and it was anachronistic and jarring.)
Low jeans? I was watching one of the episodes where Elizabeth was walking around the kitchen and I clearly remember thinking "Huh, they even the high-waist jeans right." So I'm not sure what specific scene(s) you're referring to.

I'm loving the show so far. I lost some sleep the other night because I started watching the pilot late at night and got so drawn into the story that I ended up sleeping around 1:30am. The show mixes the thrilling suspense of a spy story excellently with a compelling domestic drama, and the 80's backdrop is utilized very well. Looking forward to the future episodes. I hope this show can sustain its strong showing so far.

StudentOFilm

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Re: The Americans on FX
« Reply #18 on: March 11, 2013, 04:14:43 PM »
I need to get caught up, I still haven't seen from episode 3 on. Been busy with Justified and the HBO/Showtime shows.
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heisenbergman

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Re: The Americans on FX
« Reply #19 on: March 11, 2013, 08:16:46 PM »
Warning: Spoilers in white.

Latest episode delivered excellently. Glad to see how consistently entertaining this show has been so far.

Maybe the only problem I had with it was that I felt it was pretty obvious that Philip and Elizabeth's own superiors were behind their abduction. Otherwise, the domestic drama + spy thriller balance that the show has going for it was still ace. And goddamn, I love how Liz destroyed Claudia's face!

I also liked how they had the kids have their own little story this week and it revealed a lot more about their character. Oh, and Agent Beeman and Nina are totally going to get it on eventually, aren't they? BTW, I don't like the Derek Luke character. He's gonna be trouble.