Southlake said:

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The opening episode where they kept playing Fleetwood Mac's "Tusk" over and over to build the underlying tension was just pure genius and pure heroin as it hooked us in for a great ride.

Top 5 for us.


Oh, and her butt.

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Such a badass opening scene. Drew me into it right away!

Top5 best TV show no doubt.

My recollection of the show is the use of music was very restrained, but when used it was spot on.

To the question of comparisons, Breaking Bad is probably the closest for me. An anti hero (or heroes here) with a long slow burn set up, which makes the payoffs late in the series that much more dramatic and rewarding. The last episode here and Ozymandias from BB are pretty comparable, where it's just one big years long resolution after another. And not all of them positive.
This show has the great 80's theme though, which is so well done.

I am watching Season 7 of Homeland. Costa Ronin (Oleg is in it)! Another great series!!

MsDoubleD81 said:

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I am watching Season 7 of Homeland. Costa Ronin (Oleg is in it)! Another great series!!

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Nice! They let him out of jail!

He's actually in Obliterated. Playing a Russian. Go figure.

The Americans also has probably the best intro and opening credits of any shows. I never skipped over the intro and I think that's the only show I did that with.

Legacy Work Spaces said:

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The Americans also has probably the best intro and opening credits of any shows. I never skipped over the intro and I think that's the only show I did that with.

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I never skipped Breaking Bad. But mostly because it was over in .5 seconds.

I thought they used the nostalgia really well. It wasn't over the top, it was just the setting and time period instead of the main focus, if that makes any sense.

My favorite part of the show, is that it didn't depend on anybody being over the top smart, stupid, brave, or whatever.

It's really cheap and easy to portray somebody as "smart" by making them predict every move of their opponents, by making them have a super photographic memory, or something. This show didn't resort to any of that. There was no "mastermind". The FBI weren't bumbling idiots and neither were the Russians.

Everybody was intelligent and acted appropriately for their self interest. When somebody was smart, they showed you how. It was very intelligent writing.

Only complaint with this show was the Pastor Tim storyline.

That could've been left on cutting room floor.

aTmAg said:

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Legacy Work Spaces said:

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The Americans also has probably the best intro and opening credits of any shows. I never skipped over the intro and I think that's the only show I did that with.

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I never skipped Breaking Bad. But mostly because it was over in .5 seconds.

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Slightly off topic. I didn't know there was a a full Breaking Bad theme song until the bar scene at the end of "Granite State". If there had been a full BB title sequence, it would have looked like this fan art:

Stat Monitor Repairman said:

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Only complaint with this show was the Pastor Tim storyline.

That could've been left on cutting room floor.

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Up until the very end I just kept waiting for the pedo angle on him.

Me too. Never understood that storyline either.

Absolute said:

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Me too. Never understood that storyline either.

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Think it was twofold:

1) showed that the daughter felt neglected and missing something in the family so sought out a place of belonging
2) that the parents' secret got out and these were about the only people that would keep their secret

Overall, it added an element of danger of discovery and made the parents on edge (and how far they had to consider going to keep their secret and/or lose their daughter)

Yeah, in the end I got it.... Didn't want to say too much here. Early on, I kept expecting Elizabeth would kill them.

Absolute said:

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Yeah, in the end I got it.... Didn't want to say too much here. Early on, I kept expecting Elizabeth would kill them.

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I'm sure the writers had scenarios laid out where that would happen

and I think that phone call from Stan as an FBI agent to the pastor in Argentina was what convinced Stan that he was right about the Jennings - the pastor didn't say anything incriminating but he was so nervous and sooo careful of his wording in his response it told Stan everything

jwoodmd said:

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Absolute said:

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Me too. Never understood that storyline either.

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Think it was twofold:

1) showed that the daughter felt neglected and missing something in the family so sought out a place of belonging
2) that the parents' secret got out and these were about the only people that would keep their secret

Overall, it added an element of danger of discovery and made the parents on edge (and how far they had to consider going to keep their secret and/or lose their daughter)

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I don't think we need spoiler tags for a show that ended 8 years ago.

As for pastor Tim, it was never my favorite plot line, but it made sense within the world the writers created. Tim himself faced a huge moral dilemma putting his vow to confidentiality for those that put trust in him against the backdrop of Reagan era anti-soviet patriotism. Also, we have multiple instances of behavior from Tim that show that he's essentially sympathetic to socialism/communism as a social theory making his dilemma more believable. I get it professionally why Tim doesn't report them.

I think we also get a sense that Tim knows that Elizabeth will kill him if he doesn't take the job in South America and get lost. So there is an element of self preservation here too for a man, his wife and new child. A very human desire, and something that the Americans was great at creating.

And while I also didn't really love the Paige becoming a spy too storylines, Tim's character is key here as well as she deals with the emotions of what it's like to lie to those you have built relationships with. This also helps us connect her with Philip who also deals with those emotions.

In reality, this is the best thing you can say about the Americans, a deep nuanced plot line like the pastor Tim one is something I can complain about, and that's mostly because I contrast it with the all time great scenes with Phil and Stan, or Oleg and Stan.

AggieEP said:

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jwoodmd said:

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Absolute said:

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Me too. Never understood that storyline either.

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Think it was twofold:

1) showed that the daughter felt neglected and missing something in the family so sought out a place of belonging
2) that the parents' secret got out and these were about the only people that would keep their secret

Overall, it added an element of danger of discovery and made the parents on edge (and how far they had to consider going to keep their secret and/or lose their daughter)

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I don't think we need spoiler tags for a show that ended 8 years ago.

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I agree but I changed it after one poster said in a reply to me "Yeah, in the end I got it.... Didn't want to say too much here." So, I added them.

Your point with Paige is the primary reason for this story line is my opinion.

The primary focus being developing second generation agents.

The family in season two was part of that.

Then Gabriel states later they want Paige to be trained. Phillip and Elizabeth struggle with it. It's a giant theme for the entire show.

LB12Diamond said:

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Your point with Paige is the primary reason for this story line is my opinion.

The primary focus being developing second generation agents.

The family in season two was part of that.

Then Gabriel states later they want Paige to be trained. Phillip and Elizabeth struggle with it. It's a giant theme for the entire show.

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That actually may come from real life. The whole series was inspired by the spy ring with the redhead uncovered about 15 years ago. There were some husband and wife teams, and I think there was some evidence they were grooming their kids to spy.

Second generation was a big thing. The controllers talked about it a lot. Iirc, it also influenced what they encouraged Paige to pursue in college.

Just started rewatching. What a first episode!

I had forgotten that Stan Beeman was suspicious of Phillip from the beginning.

What are you watching on? I tried to find and all are pay only.

MsDoubleD81 said:

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What are you watching on? I tried to find and all are pay only.

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Think Hulu has it now

We watched whole series on Prime last year. Maybe it moved.

That's where I tried to re-watch. Available for $2.99 per episode.

MsDoubleD81 said:

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That's where I tried to re-watch. Available for $2.99 per episode.

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jus****ch.com Not sure why TA considers the web address offensive, but is the combination of the words just and watch

Looks like this show is streaming on Hulu, so if you have an account there, it is free to watch (outside the cost of the subscription)

Cinco Ranch Aggie said:

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MsDoubleD81 said:

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That's where I tried to re-watch. Available for $2.99 per episode.

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jus****ch.com Not sure why TA considers the web address offensive, but is the combination of the words just and watch

Looks like this show is streaming on Hulu, so if you have an account there, it is free to watch (outside the cost of the subscription)

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Last letter of just and first three of the next word spells something female anatomical related. But vagina is not filtered and ***** is. Hmmm

jwoodmd said:

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Cinco Ranch Aggie said:

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MsDoubleD81 said:

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That's where I tried to re-watch. Available for $2.99 per episode.

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jus****ch.com Not sure why TA considers the web address offensive, but is the combination of the words just and watch

Looks like this show is streaming on Hulu, so if you have an account there, it is free to watch (outside the cost of the subscription)

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Last letter of just and first three of the next word spells something female anatomical related. But vagina is not filtered and ***** is. Hmmm

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Ah, got it.