Monthly Archives: April 2017

WTA 88- Feedback for Immersion

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:08:02 — 31.5MB)

Claudia? Oh no! Oh yes! Our favorite (haha!) handler is back and so are we, talking about The Americans Season 5 Episode 8 “Immersion” which aired April 25, 2017. It was written by Tracey Scott Wilson and was directed by Kevin Bray.

This is Episode 88 and contains our history, tech of yesteryear, and feedback segments. Please check out Episode 87 to get the news and our episode breakdown and analysis.

There’s some cool history and tech for you this week! We have to handle Directorate K busting in on us while we we’re watching the lead officer in our local GRU. To relax after a terse confrontation, we play some Pitstop which is a true fave of all the boys in SIS-1. Then since we are starving we head over to Armand’s Pizza while listening to Peter Gabriel on our Compact Cassette in the dash! Then there are awesome new getups again with nice hair and more of your feedback than ever!

And we do love to hear your thoughts about The Americans so please keep sending them to us! You can email text or audio feedback to watchingtheamericans@gmail.com or signal us (we have replaced the operator!) at 919-907-0542. Follow us on Twitter @WatchAmericans. Please like us on our Facebook page Watching The Americans. And if you do enjoy the show, kindly rate us or better yet rate and review us in iTunes or Stitcher!

WTA 87- Season 5 Episode 8 Immersion

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:16:22 — 35.3MB)

This is Episode 87 and contains the news and our episode breakdown and analysis. To hear our history, tech of yesteryear, and feedback segments stay tuned for Episode 86.

Two cool news items came out this week! First up poet Evan McGarvey writes a very thoughtful piece in Paste about familial miracles and The Americans’ graceful approach to the parent-child bond. Then The New York Times has a terrific interview with Irina Dvorovenko (Evgheniya Morozova) revealing that the former ballerina doesn’t miss ‘Swan Lake’!

Then we get into the episode! Immediately after last week! Philip gets home and is dismissive of Gabriel and Elizabeth disagrees. He tells Elizabeth that Gabe doesn’t want Paige to be a spy, and Elizabeth is surprised. We finally meet Henry’s girl Chris! And she likes Pitstop! Philip and Elizabeth are evasive with Stan about Paige and Matthew’s breakup. Stan and Dennis work their new TASS source who is very nervous and has bad teeth. She should avoid Philip. Oleg is approached by Directorate K who perform a search of his room and find nothing. Daddy is NOT happy. Claudia (BOOOOO) returns, all warm and fuzzy. Kidding! She waits for Philip and Elizabeth at Gabe’s meeting apartment and is apparently back to being their handler. She later meets with Elizabeth and starts sowing the seeds of dissention about Paige’s future. Gus gets dusted by Deirdre who says he’s too wishy-washy. Elizabeth encourages Philip to get her back, and he does by telling Deirdre that he is married! Philip and Elizabeth in cool new outfits find that Mrs. Morozov has a lover who is CIA! Blackmail time! Tuan meets with Philip and Elizabeth and tells them they could make Pascha so miserable he would insist on going home with his mother. Elizabeth does more physical training with Paige, and she tells her about her rape and subsequent training. She pushes Paige to keep working on her own. They later take a walk and Elizabeth reveals she should have been…a doctor!

Remember that we do love to hear your thoughts about The Americans so please keep sending them in! You can email text or audio feedback to watchingtheamericans@gmail.com or signal us (we have replaced the operator!) at 919-907-0542. Follow us on Twitter @WatchAmericans. Please like us on our Facebook page Watching The Americans. And if you do enjoy the show, kindly rate us or better yet rate and review us in iTunes!

WTA 86- Feedback for The Committee on Human Rights

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 55:57 — 26.0MB)

So it looks like Gabriel is really gone. What about Matthew? And what about Paige’s future? Whoa! Plus our friend Kathleen joins us! We are of course discussing The Americans Season 5 Episode 7 entitled “The Committee on Human Rights, and it aired April 18, 2017. It was written by Hilary Bettis and was directed by series star Matthew Rhys.

This is Episode 86 and contains our history, tech of yesteryear, and feedback segments. Please check out Episode 85 to get the news and our episode breakdown and analysis.

It was hard to pick our history and tech this week since there was so much there! We checked out the latest “news” from TASS, which was all abuzz about the heroic goalie exploits of hockey superstar Vladislav Tretiak. Then we did a mini-movie marathon, crying over Terms of Endearment and laughing and loving with Breaking Away. That kept our minds off the goins-on at the evil Kraslag camp, which we had to escape using our trusty and speedy Nissan 280Z! Then we have multiple wigs of the week again, followed by terrific feedback!

WTA 85- Season 5 Episode 7 The Committee on Human Rights

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:27:45 — 40.5MB)

So it looks like Gabriel is really gone. What about Matthew? And what about Paige’s future? Whoa! Plus our friend Kathleen joins us! We are of course discussing The Americans Season 5 Episode 7 entitled “The Committee on Human Rights,” and it aired April 18, 2017. It was written by Hilary Bettis and was directed by series star Matthew Rhys.

This is Episode 85 and contains the news and our episode breakdown and analysis. To hear our history, tech of yesteryear, and feedback segments stay tuned for Episode 86.

We have two fun news items for you this week! First up is Quartz with a piece about the intense research that makes the 1980s style of “The Americans” look just right and features our friend costume designer Katie Irish! We follow that with The Ringer and a cool and unusual listen to the show that reveals ‘The Americans’ has a loud-mouth problem!

Then we start in on another slow-burning episode with big emotional impacts! Gabriel finally gets to talk with Paige. It’s a nice chat. Stan gets Oleg off the hook. For now. The Deputy AG wants him fired, and Wolfe saves his job. For now. Oleg tells his mom the CIA goons are gone. He later goes to read her prison file. Paige converses with beloved Pastor Tim. Philip has lost his sexy mojo and we see it with Deirdre. After breaking into the shrink’s office, Elizabeth gets a file with a list of names of enemies of the party. Philip and Elizabeth have to go to get some of that wheat for the motherland. They follow that bounder Ben to find the wheat in Mississippi. Later, they see him in Memphis with another girl! And Elizabeth cares! Meanwhile, Paige dumps poor Matthew! Gabriel is really leaving this time and says goodbye to Elizabeth. Philip goes to say goodbye to Gabe, who tells Philip he was right all along and to keep Paige out of the spy business!

WTA 84- Feedback for Crossbreed

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Gabe leaving? Mischa gone? Stan and Dennis with a win? Detective Oleg? Paige and Marx and…Gabe? Minds are blown all across America with The Americans Season 5 Episode 6 entitled “Crossbreed”! It aired April 11, 2017, was written by Stephen Schiff, and was directed by Roxann Dawson.

This is Episode 84 and contains our history, tech of yesteryear, and feedback segments. Please check out Episode 83 to get the news and our episode breakdown and analysis.

Exciting history and music get us started! We join Elizabeth and Ben in some mystic Tai Chi while listening to the incomparable Peter Gabriel sing Lay Your Hands on Me. That gives us the strength to break out of a Soviet Corrective Labor Colony! After returning to America, we then engage in a rousing bout of agricultural crossbreeding! Then it’s wigs of the week and more feedback than ever!

WTA 83- Season 5 Episode 6 Crossbreed

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:11:50 — 33.3MB)

This is Episode 83 and contains the news and our episode breakdown and analysis. To hear our history, tech of yesteryear, and feedback segments stay tuned for Episode 84.

Interviews and lists top the news this week! First up Screener TV believes that Paige is going to be a great spy and they can prove it. Then The Observer talks with Noah Emmerich on Russia, rain and directing his co-stars, and we close up with Uproxx’s cool Anxiety report examining doing Tai Chi with doofuses!

We then get right into this week’s fun! Gabriel and Elizabeth discuss the findings in Topeka – the Centre wants that wheat! Elizabeth has more intimate time with Ben and learns Tai Chi is fun after all the sex. Mischa has a quick sad trip on Aeroflot home. Claudia and Gabriel chat, and we learn Mischa will get his old job back. Gabe later goes to the Lincoln Memorial and thinks. Oleg and Ruslan interrogate the food procurer from last week, and he tells them they don’t know who they are dealing with. Henry and Stan share a meal and some talk about girls. Stan and Dennis may finally have success with recruiting a Soviet spy. Elizabeth in disguise sees a shrink and we aren’t sure why. A Mary Kay lady comes to the house and Elizabeth brushes her off in front of Paige. Elizabeth later goes to Young Hee’s house and sees another family living there. Gabe announces to Philip and Elizabeth he is going home for good. He later tells Philip that Philip’s father wasn’t a logger, but a prison guard. Elizabeth see Paige reading Marx, and Paige says she agrees with a lot of what he said. As Peter Gabriel’s “Lay Your Hands on Me” plays, we see Oleg burn the CIA map and blackmail tape, and Philip, Elizabeth, and Paige go to an apartment building to meet…Gabe!

WTA 82- Feedback for Lotus 1-2-3

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Who knew that spreadsheets and lovemaking go together so great? Philip sure does now after Season 5 Episode 5 of The Americans entitled “Lotus 1-2-3”! It aired April 4, 2017, was written by Joshua Brand, and directed by Noah Emmerich.

This is Episode 82 and contains our history, tech of yesteryear, and feedback segments. Please check out Episode 81 to get the news and our episode breakdown and analysis.

This episode was overloaded with history & tech! So, we catch a rerun of Romancing the Stone just before we decide whether or not to enlist in The Peace Corps. As we head down to sign up, we tune in to The Rolling Stones classic Slave. Waiting in line, we read some of Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat. Once we are done, we head over to McDonald’s, which isn’t serving Fatteh. After a delightful meal, we work on our old-school PC doing Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheets, then take a spin in our classic GAZ Volga, and in 80’s fashion, shamelessly tossing out the styrofoam clamshell containers from our burgers! Then you provide terrific feedback, including a cool Vulture piece courtesy of Regina!

WTA 81- Season 5 Episode 5 Lotus 1-2-3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:22:47 — 38.3MB)

This is Episode 81 and contains the news and our episode breakdown and analysis. To hear our history, tech of yesteryear, and feedback segments stay tuned for Episode 82.

There was so much news we had to cull it this week! First up is Vulture admiring the activism of Elizabeth and Paige, followed by Thrillist asking that although The Americans revealed Martha’s fate, what’s next for her? Then we have The Detroit News showcasing a cool interview with Holly Taylor, and we close with a funny piece in The New Yorker (via @fam4fun and Nancy!) showing us some of the ways TV critics have tried to get someone to watch The Americans!

It’s then time to dive right into the episode! It turns out Henry is a math whiz, and Philip and Elizabeth are clueless. They later show Henry the level of their cluelessness and make him unhappy. Oleg and Ruslan try to exploit the target of their investigation. Oleg is later treated to a surprise episode of the dating game by his parents, and wants none of it. He later goes to meet the CIA contact at the designated time, but the CIA is a no-show. Stan and Dennis show their displeasure about the busywork Wolfe has given them. Stan gets closer to Renee and spends time with her. Philip suspects Renee is a Soviet agent and begins tailing her. Paige and Matthew are having issues! Mischa tries to contact Philip, but Gabriel intervenes and prevents him from doing so. Philip as Gus has a date with target Deirdre, and he is able to honeypot her and learns the magic of spreadsheets. Elizabeth spends more time with her target Ben, and she too is intimate with him. She discovers that they have been wrong about their mission, in that the Americans are trying to help the world’s food production, not harm the USSR. Philip feels horrible about the murder in the lab. Elizabeth offers to take things on herself, and he insists “it’s us.”

WTA 80- Feedback for What’s the Matter with Kansas

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Does anyone know “What’s the Matter with Kansas?” We do, now that we have seen that very episode of The Americans! It’s Season 5 Episode 4 and it aired March 28, 2017! This episode was written by Gwyneth Horder-Payton and directed by Peter Ackerman.

This is Episode 80 and contains our history, tech of yesteryear, and feedback segments. Please check out Episode 79 to get the news and our episode breakdown and analysis.

Literary history with some geography awaits us, starting with the book What’s the Matter with Kansas? Then listener Robert sends along the book Pastor Tim gave Paige to read, Capital: The Communist Manifesto and Other Writings (Modern Library No. 202), which contains excerpts from Capital: Critique of Political Economy, and The Communist Manifesto; the book itself comes from the folks at Modern Library. Next we join Misha in Ljubljana, at that time part of The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which is where in our tech segment we find how to make some delicious Kvass just like Alexei! We need it to deal with the tremendous amount of feedback you have provided us!