Tag Archives: FX

WTA 89- Season 5 Episode 9 IHOP

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The slow burn of season 5 is really heating up! Henry off to boarding school? Oleg under fire? What will Stan do now? Is Tuan really calling home? And where is Paige? Plus: Martha and Gabriel! We are all eating pancakes and talking about The Americans Season 5 Episode 9 “IHOP” which aired May 2, 2017. It was written by Peter Ackerman and was directed by Dan Attias.

This is Episode 89 and contains the news and our episode breakdown and analysis. To hear our history, tech of yesteryear, and feedback segments stay tuned for Episode 90.

We have fashion news to start this week from JCKOnline showing that you can let ‘The Americans’ be your guide to great ’80s earrings. Then we have a terrific interview in The Hollywood Reporter regarding spies, lies and intuition in a conversation with writer-producer Stephen Schiff!

Then we dig into a short stack of episode goodness opening with Kimmy’s Dad, Afghan blood and…Kimmy at 17! Philip can’t sing Dylan! Stan learns Gaad was killed by the KGB. He sees Gaad’s widow who wants revenge. Oleg is interrogated by the PGU. He goes home and his father tells him his mother came home from the camps broken. Oleg then gets Dmitri to save his son from the war with one name. Philip meets a cryptic priest. Martha gets an unwelcome visit from Gabe and tells him to never return. With the teen boys, Henry want to go to boarding school! Elizabeth can’t find Tuan, so they tail him to Harrisburg PA. And IHOP! He was just calling his sick adopted brother. Right?

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 87- Season 5 Episode 8 Immersion

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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 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!

WTA 86- Feedback for The Committee on Human Rights

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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!

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 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!

WTA 78- Feedback for The Midges

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Anyone got a midge-swatter? We need one this week for The Americans Season 5 Episode 3 “The Midges” that aired March 21, 2017! It was written by Tracey Scott Wilson and directed by Stefan Schwartz.

This is Episode 78 and contains our history, tech of yesteryear, and feedback segments. Please check out Episode 77 to get the news and our episode breakdown and analysis.

Don’t let our history and tech segments bug you! We wouldn’t want to break your back! In history we spy on the OBKhSS and catch them listening to Roxy Music’s “More Than This” and then making out to Alabama’s “Old Flame”. We then fly on over to the Amtorg Trading Corporation offices on a cool Aeroflot airliner and freak out when we are attacked by some nasty flying sitodiplosis mosellana creatures! Thank goodness we have your amazing feedback while we recover from the aerial onslaught!

WTA 77- Season 5 Episode 3 The Midges

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This is Episode 77 and contains the news and our episode breakdown and analysis. To hear our history, tech of yesteryear, and feedback segments stay tuned for Episode 78.

Two news items stand out this week! KPCC has a cool interview with the J’s and reveal that they are vowing not to put a young KGB-era Putin in the series! Then The Washington Post takes a look and finds that the insect warfare on ‘The Americans’ isn’t all that outlandish!

Then it’s time for the show! It’s just another run of the mill day in Jennings world. The Eckerts go bowling with their new besties, the Morozovs and we hear more about terrible Soviet Union. Tuan continues being a little whiner and ticks off Elizabeth. Matthew shows genuine concern for Paige, who tests her new technique to lie to him about how she is feeling and finds it effective. Oleg digs into his investigation on corruption in the Soviet food world, and is later confronted by the CIA. He hears a tape of a conversation with Stan implicating him as a traitor. Miscah makes it to a mule in Yugoslavia who takes money from him menacingly. Gabriel tells Philip and Elizabeth that there are bugs in a lab in Oklahoma City that they need to investigate. They go to Oklahoma, have cowboy sex, and then hit the lab. They meet lab supervisor Randy Chilton, whom they scare and then promptly kill. Philip wonders if they should tell Paige.

Oh, and by the way. MARTHA IN A SUPERMARKET!

WTA 68- Kelly AuCoin Interview

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Kelly is back!

We love to hear your thoughts about The Americans so please send 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!

WTA 65- Feedback For Persona Non Grata

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As this has been the best season yet of the Best Show on TelevisionTM we expected more of the finale than ever before! Did it deliver the goods? You will find out our thoughts on The Americans thrilling Season 4 Episode 13 “Persona Non Grata” that aired June 8, 2016. It was written by showrunners Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg and directed by Chris Long.

This is Episode 65 and contains our history, tech of yesteryear, and feedback segments. Please check out Episode 64 to get the news and our episode breakdown and analysis.

There is a smattering of history and tech for the finale! We start by listening to Leonard Cohen sing on his amazing single Who by Fire on New Skin for the Old Century,while getting our snacks ready for Super Bowl XVIII! Then we drive over to the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) in our boss new Chevy Impala! Then it’s a ton of your incredible feedback! You guys rock!

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!