Tag Archives: Americans FX

WTA 129- START Bonus Feedback

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The Americans, our collective passion for 6 years, has finally come to an end. And what an ending! No one dies, yet everyone suffers mightily. A fitting conclusion to one of the best television shows in the modern era! Of course we could go on and on about S06E10 “START”, which aired on May 30, 2018. It was written by showrunners Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg and directed by Chris Long.

This is Episode 129 and contains our bonus feedback. Please check out Episode 127 to get the news and our episode breakdown and analysis, and Episode 128 for history, tech of yesteryear, and part one of feedback!

You guys had so much to say that we had to add this bonus feedback episode! And this is it, all feedback, all the time!

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 128- START Feedback

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This is Episode 128 and contains our history, tech of yesteryear, and part one of feedback. Please check out Episode 127 to get the news and our episode breakdown and analysis, and Episode 129 for bonus feedback!

It’s our last time with history and tech for you! The Js don’t disappoint with the music montages beginning with Dire Straits’ ”Brothers in Arms”, and just when we thought that was the fitting last one, here comes the amazing train scene and U2 singing ”With or Without You”! Overcome with emotion, we get off the train with Paige in Rouses Point while Philip and Elizabeth ride the Amtrak to Canada! And our final Wig of the Week? It’s Paige ftw with that short hair! We then have so much feedback we have to split it in two!

WTA 127- Season 6 Episode 10 START

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This is Episode 127 and contains the news and our episode breakdown and analysis. To hear our history, tech of yesteryear, and feedback segments stay tuned for Episodes 128 and 129.

We have so many news items we could share, yet three really stood out. First up is Variety with a compelling oral history of the show. Next is The New Yorker’s recap of the finale that found it elegant, potent, and unforgettable. Finally Vulture breaks down the blistering vulnerability of finale’s garage scene.

Then we pick right up from the end of last week. Philip and Elizabeth meet and go to get Paige. Meanwhile, Stan continues following his suspicions about them and ends up confronting the three of them in a garage near Paige’s place. After one of the most tense and wrenching scenes of the series, Stan lets them go. As they leave, Philip tells Stan that Renee may be a fellow Soviet spy. Dennis breaks Father Andrei. Philip and Elizabeth decide to leave Henry in the United States and ask Stan to take care of him. After an awkward farewell call to Henry, the Jennings trio don new disguises to flee to Canada on their way back to the USSR. Just before crossing the border, US Border Patrol agents fail to stop them. Seemingly past the danger, Elizabeth then Philip both see that Paige has left the train and them. With nowhere to go, Paige returns to Claudia’s empty apartment for a shot of vodka. Stan visits Henry and reveals the truth of his family. Philip and Elizabeth fly to Europe and then drive to the Soviet border. Arkady meets them and drives them to Moscow, where they get out and look at the Moscow River at night. Philip tells Elizabeth “feels strange” and she replies in Russian “we’ll get used to it.”

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 126- The Americans Series Finale Party and Aftermath Discussion!

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It was a gathering, a party (not communist exactly!), and a little bit of our The Americans community together at the end. The bitter and the sweet mingled as we ground our teeth, yelled out, and shed a few tears as the best show on TV came to its brilliant conclusion. Join us as the folks who could come to Raleigh introduce themselves, tell us their hopes for the show, and react immediately after the conclusion. Then we get back together the next morning and reflect on the episode after we could sleep on it.

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 125- Kelly AuCoin Interview

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What can we say about the awesomeness that is our friend Kelly AuCoin? He got us started as our very first interviewee and then connected us with other with people working on The Americans! So who better to be the last of our series? Kelly shares his thoughts about Pastor Tim’s appearance this week, his place overall in The Americans, and his thoughts about the series as a whole. He also answers your questions and comments, and he talks a bit about the great arc for Dollar Bill on Season 3 of Showtime’s “Billions”!

WTA 124- Jennings, Elizabeth Feedback

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Could we be any more tense than we were this week? Could we have yelled at the TV any more? Could Philip be The Flash in an alternate universe? Well, The Americans universe is imploding, more characters are dying, and we are freaked out and exhausted by the end of S06E09 “Jennings, Elizabeth”! The penultimate episode of the best show on television aired May 23, 2018, was written by showrunners Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg and directed by Chris Long.

This is Episode 124 and contains our history, tech of yesteryear, and feedback segments. Please check out Episode 123 to get the news and our episode breakdown and analysis.

As we wind down the show, we only have a couple of history and tech items for you.We taste some delicious Ukha with our good friend Claudia. Then we look over Stan’s shoulder as he works the FBI Automated Case Support system and finds another Philip Jennings! Can you believe it’s yet another tie for Wig of the Week? It’s Elizabeth’s big poofy do and Tatiana’s blonde locks (too bad they didn’t stay put for long!) Then you guys get to share all your terrific thoughts with us!

WTA 123- Season 6 Episode 9 Jennings, Elizabeth

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This is Episode 123 and contains the news and our episode breakdown and analysis. To hear our history, tech of yesteryear, and feedback segments stay tuned for Episode 124.

Two news items await us! First up The Washington Post asks and answers what does a show about Soviet spies living in America tell us about parenting? Everything. Then we have one poignant farewell retrospective in Vanity Fair: an ode to The Americans’ most unlikely hero, the beloved FBI mailbot!

We then begin the episode with the aftermath of “The Summit”, as Elizabeth begins shadowing Nesterenko, while Philip leaves a dead drop for Oleg. Oleg picks it up, but he is in turn picked up by the FBI and interrogated by Stan. Oleg asks Stan to help save Gorbachev, and Stan seems unmoved. Meanwhile, Stan’s spidey-sense leads him to tell Dennis about his suspicions and to dig deep to find out if his hunch about the Jennings being illegals is correct. He even contacts Pastor Tim, who reveals nothing. Elizabeth eventually saves Nesterenko from assassination…by Tatiana! She confronts Claudia and reveals that she is team Gorby, devastating the old operative. Then Paige confronts Elizabeth about her encounter with a drunken Jackson who ranted about the recent honeypot. She leaves the house, bitter and enraged by her mother’s lies. Philip meets with Father Andrei, who is reveals his rival Father Victor is meeting with the FBI. Philip runs from the watching FBI and in a coded message tells Elizabeth to flee!

WTA 122- Feedback for The Summit

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The end is nigh and the deck is clearing! So this week we have some major unexpected revelations from the start! Shocking twists! A mercy killing! A not killing! Has Philip finally gotten through to the human being in Elizabeth? Are they done for? And Claudia is evil. Again! So much to digest in a super-sized episode! It’s The Americans Season 6 Episode 8 “The Summit”, which aired May 16, 2018. It was written by Joshua Brand and directed by series veteran Sylvain White.

This is Episode 122 and contains our history, tech of yesteryear, and feedback segments. Please check out Episode 121 to get the news and our episode breakdown and analysis.

There was so much so fast in the history lane! We brush up on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act before heading over to meet a contact at Main State. It’s a good thing we used our favorite Vidal Sassoon products to look good and fool people! Then we head to the cinema for a trifecta: The Big Heat, I Was a Male War Bride, and then we have to use subtitles for The Garage! Fortunately we convinced Elizabeth we are good guys so she doesn’t have to off us with her poison tip assassination device (maybe a Bulgarian Umbrella?)! Then another tie Wig of the Week exists between Philip’s hat and long blonde hair and Elizabeth’s blonde assassin pageboy! We then have your enthusiastic responses to this week’s show!

WTA 121- Season 6 Episode 8 The Summit

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This is Episode 121 and contains the news and our episode breakdown and analysis. To hear our history, tech of yesteryear, and feedback segments stay tuned for Episode 122.

We have one choice news item for you, from a real-life CIA operative! It’s a piece in the The Washington Post wherein the former chief of disguise at the CIA says that ‘The Americans’ gets a lot right! And she gives a special shoutout to Matthew Rhys for how he handles guy disguises.

Then we pick up just after the past episode, and Philip confesses the Oleg operation to a stunned Elizabeth! He implores her to help save Gorby but she seems unmoved. She continues the operation with poor Jackson, who (of course) falls for her wiles. With his help she gets a key recording of Nesterenko. Stan continues closing in by visiting with a member of Gregory’s crew from Season 1. The Erica and Glenn Haskard story comes to its inevitable sad ending with Elizabeth’s help. Philip tries apologizing to Stavos. Jackson escapes certain death at the hands of Elizabeth! Claudia reveals her deep knowledge of everything Elizabeth has been working on, cementing her as a snake once and for all. Elizabeth learns from the tape that Nesterenko is a good man and refuses to follow the Centre’s orders to kill him! Claudia threatens Elizabeth, who then tells Philip that she needs to get a message to Oleg to help save Gorby!

WTA 120- Feedback for Harvest

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You knew we had to have at least one more gruesome spy thing, didn’t you? Well we sure did this week, along with Stan’s spidey-sense kicking in, Dennis’s frustration, and Elizabeth remaining winless this season! At least Philip was there to prevent an even worse outcome. Plus: Harvest meets the scythe and Marilyn meets the axe! All this and Erica, Henry and Paige too in The Americans Season 6 Episode 7 “Harvest”, which aired May 9, 2018. It was written by newcomer Sarah Nolen and directed by Stefan Schwartz.

This is Episode 120 and contains our history, tech of yesteryear, and feedback segments. Please check out Episode 119 to get the news and our episode breakdown and analysis.

We go light on history and tech to make way for feedback! We start out by adjusting our diets through food combining while listening to the incredible Patti Smith and the song “Broken Flag” on the album Wave. Such somberness makes us yearn for laughter and we get it at the Police Academy, which we reached easily using the Chicago L. Did anyone else see the emergency fire axe was missing? Then we have another tie for Wig of the Week between Philip’s shaggy cut, Elizabeth’s long dark locks, and the one that fell off poor Marilyn! Then look out for your incredible thoughts in your raucous feedback!