The Americans on FX

No Oleg?

 

Yeah, but at least I now know those strange lyrics to "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" (I watch with captions on).

Other stray observations:

--- I thought for sure Paige was going to get mugged on her way to the car.
--- Real shitty thing to do to Henry, with zero explanation. Play it out a little longer, and spring it on him during your "Europe trip". Now he's going to hold a grudge for weeks, and THEN go full-bore nuts when he finds where the trip's permanent destination is.
--- May not see Martha again, but if not, that was a great sendoff to her character.
--- Oops, we forgot about Oleg.

 

Fair to say the worst of the shows seasons? I didn't like the whole body of work. At all.

 

Help me out here ... was that the same parking lot where she saw Elizabeth kill their mugger?

Edit: Yeah, it is. Had to go back to recaps from last season: "After Elizabeth picks up Paige from the food pantry, they are confronted by two muggers."

 

Definitely. I guess the 15 minutes of digging at the end of Episode 1 should have been a warning.

Was there even a killing that helped any cause, removed a really bad person? Hans was killed because he cut his hand. Grain worker was killed because they mistook his job's intentions. Old lady and husband were killed because she was forced to kill Soviets by Nazis 40 years earlier. Innocent kid almost dies because we want them to go back to the Soviet Union so mom can continue an affair that could be done by any number of KGB honeys over there.

Oleg plot going nowhere. Mischa plot sputtered. Stan and Dennis' Russian informer not proving to be essential to anything. She fixed her teeth and got engaged. Hooray.

 

I kept waiting for something to happen to Paige so she could use her new self defense skills or we see a shadowy figure following Phillip or something.

There was a lot of forced tension this season where they build up to something happening only to leave it for the following week to be worked out with an anticlimactic resolution. I said after episode one or two of this season how much I loved the feeling of tension with no resolution because I felt like it was building to something. Now I just feel let down.

This whole season was putting the chess pieces in place for next season to have everything come together but they could have done it without making this season feel so empty.

 

Maybe theyre trying to make us feel what Philip feels, that all the killings are for nothing? That all the operations are pointless?

But its overkill at this point and its not particularly good television.

 

I think that is part of the point. We're getting to see another aspect of their work and how grueling it can be.
As Stan says, this kind of work makes you feel 'sh#tty.'

They have hurt and killed people throughout the season to no good purpose.

I'm not standing up for the season. It has not been up to the standard set by previous seasons.


FYI, 'plot velocity' is my new favorite expression from SJ.com.
Replacing 'jacknut.'

 

I was ready for the episode to be over after the "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" montage. Then I saw it was only 10:47 and I wasn't at all excited for there to be more show. First time that's happened.

 

I hate the use of musical montages in television shows.

Also, I dislike that song. We were watching with the captions on (baby sleeping and white noise on for him), and was shocked by how dumb the lyrics are.

 

I have a feeling this season is going to play a lot better down the road when binge watched along with the final season.

 

Was that whole scene where Stan's girlfriend convinced him to stick with counter-espionage (a) evidence she's a KGB mole; or (b) just her being a supportive, curious girlfriend?