The Americans on FX

Stan needs to stop talking to Jared and start talking to Paige.

"Secrets? Boy, have you come to the right place. That's all my parents are about. They're always hiding things, working all kids of odd hours. By the way, since you're with the FBI, do you think you could forge this signature for me . . . ?"

And to understand Paige, remember that the parents' extreme attitude against religion is completely coming out of left field to her. OK, some parents aren't religious. That's all well and good. But to show such anger and contempt when your kid is showing an interest in something that, frankly, most parents would WELCOME their kid to embrace just doesn't make sense to a 14-year-old girl. "That's not something we believe in," is one thing. But "How DARE you come home with a BIBLE!" is just jarring. There should have been some kind of religious "talk" with the kids long before.

 

For me, the key suspension of belief that's hard is the parent/kid stuff. It's a boring storyline, really, and I buy these two as parents about as much as I buy Patton Oswalt as a NBA player. I mean, it's a spy show. They steal stuff, wear disguises and kill people every week. They've been tortured and almost died a few times. I don't need the annoying show-up-every-other-episode kids for the sake of domestic tension. The spy stuff is interesting. The domestic stuff is annoying and unbelievable.

If the kids weren't there, not a single viewer would ask "imagine if they had kids." While embedded spies had kids, yes, they weren't playing out James Bond fantasies and keeping second families on a daily basis.

 

There shouldn't have been kids in the show, period. The show isn't serious about parenting or family dynamics. It's using the kids as a plot point to smoke out the two Russian spies.

 

We have now reached the contrarian phase of your thread. Please insert 75 cents for the next two pages.

 

Eh, I disagree. The kids' storylines isn't the best part of the show, but I like the 'life' element.
There's a dichotomy between the work they do and the life they lead.

 

Not to mention it's a lot more plausible to hide as a "normal" family with a house in the suburbs and a couple of kids.

 

How the hell did Emmett and Leanne have time to do such a good job of it (even going to PTA meetings) while the Jenningses suck royally and don't even have time to give their kids a hug or a little kiss on the forehead every once in a while.

 

Yes, but it's a false dichotomy. Stan's family dynamic is a real one. Two super-killer spies with kids is not. A real one would be one super-killer spy and one sleeper parent fully integrated into domestic life.

And, again, I'd argue the kids exist as a mirror for the parents' inner psyche. They're vessels into which symbolism and signifiers are poured.

 

Plot logic. The Jennings existed to die and create motivation, for one thing, and, for two, to fortify the plausibility of the two super-killers being parents. Their existence and death served the nourish the complexity of the leads. That's the kind of show The Americans is and has been since its inception. It gets a lot right among most of the Russian spies, and with the FBI. Then there are the two super killers with all their disguises and their new red-haired songbird handler.

 

You dont know where the story is going. I dont think that they'll defect at any point, but I do think they'd eventully want to retire and get out of the business. They havent had a day off in 20 years. The kids and family life provide the motivation for them to retire and the kids provide their choice to stay in America (probably Canada) when they stop being spies

 

My prediction is they die, bloody. Maybe the kids, too.

The larger worldview of the show is that a lot of people died for no good damn reason in this Cold War, and lot of people compromised their morals and values for the same war. Our power couple are not heroes. They lie, kill, cheat, steal for a cause that most Americans find abhorrent. They're gonna pay and it's probably gonna hurt when they do.

 

Yeah, like fighting the Mujahideen in Afghanistan.