The Americans on FX

The way the Feds handled the mole situation was pretty good too.

 

I liked the fact that they left the intentions of the man in the kid's story very ambiguous. You can read into it just about anything you want to read into it.

The actual dialogue in that scene was really clunkily written, and I wasn't thrilled with the acting either. Fell really flat.

Plus, I feel like they've used up their entire allotment of "13-year-old girl in pervy peril" cards for the first few years already. I don't need to see that every week.

 

I strongly agree with your points here. There's no way the show can keep this pace up without devolving into unbelievable, soap-operatic bullshit. But it's very enjoyable for its intensity right now.

 

The kid had military stickers and flag stickers all over his car. It could have been some symbolic foreshadowing of our main characters' future if they decide to flip.

 

Nearly everything about the last episode was predictable. Except for how awesome that ass-kicking was. I also thought it was one of my favorite episodes so far.

Which baseball game was on the radio at the beginning? Had to be the Orioles, right?

 

You predicted the setup in the embassy? Kudos.

 

Yup. You didn't?

 

No. That took me off guard and was brilliantly executed. I figured they were trying to get more information, not kill a man.

 

I was thinking about this show in contrast to The Walking Dead tonight. They face opposing problems that cut deep to the roots of the shows' issues: The Walking Dead's writers think it is a great show that won't lose viewers because it's so great. They don't understand why people watch, or they don't care because they have a feeling of invulnerability because of the show's rising ratings. The Americans' writers don't seem to understand how good their show is. They still include racy sex scenes that serve little purpose and still pack every episode with all this drama when they have a good enough concept and good enough actors to pull off something much slower. They've kicked into overdrive, which makes for an exciting but unsustainable ride. The Walking Dead has lazed through about half its episodes overall, which makes for a boring-ass show most of the time.

 

Of course it will. That's the theme on almost every show on cable. Relativity.

 

As a viewer, why worry about sustainability?
I'd be satisfied with one or two very good seasons of 'The Americans' with every episode packed with cool plot elements.
We don't need a miserly approach to good ideas so we can keep the show going for five years. At least I don't need that as a viewer.

 

To be fair to the writers of both shows, I'm pretty sure that both series have been in the can for months, so it isn't like they can measure the response by viewers and go back into the kitchen and adjust "their recipes."