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I’m enjoying 2x3x29x41’s comments! Any update on your thoughts since your last post?
Yes.
So, nearing the end Season 2, I packed it in. I'm done.
I'm disappointed and a little sad about it, as I was primed to love this series. And on many levels I do. Production? Acting? Writing (on a micro level - ie, dialogue)? Excellent. In many cases, simply superlative.
However, for me the series runs up on the rocks with the macro-writing. Part of the problem is the fact that The Americans is a period piece. It immerses itself in the culture and politics of the 1980s. (I love Stranger Things in large part because of its '80s milieu) But an inherent aspect of period pieces is that the fiction utilizing them owes a particular fealty to reality precisely because, as period pieces, they choose to attach themselves so intimately with the real world, at least as it once was. And The Ameicans declines to do that. The body count is unrealistically off the charts. The superpowers refrained from such carnage, not out of any moral scruples but because each recognized that it was preferable to tacitly agree that each other's sovereign turf, so to speak, was off limits to such things. espionage? No problem. The KGB blowing up U.S. agents in DC? The CIA brutally whacking a Soviet KGB officer in Moscow? The superpowers were far too risk-averse for this. Shows that take place in alternate realities - Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, etc. - can pull this off without any problem. So too - at least to a lesser extent - can series that are clearly placed in our world yet in a less distinct place and time. And I am not demanding an absolute hewing to reality. Great period pieces like Downton Abbey and Man Men did not exactly track historical reality. However, they did generally adhere to it. They demanded only a minor degree of suspension of disbelief. The Americans demands a great deal. Far too much for my tastes.
Even worse, to my eyes, are the superhuman powers of Philip and Elizabeth. They have the combined martial abilities of a member of Delta Force, Batman and Chuck Norris. Even if we could believe that those two physiques had the capacity for such, it would be a full-time job maintaining those skills. Yet it's all just a part-time job for our heroes, who are also masters of disguise, run a travel agency, and have time to shuttle the kids to recitals and volleyball practice. And Philip also has time for a second marriage, which Elizabeth regularly seduces men for covert purposes. All the while, both are consumed with their individual angsts and pathos, though this never compromises their mastery of charismatic deceit. The gulf between their amazing physical prowesses and their emotional fragilities simply does not comport.
Did I want to see where this series went? Yes, very much. But not enough to absorb the wild divergence it presents between the realism it goes to great lengths to establish and the fantasy it overlays that realism. Those two things clash unpleasantly.
Obviously, these are my opinions only, neither right nor wrong. I've noticed that a lot of people can't handle the idea that the fiction they like isn't objectively good and that those who do not also like it are wrong.
You do realize that this show is based on real people and real events, right? Yes, some of it, regarding the kids and how the logistics were over the top. The part living across the street from an FBI agent is also fictional.
So, nearing the end Season 2, I packed it in. I'm done.
I'm disappointed and a little sad about it, as I was primed to love this series. And on many levels I do. Production? Acting? Writing (on a micro level - ie, dialogue)? Excellent. In many cases, simply superlative.
However, for me the series runs up on the rocks with the macro-writing. Part of the problem is the fact that The Americans is a period piece. It immerses itself in the culture and politics of the 1980s. (I love Stranger Things in large part because of its '80s milieu) But an inherent aspect of period pieces is that the fiction utilizing them owes a particular fealty to reality precisely because, as period pieces, they choose to attach themselves so intimately with the real world, at least as it once was. And The Ameicans declines to do that. The body count is unrealistically off the charts. The superpowers refrained from such carnage, not out of any moral scruples but because each recognized that it was preferable to tacitly agree that each other's sovereign turf, so to speak, was off limits to such things. espionage? No problem. The KGB blowing up U.S. agents in DC? The CIA brutally whacking a Soviet KGB officer in Moscow? The superpowers were far too risk-averse for this. Shows that take place in alternate realities - Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, etc. - can pull this off without any problem. So too - at least to a lesser extent - can series that are clearly placed in our world yet in a less distinct place and time. And I am not demanding an absolute hewing to reality. Great period pieces like Downton Abbey and Man Men did not exactly track historical reality. However, they did generally adhere to it. They demanded only a minor degree of suspension of disbelief. The Americans demands a great deal. Far too much for my tastes.
Even worse, to my eyes, are the superhuman powers of Philip and Elizabeth. They have the combined martial abilities of a member of Delta Force, Batman and Chuck Norris. Even if we could believe that those two physiques had the capacity for such, it would be a full-time job maintaining those skills. Yet it's all just a part-time job for our heroes, who are also masters of disguise, run a travel agency, and have time to shuttle the kids to recitals and volleyball practice. And Philip also has time for a second marriage, which Elizabeth regularly seduces men for covert purposes. All the while, both are consumed with their individual angsts and pathos, though this never compromises their mastery of charismatic deceit. The gulf between their amazing physical prowesses and their emotional fragilities simply does not comport.
Did I want to see where this series went? Yes, very much. But not enough to absorb the wild divergence it presents between the realism it goes to great lengths to establish and the fantasy it overlays that realism. Those two things clash unpleasantly.
Obviously, these are my opinions only, neither right nor wrong. I've noticed that a lot of people can't handle the idea that the fiction they like isn't objectively good and that those who do not also like it are wrong.
Adios but I think you're cutting out too early. I thought the series got better as it went along and some characters became more "human".
How do you know what really went on? Any "carnage" events would have been covered up, not published as a murder by a Soviet spy.
The superhuman powers bugged me a bit but more than that was the time in a day to do all they did - run a successful travel agency, nurture relationships, spend time with the kids, and conduct ops.
I always thought the "disguises" were just a way for the staging crew to show off and acting crew to have fun. They were silly within the context of the plot since none of their contacts ever saw more than one version and anyone would have recognized who they were in any of the disguises just as the audience did.
Adios but I think you're cutting out too early. I thought the series got better as it went along and some characters became more "human".
This. I was thinking the same. It gets better from here on out and kind of finds it's sweet spot and yes, they become more 'human'.
I had considered cutting out at about that point also but my husband wanted to keep watching (I think Keri Russell had something to do with that ) so we did and I was glad we kept watching also.
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) so we did and I was glad we kept watching also.
