I haven't seen a thread for this, so I thought I'd start my own.

Basic non-spoiler summary:

Starring Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys as the Soviet Spies, Noah Emmerich as their FBI neighbor, and Margo Martindale as their handler, it's has a pretty solid group of actors and actresses.

It's my favorite current show on the air, and the entire first season was one of the best beginnings to a show I've seen in awhile. This is one of two shows (RIP Awake) that I watched week by week as the episodes aired instead of binge watching or watching online.

The second season starts tomorrow, and it's definitely worth a watch.

 

Agreed, the Americans is a great show. Unfortunately I fell behind after the 6th episode and haven't been able to catch up yet. Watched a single episode last summer with my mom before heading back to school and came back during the winter to find out that my whole family, including my grandma, is addicted to it.

I may be behind, but I can't recommend it enough if you haven't checked it out.

 

First season is free on amazon prime. I rewatched most of it.

 

Amazing show, I'm debating on watching the new episodes now or waiting and binging like I did the first season.

 

So, I just watched all of it. And damn.

I fucking love this show. This has to be FX's best yet. The suspense/unflinching brutality combined with complex, realistic characters makes this one of the best spy/espionage takes I've seen. The beginning was eh for me. I felt like I had to suspend my disbelief quite a bit, but then it just took off.

It's so goddamn weird (and awesome) that this show makes you root for some incredibly vile people. The Jennings do not hold back. Manipulation of the deepest and most intense kind. The writers love to make you think that maybe, just maybe, they feel bad for their lies and manipulations, that they feel some guilt, and then they crush the thought.

Spoiler

In the most recent episode, I was prepared for the awesome image of a KGB spy burning down a church and/or murdering a priest to prevent his daughter from getting religions, but I was disappointed.

 

The Americans is a great series, probably my favourite currently running show. I do disagree with the above poster that the protagonists don't feel bad for their lies and manipulations. I think the show has been pretty clear in establishing that at least Philip feels a great deal of remorse for his actions. It's rather refreshing, I think, to have spy characters who are essentially real people underneath their ruthless exteriors, and not complete psychopaths or utter nut-cases.

 

He cares about murdering people, but I don't remember him ever showing remorse for lying. Especially with what he did last episode.

 

Am I missing something? Because the first episode seems like your average dry spy film. I think Homeland did much better at setting the stage.

 

The pilot is decent; it's the rest of the first season that makes it good, and the second season that makes it great.

 

Yeah, I thought I would hate it because of the pilot, I didn't trust the writers to do such a plot justice with what they set up (the whole "only speaks English" thing + the male spy's attitude) but they seemed to pull it out, even if I didn't stick with it till season two (I kinda got bored).

I definitely think that Kevin Spacey is right: pilots are...not good. They force you to define characters in a way that you might not have needed to if you were on Netflix and could count on binge watching. The conflict of the episode could have been dragged on or postponed for a while if they'd been on our favorite streaming service.

 

Surprised this isn't getting more attention here. IMO it's one of the few shows that stays consistent throughout every season. Solid writing, solid acting, and just about every episode connects well with the rest and keeps things moving forward.

There are shows that beat it in individual aspects, but as a full package there's not much that matches it and maintains the same quality for 4 entire seasons.

It doesn't flinch away from the more unpleasant sides of the work they do in order to make them more sympathetic either, unlike a lot in the genre.

 

Season 3 had some of the best moments of the series, by far.

Spoiler

Especially anything and everything involving Phillip

 

God, I've been bullshitting. I saw season one, loved it, downloaded season 2, and never watched a single episode.

 

I know that it's a bit of a necro, but I finished season 6 tonight, and I have to say that this was one of the best shows over its run that I have ever seen. It doesn't get the accolades that it deserves.

Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell are stupendous, and as the years have gone by, the actors who play their children have also come into their own.

The ending was bittersweet. Sad to see it end.