Episode discussion post: "Tchaikovsky"

[jae]

Aired:
4 April 2018 in the U.S. and Canada

This is a discussion post for episode 602 of The Americans, intended for viewers who are watching the show on the U.S./Canadian schedule. (Feel free to dive in to the discussion even if you're coming in late--and you should also feel free to start a new thread if it seems too daunting to read through what's already been posted first. If you're reading this at a point where you've already seen subsequent episodes, though, please take care to keep comments spoiler-free of anything that comes after season six, episode two.)

Original promo trailer

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Comments

Re: Claudia

[jae]

I come at it from the opposite end of things: what I personally believe about what is right and wrong is irrelevant because the show isn't about me. I want to understand the characters' psychologies and motivations for what they believe and what they do, and for the duration of the show at least, I don't even think about my own.

-J

Re: Claudia

[saraqael]

I absolutely want to understand the characters' own moralities first and foremost. There's no point to me in watching or reading fiction if it only serves as a mirror back to confirm my own beliefs or morality. But at the same time, if a character does something that I think is immoral, I'm going to note that action and pay attention to it to see what it tells me about that character. I want to know if the character thinks that what they just did was moral or immoral.

Re: Claudia

[jae]

Oh, absolutely--how the characters judge or don't judge what they do is absolutely essential to understanding them. Especially on a show like this.

I guess what I mean is something like this: if you were to ask me if I'd want to be friends with any of these people, I'd have to say no? But it doesn't even really occur to me to think about that. By watching the show I get to see inside their heads and thoroughly understand them without being their friends, so it wouldn't even occur to me to insert myself into their lives in the way I have to in order to judge them as myself.

-J

Re: Claudia

[andy73]

I think that this show is so beautifull way it push us to see all characters out of our point of view or our morality. It want we see them as person, as human been; it want we see them for how they are.
I don’t like call them antihero because an antihero is Who does something only for his personal interest, or Who is sociopathic as, i mean, a serial killer.