Episode discussion post: "START"

[jae]

Aired:
30 May 2018 in the U.S. and Canada

This is a discussion post for episode 610 of The Americans (the season and series finale), 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.)

Original promo trailer

Watch on YouTube

Comments

Re: The inexplicable critical acclaim of "Electric Sheep"

[sistermagpie]

I was talking about this elsewhere and someone offered this comment about Electric Sheep (they also felt the Vulture list might as well have just been randomly generated):

"And while I don't dislike "Do Mail Robots Dream of Electric Sheep," I agree that it's overrated -- unlike something like "Walter Taffet," which explores very specific and rich thematic material with a light touch, "Electric Sheep" takes much simpler ideas and draws waaay too much attention to the fact that it's Saying Something about them.

But I think that's also why a lot of people like it so much, to be honest. In a lot of other episodes, it's easy to miss the underlying thematic stuff and see the story as just a random collection of incidents. In "Electric Sheep" the layer of meaning that unites and elevates everything is much more accessible. In that way it reminds me a lot of the early Mad Men episode "Babylon." That one ends with this portentous musical montage that I found annoyingly on the nose, but to a lot of viewers this was the point that hooked them on the series, because it reassured them that there was more going on with the show than just soap opera shenanigans."

Re: The inexplicable critical acclaim of "Electric Sheep"

[jae]

That...is incredibly frustrating and almost certainly exactly why people love that episode. Gah.

-J