Resources

[soupytwist]

So, fellow Americans fans, I am hoping some of you have also found yourself doing dorky research as a result of this show. :) The people who work on The Americans have clearly done shedloads, and I suspect I am not alone in finding some of the history and surrounding context a bit overwhelming at times. (Even as someone who really liked Russia before watching!) Plus, for fanfic purposes there's always more research that can be done. And so...

I was hoping we could pool resources. Do you have a favourite history book, documentary, fictional work, or other media that you think community members would enjoy as shedding light on the world of the show?


My contribution, which inspired this post because I love it so much, is Francis Spufford's book, Red Plenty. It's a bit hard to describe - it's both fiction and non-fiction, and it's trying to do something I've not seen any other book doing - but it's super readable.

( a bit more about why I think Americans fans would really like it )

So, yeah, I basically think everyone in this community would probably like this book, haha. Have any of you read it? What did you think?


(Just for the record: I ran this by the mods and they said yes, so, thankyou Jae and Treon, for letting me ramble. :) )

Season 1 DVD/BluRay

[georgley]

For some reason when the season 1 DVD release date was pushed back in other countries, it didn't change in Australia so the release date here stayed as the 5th of Feb. I went past my local store on the way home from work tonight and they already had the DVDs out on the shelf!

I figured I'd post a few thoughts here if anyone is interested. Spoilers for the special features are below.

First of all,for some reason the actual DVDs are labelled incorrectly. Disc 1 says that it includes episodes 1 - 4 however it is actually only 1 - 3 so all the subsequent discs are wrong. Not sure if that will only be for the Australian release.

Now, onto the special features!

Gag reel
This goes for about 3:30 and contains the scenes from the gag reel that was released on TVLine yesterday as well as a whole lot more. There are quite a few scenes with Keri and Margo cracking each other up including the first one which is the two of them on the bench for the "I'm sorry I didn't kill you scene" and Margo doesn't realise they called "action" so they just end up staring at each other awkwardly for ages until Margo finally says "Are we acting?".

Deleted scenes
There are quite a few for the pilot including a Paige/Elizabeth scene showing them in the car about to go to the drugstore (after Paige interrupted Elizabeth cleaning the trunk). There is also a Paige/Elizabeth scene from COMINT with Elizabeth having returned from her encounter with the man who beat her, checking on Paige while she is sleeping.

There were also a few scenes that covered off some Stan backstory including that he once got shot and he had to have his spleen removed. There was also a little more about his undercover work. Will be interesting to see if this ends up getting mentioned at all in later seasons or if they decided to go in a different direction.

Bizarrely, there are a couple of deleted scenes from later in the season showing with a story that must have been dropped. It featured Sandra getting a broken leg after she was hit by a car!! I was not expecting that.

Commentary
I really enjoyed it but I'm a nerd who always listens to the DVD commentaries. My only complaint with the DVD was that there weren't a few more!

Noah had some really interesting insights into Stan and also the Philip/Elizabeth marriage. It was also interesting to hear how seriously he takes his acting because he said he actually found himself getting mad at Susan Misner when Sandra wouldn't accept Stan's offer of going on vacation!

Noah did say that one of his favourite lines from the whole season was when Philip says "Elizabeth" after Grannie interrupts his meeting with the Colonel. Apparently he often emails Joe and Joel with his thoughts after reading each script and they joked that the emails are usually titled "Why doesn't Stan have more screen time?"

Featurettes
There are a few other small segments covering off how the idea for the show came about, the 80s technology etc. These were quite interesting although did cover some things that have been discussed a lot in other interviews.

Looking forward to seeing the discussion once these have been released elsewhere!