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[jae]

A tiny (and non-spoilery, as far as I can tell) teaser trailer has been released for season two! They've given it a name ("Hidden") and there are hints that there will be others. [Edited to add: Another one, "Dinner Table," has also been released now.]

Guys, guys, our show is cleaning up in the Top Ten lists this year. Here are several more: the Washington Post, Vulture (and here's what it looks like in the actual magazine), and the American Film Institute list.

Antennafree TV features The Americans as one of the thirteen new TV shows you should binge-watch over the holidays.

On the spoiler front, ScreenCrush talks about the teaser and the other known spoilers that have been released so far (but also mentions one I hadn't seen before), the title has been revealed for season two, episode six, Joel Fields tweeted a photo of an editor working with the opening shot for season two, and there are now several shots of the "80s wall" in the The Americans writers' room: one of Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg standing in front of it early in the season, a closeup revealing potential spoilery things, and another closeup revealing potential spoilery things.

Comments

[sistermagpie]

I like that Hidden teaser much better than the Russian Roulette one, which just seemed weird to me.

[jae]

I heard about that one, but haven't seen it. Can you describe it?

-J

[sistermagpie]

The family's at dinner. Henry gets up and Philip says, "Take your plate, Buddy" in a very echoing voice. Paige gets up and kisses Elizabeth on cheek saying, also in an echoing voice, "Thanks for dinner, Mom." P&E stare at each other intensely. One of them takes out a gun. Elizabeth shoots at Philip with no bullet. They put the gun on the table and spin it, like spin the bottle. It points at Philip. He shoots at Elizabeth, also no bullet. They spin it again. It points at Elizabeth. She goes to pick it up and he puts his hand over hers to stop her. More intense staring.

And that's it.

Looking at those pictures, I had no memory of Reagan endorsing an Amendment for prayer in schools--God, I hate that guy.

[jae]

...?

Okay, yeah, that just sounds bizarre.

-J

[georgley]

The Russian roulette promo has just been released. dinner table

[jae]

Thanks! I'll add it to the original post.

-J

[katiac]

Thanks for the link, Georgley! Kind of reminds me of that trailer they had last year for season with Philip and Elizabeth dressed in black, walking away briskly after a car blew up (I think in the USSR, if I remember correctly.) And although I think it's quite different from the show's real tone, I assume the people making commercials know better than I do what actually compels people to get interested and give new shows a chance.

[katiac]

Yeah, that was a weird promo. Like I can understand why they'd try to draw new viewers in with it being all dark and Russian and cold, while the returning viewers were already sold anyway, but I had the hardest time not getting pulled out of it by the simple fact I can't even *imagine* Philip pulling the trigger on Elizabeth, no matter the circumstances. And in thinking back, I don't think we ever saw her point a gun at him either, although the fact that she did with Gregory makes it easier to imagine she could be pushed that far under the most extreme circumstances. It's like if Philip did it with her, it would almost be pointless because they'd both know he'd never go through with it.

Do you think they were striving for any real symbolism from the events of the first season, or just wanted to set a dangerous, spy-ish mood? It's also interesting they didn't even use their real kitchen from the show.

[sistermagpie]

I can definitely think of things that do connect to last season, but I'm not sure if that's what they were going for. The two of them obviously hurt each other a lot last season, Philip being the one to say "stop" fits too, even though it was Elizabeth who asked him to come home. Also you could look at it as the two of them going from soldiers who just point a gun at whoever they're told to kill, and mistrusting each other because of that oversight, to two people who are allied with each other.

But maybe they just wanted to show them with guns, and liked the Russian Roulette idea because they're Russian, and the hand at the end showed they were in love or something.

[katiac]

Ooo, so excited about the Brezhnev news!

Ideas on what we're seeing in the opening shot? The place Elizabeth is recuperating? Some shot back in Russia on a coast somewhere?

[jae]

Ooh, I hadn't thought of that, but maybe! I hope they do give some explanation for that. It's also not at all unrealistic that they'd send her back for a little bit after what happened (that happened in real life), but it would be an interesting development because she'd I bet see at least some of the ways her country had changed.

-J

[katiac]

Joel Fields also just tweeted some shots of episode 2 where we see a hand (assuming a Jennings hand) and the spinner from the game of "Life"!

[jae]

LOVE that! :)

-J

[tinny]

Thank you so much for collecting all those interesting bits of information. I would never ever get to see those otherwise.

That writers' wall is really really interesting. Seems like they do at least *some* research. :D

[jae]

The research they do for this show is actually pretty meticulous, from what I can tell. It makes me swoon! :)

-J