Third (and final! I promise!) linkspam this week

[jae]

The official reviews of season two are starting to roll in from various U.S. publications: from the San Francisco Chronicle, from the Tampa Bay Times, from Indiewire, from the Los Angeles Daily News, from the San Jose Mercury-News, from Slant Magazine, and finally, from the Huffington Post (this one is really a negative review of season two of House of Cards, but there's a positive comparison with The Americans in the final bit).

The full Wall Street Journal Live at Bryant Park "How The Americans Recreates the Cold War" panel has been posted (30-min video).

An interview with Keri Russell (Elizabeth) from the LA Daily News (with some season two spoilers).

And an interview with Matthew Rhys (Philip) from the New York Daily News (also with some season two spoilers).

And an interview with Noah Emmerich (Stan) from Paste Magazine (also with some season two spoilers).

And an interview with Peg Schierholz and Lori Hicks from the Hair and Makeup Department, from the Washington Post.

A couple of things from Twitter: according to script supervisor Molly Nussbaum, The Americans made the very top of this coming week's "must list" in Entertainment Weekly. And it looks like actor Gillian Alexy is going to be back playing Anneliese toward the end of the season!

And the comm's own quantumreality with the third part of the essay on symmetries in The Americans.

The Americans is going to be the subject of canada.com's TV Chat critics' panel on Monday at 2pm eastern time.

The TV Ate My Wardrobe blog sent someone to cover the season one DVD/Blu-Ray launch event.

The Staten Island Advance on the use of a local location as a backdrop to an episode of The Americans.

And finally, here's a little clip of Keri Russell on Late Night With David Letterman (on channelling her inner Elizabeth when her apartment was broken into).

Comments

[sistermagpie]

Man, these articles just get me so thrilled all over again about the show. Things like that Slate article are practically reminders of how they kind of made it just for me. Love the little things dropped in here and there, like MR saying how Philip and Elizabeth are essentially victims of making life choices too soon - not because they were necessarily the wrong choices for them, but because there's just no way you know whether you can do this when you're a teenager. Leading to that big conflict between them. That they both want to do this, but deal differently with the fact that it's so unsustainable. It's the conflict of the D-words: Death vs. Defection. Elizabeth can't choose defection, and if she won't Philip's going to have to choose Death as well.

Also the stuff about how the show mines how much tension comes from just passing information with no need for gunplay, sex or fighting. That was always something that sometimes struck me in listening to people talk about the show last season, the kinds of people who had Really Bad Ideas for what should happen, which usually involved bigger and bigger craziness with tons of surprise reveals rather than what the show seems to do instead, which is zero in on the true danger of every tiny second of their lives. And also that they're not afraid to look at things from different angles--they don't have to follow up on Stan almost catching them. The trail can go cold and they can go through a period where they're not dealing with the same stresses.

One other thing in that Slate article is I had to laugh at them describing a scene where most of the action was people hurling monologues at Philip while he can't say anything because LOL! Philip does that all the time anyway. Which almost makes it better because you know he's listening.

[jae]

Leading to that big conflict between them. That they both want to do this, but deal differently with the fact that it's so unsustainable.

Yeah, this is exactly how I see it. It's one of the most compelling remaining points of conflict between them, too.

And also that they're not afraid to look at things from different angles--they don't have to follow up on Stan almost catching them. The trail can go cold and they can go through a period where they're not dealing with the same stresses.

If they'd done things differently, it would have been a show that had the plot and characters of The Americans but the structure/writing style of The Blacklist. And I would have watched that show, too, but it wouldn't have been anywhere near as good.

-J

[sistermagpie]

I've never watched The Blacklist--what's the structure/plot like there?

[jae]

It's a procedural that tries to recreate the very same life-and-death actiony stakes every week, basically. It doesn't play the long game well.

-J

[katiac]

Ooo... I loved the Slant article. Sounds like they have some great internal conflicts in store for season two.

I also appreciate that it isn't about the big huge plots, but about the smaller moments. Like people kept saying Sandra should be a Russian sleeper or they should kill off Henry, or this and that... but really they've found a great little niche in sucking every drop of conflict out of the smallest (and most universal!) emotional moments. And that's what really resonates so much more strongly than "what will blow up this week?"

[georgley]

I love that the show explores the smaller moments and issues. There is so much to be mined from that and by the sounds of it, they are going to be exploring some interesting things in season 2. I am particularly interested in seeing the jealousy as P/E deal with the honey traps.

[sistermagpie]

Yes, one of the many problems with those big stories is it makes the whole situation less tied to reality. If you were actually in the Jennings's situation you would be genuinely terrified of getting caught. One of your children getting hurt would almost be beyond what you could worry about and if it happened you really wouldn't be able to go on for a long while. It's great the way the show makes the stakes so high--and part of that, of course, is that not everybody can be a sleeper agent or a spy. The Sandra-as-sleeper was one of the worst in this regard. It was a classic twist for the sake of a twist that really undermines the rest of the show.