The last linkspam before the premiere! (Probably.)

[jae]

Two interviews with Matthew Rhys (Philip), one from TVRage and one from Starry Constellation Magazine.

A print interview with Noah Emmerich (Stan) from The Associated Press and a video one from Huffington Post Live.

An interview with producer Graham Yost and showrunners Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields from wegotthiscovered.com.

An interview with Keri Russell (Elizabeth) from IGN.

An interview with Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell from Vanity Fair.

An interview with costume designer Jenny Gering from StyleCaster.

And finally, an interview with Aimee Carrero, who plays a Sandinista operative in season two.

A more general piece on the show (including bits from an interview with Joe Weisberg) from The Philadelphia Inquirer

We now have an official description for episode 205 (season two, episode five).

More reviews of early season two from various U.S. and Canadian publications have come in, this time from the New Yorker, Slate, Hitfix, the Huffington Post, Variety, the AV Club, Your Entertainment Corner, the Denver Post, antennafree.tv and Canada's National Post. Spoilers abound.

One last review of the 1st season DVD/Blu-Ray from hamptonroads.com.

TV Ate My Wardrobe featured Fleetwood Mac's "Tusk" on their Music Monday in honour of The Americans returning this week.

Vulture did a little feature on the show's "1980s inspiration wall" from the writers' room.

SpoilerTV and The Fashionista Stories have photos from last night's season two premiere party in New York.

And Rolling Stone did a little A-Z review of the basics of the show.

One more sleep!

Comments

[myfriendamy]

I AM SO EXCITED AHHHH

[jae]

ME TOO, AAAAAAH!

I mean, I did okay at work this morning when I absolutely had to be focused and "on," but I am officially declaring myself Useless Until Thursday now.

-J

[katiac]

It's so hard waiting now!!! It's so close! I'm about to start counting hours!

[georgley]

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT IS ONLY ONE MORE DAY!!

[katiac]

I know, right? I still remember how it felt back in May when we watched the last episode and it was like, gosh, it's FOREVER until January (only to discover it was really February.) And now it's TOMORROW.

:)

[sistermagpie]

Oh, I already know that Thursday is the day I define useless. Thursday I will be spending completely obsessing over whatever happened Wednesday night.

[jae]

I can't ever be useless on Thursdays, sadly. Which will be decidedly inconvenient this season. :(

-J

[georgley]

There is also an amusing Vanity Fair interview with Matthew and Keri here.

[jae]

Thanks! I did a stealth edit to sneak it in. *g*

-J

[georgley]

Good work! It's so hard to keep up with all the news at this point!

[sistermagpie]

Dear god, those reviews are killing me.

Speaking of which, I love that Matthew Rhys always asks to change "murderer" to "killer" because years ago I remember some British actor randomly saying that they all agree the hardest word to say in an American accent if you're not American is murderer.

Though I was kind of surprised by the one article mistakenly reporting that Paige found out who her parents really were. Not so fast, there!

Also I'm now dying to know the thing they do with the wig early on--I know there'd been some nods to them doing something, but I loved them pointing out how they just brutally and elegantly made it work for them somehow to make sure it didn't become a joke. I can't imagine how they'll make me stop wondering how the wigs don't come off.

[katiac]

I know. Some of the articles I'm not sure how much to believe and how much is not quite the same as how someone who has salivated over every morsel of the show would take it. Like missing Paige not really finding anything, or calling Stan "Steve" as another article did.

[sistermagpie]

Wow, this review had some interesting hints:

http://www.denverpost.com/entertainment/ci_25216474/fxs-americans-return-season-2-cold-war-spies

"The depth of the characters and the narrative sweep in season 1 was astounding. Now flashbacks to earlier relationships continue to fill in the histories and motivations. Elizabeth's uneasiness on the topic of motherhood and her relationship to her own family is increasingly coming into focus; Philip's awareness of his mostly brainwashed past and his disconnect from his actual feelings is dawning."

[georgley]

I so hope we get some flashbacks about Philip's early life !

[sistermagpie]

Yes! And I wonder what actual feelings he discovers.

[katiac]

This quote makes it seem like we might! Or at least now that Philip is consciously thinking about it, at least it gets more play. Although, I'm wondering if by "brainwashed past" they mean earlier time in the KGB rather than childhood. Which could still be interesting...

[katiac]

That sounds like great stuff. I love that their own childhoods would come into play, since that seems like the most natural thing in the world to have come up when dealing with struggles with your own kids.

I'm wondering with the Philip quote (and I HOPE it's about his past-past) if the article writer was referring to his KGB past and not the past we're all hoping for. The disconnect from his feelings part gives me hope, but I could also imagine it being KGB training stuff, rather than WHY he's so able to disconnect like that.

[sistermagpie]

I was wondering that too. Because...what period of his life would he consider brain washing? And that's assuming he even really is thinking that way--that's just what the reviewer said. But it does seem like it's saying that he's starting to question his past and how much he was manipulated in it and what he really believes--that's really interesting when you think about Paige as a teenager doing the same type thing as a normal part of her adolescence, figuring out what she really believes.

It just seems like you'd get the KGB training because you'd already drunk the Kool Aid, right? So if he's really questioning himself it might start earlier. He was an idealist, MR has said.

It's just so interesting to think of Philip questioning what his real feelings are when he seems like the one who's been very sure about his feelings for Elizabeth and the kids, even if that means he puts them above the KGB. So what feelings would he be discovering now? He's not like Elizabeth where he's just now losing focus on the KGB.

[katiac]

Like, in some ways life without free press and outside influences would be brain washing. And certainly I'm sure the KGB training was very much that as much as any spy organization in any country that's having to train operatives to do things that are inhuman. You can't bring yourself to do something like fake-marry a woman to get information or kill someone in cold blood and then make your kids PBJ without going insane if you haven't had that happen to some extent, IMHO. Unless you're a complete sociopath, which I don't think they are.

I kind of took it as, not that he's doubting his feelings about Elizabeth/the kids, but that Philip seems to survive a lot by not directly thinking about painful things. He just switches heads or chooses to go dead. And so I could see if he was really forced to consider it how it might cause some more introspection in how he'd gotten there.

[sistermagpie]

Yes, I think "how I got here" would just be awesome. Because with Elizabeth we know and she knows. She's still very clear about her mission, even if she can't help from having it become a little fuzzier over the years.

He's been in the US with a free press for over 15 years at this point, so it's not a case of him suddenly wondering if he's been lied to. But then, with Philip it's also so hard to predict because we don't know exactly what he believes and to what extent. Like even in all the mentions of the religion storyline it's Elizabeth who's the focus of it. She's the one who's all bananas over Paige going to church even though we know that Philip is an atheist and is a little creeped out by the belief in God. Or that he just sees it as something he doesn't want to have to deal with. So he's probably of the same mind as Elizabeth about religion in some ways, but he wouldn't deal with Paige being into it the way she would.

[soupytwist]

I think we may ACTUALLY EXPLODE OF ANTICIPATION if this goes on much longer. IS IT SHOWTIME YET HOW ABOUT NOW HOW ABOUT NOW

[katiac]

Me too!! Only like 1 day and 4 more hours and we will be about to watch it!

[quantumreality]

Aaaaaaaah! I am so jelly of you people who get to watch it right away why is it that I have to be stuck somewhere until like 8 PM and I won't even GET HOME UNTIL 9 PM PACIFIC TIME.

I will valiantly resist hitting this comm until I see the show with subtitles for it! :P

[jae]

The conversation will still be here when you're ready! I promise. :)

-J

[soupytwist]

If it helps, I'm a Brit and I haven't seen it yet because timezones mean I have to wait til I am done with work tonight! OMG CANNOT WAAAAAIT :D

[georgley]

Mo Ryan also has a review up on the Huffington Post here.

Some interesting spoilers about one of Elizabeth's disguises.

[jae]

Added!

I should probably collect any others after this point for the next one, though.

-J