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Mar. 1st, 2014 07:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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The (first?) trailer for "Cardinal" is out, as well as a full scene from the episode. A new trailer for the second season in general is also out.
The ratings for "Comrades" (season two, episode one) are out, and they are mixed, mostly bad, news. Critic Alyssa Rosenberg, who has been a huge champion of the show, was vocally disappointed on Twitter. But others compared it to what happened with Breaking Bad, implying there's reason to be hopeful.
A couple more season two reviews have trickled in: from the New Republic and from The Atlantic.
Crave Online has an interview with Matthew Rhys.
Indiewire on TV's antihero tradition and how The Americans deviates from it with a compelling romance.
Vulture on That Sex Scene from "Comrades."
E Online talks about the most intense moments from some of the premieres of this past week, including The Americans.
And Complex has one more "talking to the cast at the season two premiere" video.
The ratings for "Comrades" (season two, episode one) are out, and they are mixed, mostly bad, news. Critic Alyssa Rosenberg, who has been a huge champion of the show, was vocally disappointed on Twitter. But others compared it to what happened with Breaking Bad, implying there's reason to be hopeful.
A couple more season two reviews have trickled in: from the New Republic and from The Atlantic.
Crave Online has an interview with Matthew Rhys.
Indiewire on TV's antihero tradition and how The Americans deviates from it with a compelling romance.
Vulture on That Sex Scene from "Comrades."
E Online talks about the most intense moments from some of the premieres of this past week, including The Americans.
And Complex has one more "talking to the cast at the season two premiere" video.
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Date: 2014-03-01 10:12 pm (UTC)Also, I mean, again based on what I've read, illegals were like rock stars in the Soviet Union. They were a whole pop culture phenomenon, even. Being an illegal was like the awesomest thing you could do. Even people who had doubts about the system otherwise were completely gung-ho about being able to do that particular job because of the status it had in the culture. It would be very very hard to imagine that anyone would be picked for the job without desiring it.
But this is not exactly the real-life KGB that they're portraying on the show, so who knows? It would make me sad if they did it that way, but it is their right.
-J
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Date: 2014-03-01 10:24 pm (UTC)But that made me wonder about that line of MR's. It seems like if he just meant that they were too young to really know what they were getting into he would have said something like that. So I wonder if he means that in this place they were recruited.
If, in reality, they came from other fields...well, actually that's even more fascinating to me because it suggests that they even more have this alternate life they would have had. But how did they pluck people out? Did the program look for signs that someone was good and approach them? Because if something like that happened, even if they were in the KGB, I can see that being translated into saying the job was chosen for them, even if they enthusiastically accepted it.
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Date: 2014-03-01 10:29 pm (UTC)Yes, that's exactly it. For example, I read one book written by a man who had been through illegals training but never actually served as an illegal (it's never clear why, and I'm just dying to know, but that's not the point), and he'd been in graduate school in...I think physics? And it turned out that this guy who he'd noticed sort of watching him for a few years (and been a little nervous about, because he thought it had something to do with his performance) had actually been from the recruitment wing of Directorate S. He only found out when they asked him to join up. But they watched people for a LONG time before approaching them, for the most part, and I'm sure there were lots more who they didn't eventually approach for one reason or another.
-J
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Date: 2014-03-01 10:42 pm (UTC)I'm really hoping that's what they're getting at given MR's quote. Because I can certainly see both of them having qualities that they might flag as possibilities for this program. Elizabeth, as we know, has that fear of surrender that they really seem to value in this universe. And the kinds of skills that Philip has that make him good at the job would doubtless have shown up in his life elsewhere too.
no subject
Date: 2014-03-01 10:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-01 10:50 pm (UTC)Right. And it's important to remember, too, that the illegals program is unique in the world--there isn't another spy agency anywhere that uses that particular technique. So they'd be looking for what makes a good spy, but they'd be looking for other very particular things too. I imagine that a recruiter from that particular branch of Directorate S (it's rather benignly called Department Three) has a really tough job.
And this is off-topic, but I can't resist: one thing that always bowls me over is that they still exist! Like, for all of the HUGE changes that have happened between the Soviet Union and modern-day Russia, the illegals program has stayed more or less intact, just like in the olden days, from all evidence--even with some of the same operatives who were recruited from the Cold War era. And based on how the SVR illegals discovered in the U.S. a few years back were received when they were bought back by Russia (especially Anna Chapman), it sounds like the "rock star" status hasn't changed much either.
-J
no subject
Date: 2014-03-01 11:07 pm (UTC)I have to ask--what sorts of things in particular were they looking for, if you know?
I love that Philip and Elizabeth pretty much are the coolest people in Russia. Because in Russia apparently that's a thing that's easy to identify and they're it. And they're frankly even cooler than the real thing, I would guess.
no subject
Date: 2014-03-01 11:17 pm (UTC)And yeah, Philip and Elizabeth are SO much cooler than Anna Chapman. :)
-J
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Date: 2014-03-01 11:41 pm (UTC)-J
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Date: 2014-03-02 12:35 am (UTC)On one hand it almost makes me imagine that things were really different for Elizabeth, and that this is why she seems to have a real mentor in Zhukov perhaps because she scored so well in the "morally sound" and "strong personality" areas, with skills in languages too. But I'd love it if Philip got pulled in from a very different angle.
no subject
Date: 2014-03-03 02:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-03 02:12 am (UTC)Though in my head I do imagine him speaking without the accent. This will no doubt be jossed this season when they have some flashback to him struggling even more so Matthew Rhys can impress everybody with his Russian accent. But I'd so love it if they did that differently.
I've been wondering, too, if we might see flashbacks with Leanne and Emmett with the Jennings.
no subject
Date: 2014-03-03 02:19 am (UTC)For what it's worth, this was my impression as well. Elizabeth seems more uncertain than he does at the time they meet, but her English isn't more accented.
-J
no subject
Date: 2014-03-03 02:28 am (UTC)But again, that could be entirely the acting and not intentional. Or they could've changed something around later. Who knows.
(no subject)
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Date: 2014-03-03 02:25 am (UTC)Of course, they may go an entirely different direction, and I'm sure Philip did have an accent along the way--I just kind of imagine in the same way he reads people and changes who he needs to be to fit, that fluidity might transfer over to picking up language more easily as well.
I'm curious to see more of Leanne and Emmett too! They seem a few years older, so I'm not sure if they would've known each other in training, though I guess they could've, but I definitely am interested in how some of those earlier meetings went. And I really want to know what happens with the son. You would think they might want to pick up on that some more as the whole "what happens to the kids if something happens to us and not them?" would play in as a major thread and they have a real life example.
no subject
Date: 2014-03-03 02:37 am (UTC)I was thinking of MR saying there'd be flashbacks talking about how certain relationships were formed, and it occurred to me that we might see earlier years with them. It would be cool if they worked with Philip and Elizabeth when they were new and the Connors were more experienced. That might be a nice way to add to the mystery of who killed them and how Elizabeth and Philip see themselves in them. One of the clips in the previews looked to be Elizabeth in their house looking at pictures of their family. They might go to their house to get spy stuff out of it, for instance, and be seeing the life they'd heard about over the years.
(no subject)
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Date: 2014-03-02 11:58 am (UTC)How do you know?
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Date: 2014-03-02 01:56 pm (UTC)-J
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Date: 2014-03-02 02:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-02 02:07 pm (UTC)-J
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Date: 2014-03-02 02:17 pm (UTC)Or that they already made the major investment and bringing those people back would mean throwing all of it down the drain. Keeping them in place costs them nothing and might prove useful in the future.
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Date: 2014-03-02 02:18 pm (UTC)-J
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Date: 2014-03-02 02:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-02 02:41 pm (UTC)-J
(no subject)
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From:no subject
Date: 2014-03-01 10:40 pm (UTC)Ha, now that I can read this (site has been a little glitchy for me today) yes, that's what I was wondering. He's said something like that before.
This is kind of what I was wondering about Philip and played around with in one flashback chapter of my fic, if he might've been like studying at a university or school somewhere and then gotten plucked out because one of his teachers/supervisors noticed he was especially talented with languages and had potential. It's kind of hard to know how they'd do it on the show though, because the factual accounts you read are so very different from what's on the show (and that works for me for dramatic purposes) that it's hard to know what they'll decide to make their reality.
And yes, I'd agree that could also mean the job was "chosen" for them, particularly given the lack of other opportunities they might've had. Matthew Rhys has said over and over again how Philip grew up in this impoverished environment. It's hard to know if he's saying that because it's been in a future episode, because Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg told him so, or because he researched the time period and just about everyone was, but it would be easy to see for someone who came from very little, why they'd jump at the chance to survive, and in fact have the potential to flourish, even if it came with some drawbacks. When you're in that situation, you're thinking short term survival rather than "would this bother me 20 years from now?"