Links and media and etc.

[jae]

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.

Comments

[katiac]

I was so excited to see that! I love that we're going to see more of Philip and Elizabeth's early years together :) And Elizabeth and Leanne flashbacks too!

[georgley]

I can't wait to see what Philip and Elizabeth's relationship was like in the early days together!

[katiac]

Me too! (Even if I have to rewrite like, my entire fic!)

[jae]

I suspect they'll leave things open-ended enough that most interpretations of various things having to do with the two of them will remain canon-compliant, actually. They always have so far. :)

-J

[katiac]

That's a good point. They're fairly awesome about asking more questions than they give answers.

As a side note (that probably only you will understand being compliant-crazed as I am), I was like "phew" when they gave Henry the telescope and had the line about, "It's 20 times more powerful than your old one," because I'd written a little bit about the old one in my latest posted chapter, having seen the telescope in one of the shots from episode 1-9, and as soon as I saw him getting it in the previews was like, "oh crap!"

But then it turned out okay :)

[jae]

HAHAHA, yes, I recognize myself in that sort of relief! :D I'm glad to hear you weren't "jossed" (fandom slang for when the writers render a fan story that was previously canon-compliant non-compliant, in case you're not familiar).

My own big one from the season opener was being VERY glad it was Henry's birthday that she'd returned for and not Paige's, because both of the stories I've written so far as well as the one I'm working on now hinge on very strict timelines for when that pregnancy was (to the point where it isn't something I could just rewrite easily, too).

You are incidentally the only person I've ever met in fandom who's as canon-crazed as I am, by the way. It's very reassuring. ;)

-J

[katiac]

And that's one thing that makes me a little crazy (and forces me not to be) in that there are the purposeful shifts in time where show months don't line up with years (the 2 months gone but we jumped from April/May, 1981 to January, 1982) or the year Elizabeth was supposedly pregnant with Henry in a flashback and his current age not lining up, and I've had to just be very vague with months/years in the fic as not to need a whole lot of rewriting later. Which isn't the end of the world unless you're one of those people who goes nuts if those things aren't kept straight (raises hand.) Probably no one else would even notice. Though I suspect I'll have to do some rewriting no matter what, especially if they want to go into their early days together, as I do want the final version to stay compliant. Still, I don't mind if it means we get to actually see those early days on screen!

You are incidentally the only person I've ever met in fandom who's as canon-crazed as I am, by the way. It's very reassuring. ;)

There HAD to be at least two of us out there...

[jae]

Oh, I hear you. The upside, though, is that those kinds of oopses do give fanwriters a potential out, at least on time-related things. Because if the show isn't consistent with itself all the time, then maybe it's okay if something we've guessed at the timing of turns out to be different from the timing of something as elaborated in ensuing canon. Maybe? Though it would still make me craaaaazy. *g*

-J

[katiac]

Yes, exactly. And that's what I tell myself--that since the show has made a purposeful decision to not be rigidly stuck to dates as they happened in history but to make it more fluid and just include things in the general time period they occurred, it's okay for fan writers to do so also.

It will make me crazy too. Knowing how it will keep me (and only me, mind you, because no one else would even blink at it) awake at night from the sheer "inaccuracy" of it all, I will probably go back and change things to make them fit if at all possible and if it's something that blatantly contradicts.

[georgley]

I am so looking forward to the next chapter of your fic!

[katiac]

Thank you, I'm having so much fun writing it! 1.5 more sections to finish and then I start the first round of editing. It's actually been kind of cathartic just to sit in Philip's head through that awful, painful time and just let it go once it's down on paper.