This week's links

[jae]

At some point the news about The Americans will undoubtedly slow to a trickle, but right now there's still a lot out there because of the pre-Emmy interview season. Here's what I've been able to find this week:

• Writer and co-showrunner Joel Fields appeared in the LA Times' showrunners' panel (4th video in the series, ~1 hour).

• Matthew Rhys (Philip) also did a similar roundtable with potential drama actor nominees over at Variety (video, ~24 minutes).

• Noah Emmerich (Stan) also did a terrific long interview with the LA Times (video, ~30 minutes).

• Keri Russell (Elizabeth) also gave a great Skype interview to Gold Derby (video, ~25 minutes). TV Ate My Wardrobe has some highlights of that interview here.

• Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys also did an interview together with the LA Times.

• Variety paired two actors for an interview who are rumoured to be in contention for awards, Matthew Rhys and Julianna Margulies from The Good Wife.

• Deadline has some excerpts from an interview with Joel Fields and Matthew Rhys.

And there's been plenty of non-interview reporting on the show this week too:

• Variety also has a piece on why Brits are "taking over American TV" that features Matthew Rhys.

• Time has listed The Americans as the top of a list of the ten best shows of 2014 so far.

• The Washington Post included The Americans in a piece about technology in television shows.

• The AV Club also featured the show in a piece about the role of God in a few of today's television shows.

• TV Guide has a few season three spoilers in their MegaBuzz column.

• WhatCulture talked about five "burning questions" for season three.

• GoldDerby talks about the show's chances at the Emmys this year.

• BitchFlicks has a piece on sex, love, and coercion in The Americans.

• Another fan has done a music fanmix for the show over at 8tracks called "Practicing Brinksmanship".

Comments

[saraqael]

I missed S1 of this series and started watching with S2. I was so delighted by the quality of S2 that I immediately bought the S1 DVD collection so that I could catch up.

[jae]

Oh, wow! I can't even imagine starting this show with season two. What was that like?

-J

[saraqael]

Initially? It was a bit confusing, but the show is so well written and acted that it was easy to get up to speed on what was going on. I remembered a news story from a couple of years ago about a bunch of deep undercover Russian agents who'd been arrested and deported. I figured (correctly) that The Americans was inspired by that event. I remember wondering what it would have been like for the kids in those families to discover that their parents were actually Russian spies. I felt very sorry for them.

[jae]

Well, I'm sure impressed that you've managed to catch up! I'm glad you found the show, and us. Welcome to the comm.

-J

[quantumreality]

Instead, it was cynical about causes, about the idea that human beings need order so much that this drive can easily be preyed upon by those who might provide it.

From the writeup about the presence of God in TV shows.

One thing that's struck me over the series is that Elizabeth in particular always refers to "the cause", and you can almost see the capital letters forming to further stamp her reverence towards it: "The Cause".

Yet such a necessarily amorphous term can imply many, many different interpretations.

I think I will explore this more in a writeup this weekend.

[jae]

I look forward to reading that! Be sure to link it here.

-J