treonb (
treonb) wrote in
theamericans2015-07-21 10:12 am
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Question of the week #55
The Americans has received widespread critical acclaim, but has thus far failed to grow an audience equal to the size of a lot of other "prestige dramas." What do you think the reasons are for that?
You can expect spoilers for the entire first three seasons in the comments.
(There's no expiration date on these questions, so if you're reading this post months later and feel like jumping in, please do.)
You can expect spoilers for the entire first three seasons in the comments.
(There's no expiration date on these questions, so if you're reading this post months later and feel like jumping in, please do.)
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I think that I didn't understand you at first because those subtle points are more related to the drama of the show, not really to the 'spy story' aspects (which do appeal to me more). To take the 'bug' example above, that's what spying is all about.
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-J
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-J
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Where really all that stuff is the meat. I was thinking last night a lot about how I imagined, character-wise, how Philip and Elizabeth would react to Paige telling Pastor Tim and for me, at least, it felt like there were all these passing character moments that seemed like they could lay the groundwork for it. That's the sort of thing that usually matters.
It was also doubly interesting to think about because with Elizabeth you had a specific backstory to apply to the situation, while with Philip it was just patterns of behavior which made it even *more* subtle. Because you didn't even have flashbacks or past incidents that were discussed, it was just noticing what things he's reacted to in the past and how and what that might say about his character without having any explanation. Not to mention, too, that with characters like Elizabeth we're sometimes meant to understand more about her than she understands about herself. So again, you often have to look at things characters have done rather than even what they say, and what people say always takes precedence in the mind of the viewers. (Here too there's Jared claiming he killed his family out of loyalty for the cause, but that's totally not what happened.)