Question of the week #55

[treonb]

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.)

Comments

[treonb]

First of all, it's a show which portrays things from the side of the Soviet enemy, which doesn't make it easy to become popular.

Second, the show is getting more and more depressing, and that turns off people too. For whatever reason, viewership numbers are going down.

But I'm also wondering whether there isn't also a lot of non-related factors involved: What other shows there are (altogether and on that time slot), how FX is viewed, even pure luck. "Breaking Bad", for example, only became majorly popular in its last season. If it had been on HBO instead of AMC, it might have gotten more traction from the start.

[sistermagpie]

You know, it's weird because I'm not sure. Are people turned off by the Soviet perspective? I don't know. I have one friend who wasn't interested because she felt like she knew how it turned out given history.

But I feel sometimes like it's something more...like there's something about the real meat of the show that people aren't excited by. I mean, it's not a power fantasy despite the two superhero leads.. It just seems like there's something about the whole premise that...leaves people cold. They're just not excited by the idea of undercover Russian spies as the heroes. They weren't interested in it in Allegiance either despite that show seeming from what I heard to be more OTT.

It's probably good remember that The Wire never did well either, and that was another show that I think critics always said was the best. I don't know if it'll ever get the kind of respect The Wire gets with people watching it on DVD. But I think the premise of that show had more attraction and people just stayed away because it was daunting. The Americans might have some of that too since it's so painful, but if people aren't watching it they don't know. I do have one friend who doesn't watch it because of the tension, but that's a general rule with her.

It just seems like people don't feel an automatic connection to or don't have an immediate idea about "Russian spies" or something. I am, of course, probably the worst person to ask why somebody WOULDN'T like this show.

[shapinglight]

I really can't account for it, unless it's down to American audiences being turned off by the central premise.

Personally, I'm just glad that the show has been given a fourth season and hope that the showrunners have planned for it to be the last as well as planning for it to continue.

[(Anonymous)]

A show like this on a cable channel needs to be promoted on the broadcast networks so that people know it's there.

Treon mentioned that is has become more depressing. I agree. Also, the show runners and lead actors have always talked about it being primarily a relationship drama, but season 3 had very little to do with the relationship between Phillip and Elizabeth. I think people want to see what's going on with them.

Also, let's get Nina back home. I really disliked the whole storyline of Nina in jail in Russia. Boring, depressing, no interaction with other main characters. Show writers...please fix that.

[theplatonicnonyeah]

Like the others have touched upon, there are probably many different things at play.

I think one of the main reasons people aren't watching may be that the show isn't so easily defined. Is it a drama series? Is it a political thriller? But there is also sex and romance (of sorts)...?

I would say it's more like regular life than most other shows and maybe that's why. It's very honest about relationships and why people do things to/for each other, but there are no real moral codes. The "bad" characters are not punished, there is no real lesson to be learned, sometimes a favourite character dies (Amador, Gregory).

On the one hand, I'm glad this show isn't massive, because it puts a lot of strain on everyone involved. (It's enough that the two main actors are dating. I don't think a show benefits from gossip and pap photos of the actors, so I'm glad those two are so relatively anonymous in the celebrity world.)

On the other hand, I'm also fiercely proud of the show and want more people to appreciate it - even if it doesn't win major awards.

[jae]

I actually don't believe it has anything to do with the show being depressing. That didn't stop "Breaking Bad." I mean, I think there are certainly people who don't want to watch the show because it's depressing, but the people (and there are plenty) who don't mind depressing dramas aren't watching it, either.

Instead I keep going back to the various times that critics Andy Greenwald and Chris Ryan have talked about the show on their "Hollywood Prospectus" podcast. Greenwald loves the show--he's as big a fan as any of us. Ryan thinks it's okay but nothing special. And if you look at what Ryan says about it, you'd think he's talking about some completely different show. "Every episode is exactly the same," he said. "Nothing ever happens." This is a smart man--and a professional TV critic--and yet there's something about the show that he's just not "getting," not seeing when he watches it.

Anyway, I don't know what it is or why it is, but I really do think that for whatever reason, there's a large group of people out there that doesn't understand the show. Maybe they keep trying to watch it on the level of spy hijinks and find that it doesn't live up to their expectations (because this isn't really a show about spy hijinks).

-J

[treonb]

I found this article discussing ratings, and I think they're saying it can be an issue of the network airing the show

http://www.forbes.com/sites/dorothypomerantz/2013/09/30/breaking-bad-finale-is-big-but-not-amcs-biggest/

Breaking Bad‘s reported numbers (Nielsen has yet to release official numbers) don’t match up to The Walking Dead‘s season finale in April. That episode drew 12.4 million viewers. And it wasn’t even show’s goodbye. Imagine how many people will tune in when Walking Dead finally goes of the air.

This kind of success isn’t easy. Cable networks like USA and FX try to compete but they can’t match the buzz and devotion AMCs shows inspire. Thanks to services like Netflix NFLX +0.28%, people binge on AMC shows just as passionately as they watch new episodes and the streaming success fueled the live success. Last night’s Breaking Bad was a hit on social networking as well as on TV. According to AMC, at its peak last night there were 23,599 tweets per minute about Breaking Bad. Those kinds of numbers helped AMC ask for roughly $250,000 per 30 second ad for the finale.

[jae]

Today I ran across this comment that I once made in a discussion in my own journal, and it struck me that it made for a better response to this question than the one I actually gave!

I've become convinced that The Americans doesn't tend to work for people who don't (for whatever reason) want to watch it with their brains fully engaged--it's a verrrrrrrry subtle show that relies on you not only remembering but fully comprehending the various layers of things that have happened in past episodes without shoving reminders in your face first. There are actually things in it--sometimes crucial things!--that are so subtle that I sometimes don't fully understand them until second viewing, and I already watch pretty attentively the first time around. That means that if you're not watching carefully, you only end up seeing the frame of an episode rather than the meat, and the frame is just so very much not the point of that show.

-J