Fan community for FX's The Americans

First things first: let me just make a plug for that official podcast again. It is really just so wonderful, just every single week, and if you're a geeky The Americans fan who enjoys our conversations here and who isn't making time for the podcast, you're really missing out on something special. The distribution seems to be only through iTunes (link goes to the U.S. site, but it should forward you to your own country's site), but it's worth it, I swear, even for iTunes haters. (The podcasts are also available at the Soundcloud site for those who are iTunes-allergic.)

Noah Emmerich has been making the rounds doing interviews about his television directing debut and stuff going on with his character, and he's really been wonderfully eloquent about it all. Here's the gamut: Esquire, TVLine, the New York Daily News, Yahoo, Variety.

This interview with Alison Wright (Martha) goes into some detail about what she sees her character as suspecting and why.

Alyssa Rosenberg of the Washington Post argues that The Americans is one of the most beautiful shows on TV, and Rolling Stone argues that it's television's best drama (also noteworthy here: the CEO of FX tweeted this article with the comment "Yes it is"). And Entertainment Weekly tells us why we should be watching.

A bit of fun: conspiracy theories that The Americans and the new comedy The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt are secretly connected.

The staunchly left-wing Jacobin Magazine argued that the show "uses Soviet characters to valorise austerity". (and here's a critical response to that piece from a reader of the magazine).

And finally, some good ratings news: we have apparently bounced back to season-two levels.

Interviews! First with showrunners Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields.

Then there's one with Keri Russell, two with Matthew Rhys (Spoiler TV and Hollywood Reporter), one with Holly Taylor (Paige), one with Annet Mahendru (Nina), and one with Alison Wright (Martha).

Here's the casting spoiler many of you have been waiting for...

A piece dealing with how TV made Christianity radical again talks about recent storylines on The Americans.

Aaaand some more bad news about ratings.

First, a veritable cornucopia of post-season interviews with showrunners Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields: from Hitfix, from the AV Club, from Vulture, from TV Line, from Yahoo, from TV Guide, from tv.com, from Slate (audio, ~30 minutes, available only to subscribers, though a partial transcript is available here), and from Grantland (audio, ~57 minutes). [Editorial comment: take some time to read/listen to these if you can--they're all so different and so good!]

Next up, some reviews of season two: from Vulture, from the AV Club, from Screen Invasion, from Bustle, and from Talking TV With Ryan and Ryan (audio, ~48 minutes).

From Hitfix, an interview with Matthew Rhys (Philip).

From the New York Post, an interview with Noah Emmerich (Stan).

Keri Russell (Elizabeth) took part in a joint interview of many of the potential Emmy nominees for Best Actress with the Hollywood Reporter. This link has both a transcript of parts of the interview and video of a riff on the "what would you do if you weren't an actor" question" (~ 4:40). [Edited to add: the full video interview is now up (~1 hour).]

Two interviews with Annet Mahendru (Nina): one from Yahoo and one from U.S. News.

An interview with Costa Ronin (Oleg) from OK Magazine.

From The Wire, an interview with Margo Martindale (Claudia).

Two interviews with the composer for the show, Nathan Barr: from the Hollywood Reporter, and an excerpt from a piece from Film Score Monthly Online.

From Vanity Fair, a piece on the realism behind many of the show's spy storylines, and The Atlantic has a column on the show's refreshingly real take on Russians. And from Think Progress, a piece that challenges the realism in the season finale's plot twist.

From The Wire, the last season two "wig of the week", on the finale. And further in the disguises vein, TV Ate My Wardrobe has a piece on the best disguises of season two.

A column in Entertainment Weekly debates whether or not Elizabeth is a bad mom.

The Hollywood Reporter has The Americans at #2 in last week's "power rankings".

Paste Magazine has a piece on the 10 most shocking moments on the show.

"Behind The Red Door" has been pre-nominated in the AV Club's Tournament of Episodes.

From Indiewire, a summary of the pre-finale (but post-screener) tweets from some of the critics.

FX released a little mini-feature on The Art of the Edit (only viewable from within the U.S.).

According to Headline Planet, the ratings were up slightly for the season finale.

The LA Times has a piece on the recent trend in spy-related television series, including comments from The Americans co-showrunner Joel Fields.

An astrology blogger has written an mythological/astrological interpretation of the finale.

And finally, a glimpse into a writers' room joke: the supposed original pitch for the Stealth arc. :)

As of this week we're halfway to the finale, wow. Hard to believe!

Collider did an interview this past week with showrunners Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields.

A Wall Street Journal interview with Matthew Rhys (Philip) and Keri Russell (Elizabeth).

A Rolling Stone interview with Annet Mahendru (Nina), and another from Emmys Magazine.

A The Wire interview with Joe Weisberg, hair and makeup artist Peg Schierholz, and Joel Fields about the show's disguises and more.

Two late reviews of season two: from the Canadian newspaper The Chronicle Herald and from Fox News Latino.

FX has released a new minidocumentary on counterintelligence (video, ~4 minutes).

A Vulture piece on shows still on the cancellation bubble has positive speculation about renewal for our favourite show, with details about why we should hope.

The Americans got a mention in Alyssa Rosenberg's Washington Post column about atheists on television.

It also got a mention in two pieces on the portrayal of rape survivors on television: from Think Progress, and from the Washington Post.

Billboard on the song that singer Pete Townshend has written and performed exclusively for an upcoming episode of The Americans.

The Wire on the history of the show's "Felicity wig".

The Americans exhibit has opened at Washington, D.C.'s spy museum.

#1 in the list of The Best Soundtrack Moments of March 2014 in Stereogum's "Trackspotting" column goes to Peter Gabriel's "Here Comes The Flood" in "The Walk In" (episode 203).

There's now a larger-scale version of the gorgeous The Americans-based artwork for Emily Nussbaum's New Yorker piece of a couple of weeks back on the website of the studio hired to do the piece.

And one more fanmix has been made for the show.

Keri Russell (Elizabeth) did an interview with Collider about the second season.

Matthew Rhys (Philip) did an interview with Esquire about the second season and especially "Cardinal" (202).

The Americans gets a mention in this piece by Think Progress's Alyssa Rosenberg about why we keep having the same debates about prestige television dramas. (Rosenberg is one of the show's unapologetic critic cheerleaders.)

Bad news about the season two ratings: they slid between 201 and 202. But on the other hand, FX executive John Solberg tweeted that the show is up a ridiculous 94% in "time-shifted viewing" (that's up from an already very high 81% for the season premiere).

Another piece about the "spy training day" to which the show invited journalists has come out, this time by the UK's This Is Fakediy.

U.S. magazine Mother Jones has a piece about the Middle Eastern and Central American politics that form the backdrop for some of the plotlines for season two.

The critic at the Salt Lake Tribune who likes the show argues that Putin makes it harder to root for the two Soviet leads.

Some fans did some research into whether Raiders of the Lost Ark was actually still playing in early 1982, and apparently the writers did their homework.

Attention icon makers! screencapped.net has a treasure trove of high-quality images for you to work with, and here's another at grande-caps.net.

And finally, Keri Russell made a brief appearance on Jimmy Kimmel along with the infamous "Felicity wig" (video, just over 3 minutes).

The (first?) trailer for ( title of season two, episode two ) 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.