I though he said SCLC, meaning Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
Frankly I think SNCC(pronounced “snick”) would have made more sense.
It is kind of odd that the same show that expected us to understand why Elizabeth had a sudden change of heart towards her rapist/duty also had to beat us over the head with the dead mother.
Apparently the ratings from episode 1 to 2 dropped 40%. How does that work? It was a fantastic pilot. I don’t know who would’ve been interested in the premise and then turned off by the first episode, but apparently 40% of people did. I mean, FX’s drama audience is at least a little savvier than the broadcast networks, right?
I like it quite a bit. The main characters are all well acted, the setting is interesting, the spycraft is somewhat plausible if overly dramatic - I hope they’re starting off with a bang and they’re not going to have dramatic high risk capers and ass kicking continually throughout. You can make more mundane spywork interesting, for example the scene in which they made the dead agent’s wife dissapear.
I don’t see how it’s worse for the KGB to have the FBI wasting their time on a wild goose chase, than to have the FBI know for a fact that the KGB just murdered an American (and as somebody else noted, the ham-handed OD staging wouldn’t fool anyone for a second).
The FBI though she was a KGB agent too. When she “escaped” they seemed pretty impressed with her skills. Stan says, “She slipped away from a full FBI surveillance detail; sounds like a Directorate S operative to me.” When they’re investigating the escape, looking at the van used to block the FBI car, etc he says, “How deep can this woman’s operation be?”
I think finding her dead confuses them more than anything else.
I’m finding this show more scary and terrifying than American Horror Story that it replaced. Plus having grown up during the 1970’s, it’s kind of a nostalgic look at the 1970’s like Mad Men is for the 60’s. But a reel-to-reel tape recorder? There were certainly cassette tapes back then.
I think the show takes place in the 80s - it would have to be 1981 for Reagan to be president, but IIRC one of the episodes mentions the end of the Iranian hostage crisis like it was recent thing, so we’re probably talking around Feb 1981 for the series to start.
Cassettes were consumer grade and had fidelity issues. Professionals and audiophiles always preferred reel-to-reel until they were obsoleted by digital technology.
Word is that the DVR numbers were very strong, though. While it’d be best to stay strong in the live numbers, the DVR will help. It was also starting from a very good place w/ the first episode, so it’s got some room to drop. My fingers are crossed, but I’m optimistic.
Happened to catch a bit of the preview for next week while I was watching Archer (I generally avoid previews when I can), and…
…it looks like we’re going to have the Reagan shooting. Should be an interesting episode.
How does that help the KGB? I understand why the writers would want to avoid that, but why would the KGB not want the FBI to waste resources investigating a dead end?
My wife kept marveling, “Where did they get all those 80s clothes???”
Abrams himself already showed us in the beginning of Mission Impossible 3! 
Anyway, knew the woman was dead as soon as they handed her over to “granny”, but I half expected gunshots as soon as the van door closed. Frankly, I’m surprised they didn’t kill the kid as well, the commie bastids!
Admittedly, I was focusing more on the dramatic consequences from a writing stand point but even within the show’s world, why would waste resources on this girl when all they cared about was her kid (I guess I have to say I am talking from their point of view. I think what they did was monstrous)?
Now the FBI has nothing. Up until now they had a name, a face and an ID. Letting them find her stops all of that and makes the FBI start over. Plus I imagine there was also an element of the KGB thumbing the eye of the FBI saying “We know you knew about this one. Suck it!” Plus the girl herself was an unknown element and something they could not control if she stayed alive. She certainly would not have let them take her baby to his Russian grandparents. And, as I wrote previously, I think there was component of racism. She was worth less to them because she was Hispanic and not Russian.
I know it’s been like 40 years, but I still can’t see Richard Thomas as anything but John-Boy, and it takes me right out of the show.
Good episode I thought and we got to see some of Elizabeths background.
Did anyone think that Granny Claudia
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started the whole assasination/coup operation of her own accord without directions from Moscow?
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You know, it never occured to me that the Russians might freak out after Haig’s announcement that he was in control of the WH.
I wonder if there is any truth to that. I was too young to care what actually happened at the time.
I am ready for anything from her, but I’m think it’s because I’m bringing her Mags Bennett baggage with me from the Holler.
That was my favorite part of the episode. I wasn’t alive at the time, but I was under the impression that America’s reaction to Haig was basically “point and laugh.” So seeing the Soviet characters freaking out about a potential coup was somewhat amusing.
That was one of the problems the Soviets had. They couldn’t accept anything at face value and were constantly trying to find hidden meanings and uncover conspiracies where none existed. I like the flashbacks to Stalin’s death, and Phillip contrasted that to the the situtation with Lenin. I wonder how they’ll react to Brezhnev’s death.
Ratings were up for last night’s episode, and FX has renewed the show for a second season.
I’m so happy. This is one of the few shows I’m really enjoying right now.
That should be Reagan. :smack: How did I get those two mixed up?:o