I’d like to offer a response but I’m just not seeing a likeable character. To wit this judgemental crap:
I’ve seen this kind of judgement on here before; does ‘likeability’ now determine quality. You may as well argue an otherwise excellent meal is no good because it isn’t served with fries.
‘Likability’ is not related to ‘caring’.
I don’t like soccer and I don’t care about it.
I like railways and I don’t care about them.
I don’t like republicans * and I do care about them. **
I like cats and I do care about them.
eg: non-monarchists.
I’ve seen this kind of judgement on here before; does ‘likeability’ now determine quality. You may as well argue an otherwise excellent meal is no good because it isn’t served with fries.
[/QUOTE]
I think there may be a communication problem. Almost nobody on Sopranos was likable, but the show was good because we cared about the characters — cared to see how they’d develop, how they’d respond, what their next act of evil would be. “Care about” can take the form of pity, or even hate. In Justified it was only the villains who saved the show — I didn’t like them, but they were interesting. I stopped watching Madame Secretary — I didn’t dislike the characters so much as find them uninteresting.
And whether the characters of Americans are “evil” or not has little to do with why I’m lukewarm about the show — I just don’t find them very interesting.
ETA: Ninja’ed by Evan Drake.
I wonder if current world events especially with respect with the return of Russia as an adversary is colouring the OP’s views. I know *the Americans *has gone from “period piece” to “current events”.
Its a good show with excellent actors and a very very very very grey world view. Without giving away spoilers, a lot of discussion has been wrt Philip, we have had pages and pages of arguments as to whether Philip’s loyalty to the USSR is slipping, or whether just understands American phyce better than his “wife” and is just as patriotic a Russkie as anyone else. The show and the actor give you plenty of material to argue both.
One common thing which shows do; which grates on me, is when a “sympathetic” bad character is made sympathetic by having him voice the protagonist’s view. The Americans avoids that. Neither the Jennings or other Soviet characters become American(!) clones, there world view is informed by their upbringing and position, they become sympathetic by genuinely been so, not by become Yanks with funny accents.
You may (both) be right, or it may be semantics 
I guess when this kind of argument crops up with regard to intelligent drama I usually revert to the succinct David Simon quote about The Wire: ‘Fuck the casual viewer’.
The other thing I’d mention is if a character is irredeemably ‘unlikable’ then, at least in well-considered drama, it is for a purpose, whether as a cypher or metaphor etc, or as a plot mechanism - stuff is stuff for a reason. Ultimately, we’re talking about someone’s art.
I’ve watched the first two seasons. I think the FBI agent keeps me coming back more than the two spies. Their marriage has its poignant moments but I find the idea of them just popping out on covert missions at any time of day or night while ostensibly being travel agents completely implausible. The interplay between the Soviet embassy and the FBI is much more engaging and almost saves the show from being an overwrought and surprisingly boring tale of sex and death in suburbia.
If you find it dull now, you will find it mind-numbing later. I loved the first season but stopped halfway through the 3rd (possibly 2nd - can’t remember) because it was so boring. I remember thinking that every scene’s length could have been cut by 2/3rds. It takes FOREVER for simple arcs to play out. And this is a show that, on paper, is right up my alley.
The difference with Walter White is that you got to know him prior to his journey down the dark path. You got to see his motivations for entering into the criminal underworld and then every little decision or corner cutting which led him further and further down that path. It’s a Shakespearean tragedy - a good person becoming a monster through small decisions. But even in the depths of White’s monstrosity, one still remembers where he came from.
I don’t get the same feeling here. They may be simply patriots thinking they are doing good, but I’ve never been one for patriotism, especially if it involves helping an evil agency/regime (FTR, I don’t think I’d watch a drama about CIA Agents who are trying to bolster the Shah of Iran in the 1970s either).
It’s the care for as opposed to the liking. I don’t have to like my protagonist, but I do have to care for what is going to happen to them (another show that pulls of the evil person that you care for narrative is The Sopranos, which accomplishes that by the therapy sessions).
Agreed with all of this. I find the FBI agent more interesting than Philip and Elizabeth. And the drama with Nina in the Soviet Embassy was pretty cool.
I’m caught up, and I like the show a lot - though I’m not as excited about it as I was about The Wire, Breaking Bad, or The Sopranos.
Besides the cultural nostalgia for 80s kids - music, TV shows/commercials, video games, fashion - the show also uses historical events very well. Reagan’s shooting; the contras, mujahideen, apartheid South Africa; SDI and the stealth bomber - I enjoy taking a trip down memory lane and remembering (or learning) how crazy geopolitics was in the 80s.
I also enjoy the way the show uses violence: sparingly but shockingly. I won’t spoil by giving examples, but in later seasons there are some scenes that I can’t get out of my head.
Your about three episodes a head of me, and like others have mentioned, I am about a few years older than what Paige was in S1.
So far we have American actors portraying Soviet spies, who are Acting American. There is a wait till your father gets home moment here.
We came late to the party, and started binge-watching on Amazon Prime last year. We’re now halfway through season 4, and have season 5 queuing up in the DVR.
I think it’s the best show on television. I’m flummoxed by the comments here from people who find it “boring” or “slow-moving”…but to each their own, I suppose.
I was literally stunned and horrified by the resolution of Nina’s story…kept me awake.
Actually, Matthew Rhys (Phillip) is Welsh. I just saw him being interviewed in his native accent, and it was startling.
You’ve given it a fair shake. If you aren’t drawn in after seven episodes, just give up.
And I’m saying this as one of the people who thinks it’s one of the best shows on television. More accurately, my opinion of The Americans is on par with that SNL parody commercial of all the critical over-praising of The Sopranos.
That was SNL season 10 episode 25, but I can’t find video anywhere online for that parody commercial. If anyone can help with that, it would be much appreciated.
“I’ve stopped using oxygen and begun using The Sopranos to breathe!”
I’d be inclined to agree. Seven episodes should be enough to determine if you will enjoy it or not.
It gets both better and worse IMHO. Better as characters and motivations become more fleshed out ( for example the roots and depth of Elizabeth’s patriotism come from a very real and heartfelt background ). Worse because I think a couple of major plot points were fumbled a bit in later seasons with some worse than average implausibilities that can be fanwanked, but only with a bit of work. And I say that as a big fan who is willing to fanwank away problems :).
But it doesn’t fundamentally change in tone or style. If you don’t like it now, while it is possible you might grow to do so, more likely it will be wasted effort.
I mostly enjoy the show but found a few things highly implausible:
1) the way they frequently disappear from home, often overnight, leaving the kids alone.
2) that they would indulge their daughter (Paige) in her joining the church.
3) that Martha would agree to leave everything behind and move to Russia instead of exposing the entire scheme and trying to cut a deal for herself.
I think one problem is that some viewers either weren’t alive in the 80s or don’t remember how scary those times were.
Elizabeth and Philip view themselves as soldiers in an increasingly violent Cold War. Reagan’s belligerence was scaring a lot of people, especially Russians.
They don’t think of themselves as evil any more than any other soldier in combat does.
Civilian deaths are a standard side effect of war. Many US drone strikes kill civilians, for example.
[Moderating]
Please, everyone, remember that in a thread that isn’t marked “spoilers” (especially one for a person just starting to get into a work), if you’re going to post spoilers, box them up so people won’t read them unless they intend to.
I watched 2 1/2 seasons and I got to dislike the characters and stopped caring what happened. I noticed that they were portrayed as having super powers of violence, seduction, or impersonation whenever the plot called for it. I just didn’t believe in it.
I love this show. IMO, it is one of the best TV programs of recent years. The acting is excellent, the writing is very smart. Some individual episodes are better than others, naturally. But the series continues to find new and interesting ways to explore the overarching themes of identity, family ties vs. patriotic duty, betrayal, secrecy, etc.
I also appreciate the fact that the characters really seem to inhabit the historical time frame in which they are living. Nothing irritates me more when watching a historical drama than characters who seem to have unrealistic insight into future events. No one in The Americans has a clue that the USSR is going to collapse in a few years, not the Soviet characters, not the FBI agents, nobody. And that is as it should be. In the early 1980s, the USSR seemed as rock solid as could be to both insiders and outsiders.