Last season was very good. Their disagreements with Frank Langella's character, and the bio weapons plot line were entertaining. My favorite scene of the whole series, however, was the "I think Martha's bad" revelation.

I don't really think the producers want the audience to like the Russian spies. This Russian/American couple is presented as complex, flawed human beings. Like all good film and literature, The Americans presents the ambiguities in people--even the worst people, have some redeeming qualities and the viewer is expected to question their preconceived ideas about the world.

I remember the scene that really got me to turn away from this show. It was when they broke into that machine shop and that old woman came in after work hours and caught them. Elizabeth took the old womans pills and poured it on the table, indicating to the woman to begin swallowing the doses until she overdoses. This was filmed like it was a voluntary suicide, but that was just for the viewers to empathize for the spies. They basically murdered an old woman who happened to be in the wrong place, wrong time. I wished the writers had the balls to show that scene the way it should have been. Old woman strangled from behind because she walked into a place where spies were trying to steal military manufacturing secrets.

I don't think it's really the intention of the writers to make us sympathetic toward these two. We just get sucked into their existential crisis when ever they quietly seem to question themselves on what they're doing and why. We forget what animals they are and how many people they've killed. They go back and forth suspecting that the USSR may not be the mother Russia to her people that they once believed. But they did pull a stunt that's close to the old woman scene recently and it's not as if they aren't having second thoughts. If you didn't make it up to Martha yet, that alone was worth the price of admission.

The Martha character is heart-wrenching. You can feel her crumble little by little, and then season 4 brings everything to a head. Great TV.

@Thebridge said:

I don't think it's really the intention of the writers to make us sympathetic toward these two. We just get sucked into their existential crisis when ever they quietly seem to question themselves on what they're doing and why. We forget what animals they are and how many people they've killed. They go back and forth suspecting that the USSR may not be the mother Russia to her people that they once believed. But they did pull a stunt that's close to the old woman scene recently and it's not as if they aren't having second thoughts. If you didn't make it up to Martha yet, that alone was worth the price of admission.

I have not made it to the Martha part yet. When I last left off, I really felt bad for that character. And if her situation got worse, that would be hard to watch.

It got worse. Watch.

Ha, we just saw her in the "supermarket".

I was surprised to find out that she's actually English. But mostly she's played Americans!

Yeah, I had to laugh at the supermarket with nothing in it. At least by our standards. I suppose that's why they're investigating that they seem to receive better goods to sell than other places. There's a special customer in their midst. After I found out the actress was British, then I was able to imagine her with the accent, but that surprised me too.

I keep trying to sell Deutschland '83 on these boards. If people don't want to watch it, at least check out the trailer. Seeing an East German walk into a West German supermarket full of every product you can only dream of in Communist countries will make you appreciate what Capitalism does for us all.

I saw it! That was a great scene when he seems to be overwhelmed by all the choices on the shelves. Deutschland did remind me of this show, the indoctrinated souls who starts to question what's really going on and spies everywhere! Just keeping a collection of books got you locked up.

@Thebridge said:

I saw it! That was a great scene when he seems to be overwhelmed by all the choices on the shelves. Deutschland did remind me of this show, the indoctrinated souls who starts to question what's really going on and spies everywhere! Just keeping a collection of books got you locked up.

Which episode was that scene in?

Sorry I was talking about Deutschland 83, the lady who had a bunch of sociological and psychological literature stored away gets ratted on and busted. But for The Americans something similar was on just the episode before last. That would be a lot of catching up for you. I can get the name of the ep if you need it.

@Thebridge said:

Sorry I was talking about Deutschland 83, the lady who had a bunch of sociological and psychological literature stored away gets ratted on and busted. But for The Americans something similar was on just the episode before last. That would be a lot of catching up for you. I can get the name of the ep if you need it.

Yes, please. I can just watch that one episode for the scene. I don't need to be all caught up for that.