The Americans 6.04
Apr. 20th, 2018 08:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakThis one dragged a bit, imo as always.
Mind you, the biggest suspension of disbelief to me remains that there are people who regard Stan as actually good for romantic advice and couple counselling, but there you go.
More seriously: it doesn‘t help my feelings about the episode that after giving us a great scene between Oleg and Philip right at the start, the show concludes said scene by Oleg saying they can‘t meet again in person as he‘s sure to be followed. I mean, this makes perfect sense! (And indeed Aderholt and Stan talk about the surveillance for Oleg later in the episode.) But after making us wait for so many years for direct interaction between our leads and the other Russian characters, two scenes are not nearly enough.
Incidentally, the moment Oleg said, in reply to why he left the KGB two years ago, that „there is something rotten to it“ (not the KGB, spying per se), Philip‘s expression was something to behold. It‘s something he‘s felt but never verbalized. Also, Oleg saying this is something different from Gabriel, with one proverbial foot out of the door already, saying that Philip had been right re: Paige. Philip doesn‘t have backstory with Oleg, Oleg didn‘t mentor him, and is indeed somewhat younger.
Then again, Philip is and was a very good spy. Whereas this season seems to want to make the case that he could fail at being a capitalist civilian. Not sure how I feel about this. Is this meant as some foreshadowing symbolism about how the reformists in Russia will eventually fail? Also, I suppose I can buy that while Philip and Elizabeth were running the travel agency together as a cover, making just enough money for it to be an okay cover, it was fine, but with Philip on his own determined to make it into a big success something like the overhasty expansion could happen. But other than signalling yet another way there‘s a distance between them now, I‘m not sure why we‘re spending so much time on this, when I‘d rather have Philip doing more spying, now that we have the promising drama of him having agreed to do so on Elizabeth‘s missions.
Meanwhile, Paige: still unbelievably naive for a 19 years old, buying the „it was suicide“ story even after Philip all but spelled it out to her. Given that Paige in this episode does what Elizabeth explicitly told her not to do, mixing dating with going after an asset, I‘m presuming that at this rate either it will be Paige who gets them busted, all by trying to help, and/or there will be another verbal explosion, this time by Philip, not Elizabeth, and he‘ll tell her exactly what being a spy means.
I was wondering how Oleg would report back to Arkady, given that they can‘t use the usual KGB lines anymore, and using his father and a report on those classes on modern transport methods he‘s supposedly taking was in retrospect an obvious but really smart answer.
Her patient/artist telling Elizabeth that in retrospect she wished she‘d spent more time with her husband and less working was a bit on the nose; usually the show does better in scenes when they had Elizabeth or Philip having conversations in their disguises which relate directly to a rl problem either one of them has. Kimmie‘s „you‘re stuck“ to Philip-as-Jim was less than subtle as well. We get it, writers. Mind you, it was good to get an update on Kimmie, who seems to be doing well. (Talk about one relationship that could have been horribly damaging but turned out to be anything but, though Kimmie would undoubtedly still be devastated if she found out why Jim originally befriended her.)
In conclusion: no more treadmilling, please. Given that Stan has to go back to „Mr and Mrs Teacup“ next week just when Elizabeth has been told to get rid of them, I do hope for some actual danger at least.
Mind you, the biggest suspension of disbelief to me remains that there are people who regard Stan as actually good for romantic advice and couple counselling, but there you go.
More seriously: it doesn‘t help my feelings about the episode that after giving us a great scene between Oleg and Philip right at the start, the show concludes said scene by Oleg saying they can‘t meet again in person as he‘s sure to be followed. I mean, this makes perfect sense! (And indeed Aderholt and Stan talk about the surveillance for Oleg later in the episode.) But after making us wait for so many years for direct interaction between our leads and the other Russian characters, two scenes are not nearly enough.
Incidentally, the moment Oleg said, in reply to why he left the KGB two years ago, that „there is something rotten to it“ (not the KGB, spying per se), Philip‘s expression was something to behold. It‘s something he‘s felt but never verbalized. Also, Oleg saying this is something different from Gabriel, with one proverbial foot out of the door already, saying that Philip had been right re: Paige. Philip doesn‘t have backstory with Oleg, Oleg didn‘t mentor him, and is indeed somewhat younger.
Then again, Philip is and was a very good spy. Whereas this season seems to want to make the case that he could fail at being a capitalist civilian. Not sure how I feel about this. Is this meant as some foreshadowing symbolism about how the reformists in Russia will eventually fail? Also, I suppose I can buy that while Philip and Elizabeth were running the travel agency together as a cover, making just enough money for it to be an okay cover, it was fine, but with Philip on his own determined to make it into a big success something like the overhasty expansion could happen. But other than signalling yet another way there‘s a distance between them now, I‘m not sure why we‘re spending so much time on this, when I‘d rather have Philip doing more spying, now that we have the promising drama of him having agreed to do so on Elizabeth‘s missions.
Meanwhile, Paige: still unbelievably naive for a 19 years old, buying the „it was suicide“ story even after Philip all but spelled it out to her. Given that Paige in this episode does what Elizabeth explicitly told her not to do, mixing dating with going after an asset, I‘m presuming that at this rate either it will be Paige who gets them busted, all by trying to help, and/or there will be another verbal explosion, this time by Philip, not Elizabeth, and he‘ll tell her exactly what being a spy means.
I was wondering how Oleg would report back to Arkady, given that they can‘t use the usual KGB lines anymore, and using his father and a report on those classes on modern transport methods he‘s supposedly taking was in retrospect an obvious but really smart answer.
Her patient/artist telling Elizabeth that in retrospect she wished she‘d spent more time with her husband and less working was a bit on the nose; usually the show does better in scenes when they had Elizabeth or Philip having conversations in their disguises which relate directly to a rl problem either one of them has. Kimmie‘s „you‘re stuck“ to Philip-as-Jim was less than subtle as well. We get it, writers. Mind you, it was good to get an update on Kimmie, who seems to be doing well. (Talk about one relationship that could have been horribly damaging but turned out to be anything but, though Kimmie would undoubtedly still be devastated if she found out why Jim originally befriended her.)
In conclusion: no more treadmilling, please. Given that Stan has to go back to „Mr and Mrs Teacup“ next week just when Elizabeth has been told to get rid of them, I do hope for some actual danger at least.
