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Legacy of Ashes is a terrifying chronicle and a great read. How did Elizabeth lose the list in the opening teaser? Did she ditch it before the fight, or lose it during the scuffle?
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Feb 1, 2015 07:10
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The CIA hired (and hires) brilliant people - but the management structure completely and utterly fucks the organization. A lot of Legacy of Ashes warps back to that central point, again and again. Has anyone read the book on the FBI, Enemies, by the same author? I have a long flight coming up and am thinking of giving it a go.
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Feb 5, 2015 01:15
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Hell, beer is STILL way too regional. I love living in southern california - we've got a ton of craft beers and there's enough import shops that I can drink stuff like Magners (irish cider) semi-regularly. But I STILL can't get Harpoon out here. Get that poo poo out to this coast, New England.
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Feb 10, 2015 10:19
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I'm enjoying this season, but there are a few things that give me pause. As great as the tooth pulling was, wouldn't Russia have a basically trained Doctor who could do that? I love the glimpses we get of the network assisting our spies, like tonight with the russian agent who threw Elizabeth the radio.
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Feb 13, 2015 09:06
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I would rather watch them breaking limbs and removing teeth from a toddler than watch more of Phillip skeeving out. Great drama, but so uncomfortable to watch.
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Feb 19, 2015 19:12
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Slate does a pretty great podcast with the writers every week - they broke down the bone breaking (heh), and have also talked about why they chose certain plots. One of the things they talked about is how they realized after the first season that they couldn't have Stan chasing Phillip and Elizabeth episode after episode - he'd either catch them and end the show or you have to make Stan the DUMBEST MAN ALIVE. So they've built out Stan and Phillip's friendship, and have been really happy with the direction that went in. They also broke down the not a chase car chase from two weeks ago, pretty great stuff if you're a fan of the show.
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Feb 20, 2015 23:02
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I think part of what's going on is two things: 1) For Elizabeth, a rejection of Russian thought and beliefs is a rejection of her. 2)For Phillip, its a bit more complicated. I think he truly sees himself as a mercenary, not beholden to either side of the conflict. He'd be equally uncomfortable with Paige embracing Marxism as he would her wanting to be baptized. He's anti-ideology, in general.
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Feb 22, 2015 02:25
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Phillip's ambiguity is one of the very best things about the series. But for argument's sake, I did find it interesting that Matthew Rhys said in several interviews this year that, if offered, he thinks Phillip would defect in an instant.
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Feb 22, 2015 08:44
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Sepinwall is a great place to start. He's the interview I mentioned. http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/the-americans-star-matthew-rhys-philip-would-defect-in-a-heartbeat
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Feb 22, 2015 09:52
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Langella is seriously unnerving me. If he shares a scene with Martindale I don't even know what I'll think. His manipulation of Elizabeth's dying mother and Phillip's enlisted kid (both could be fabricated, too) has been brutal to watch unfold. Also, am I the only one who laughs at several scenes each week? Laughter for awkward family dinners, laughter for Stan being honest at the wrong (right?) time, laughter at the sheer hell that Phillip faces... I laugh more at The Americans than most sitcoms.
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Mar 5, 2015 16:33
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Given how disconnected it feels, Hans is almost certainly going to intersect with Paige's storyline.
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Mar 6, 2015 02:42
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its FX. Phillip will gently caress Kimmy. He won't like it, and it will cause huge repercussions, but his dick will cross that line. There's a weird alternate version of the show where in the same episode Phillip murders Martha, Kimmi becomes his long-term other GIRL, but I don't think they'll go that far. Weekly tapes is a bridge too much, even for Phillip.
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Mar 7, 2015 13:04
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I actually think the smartest thing the show did was move Stan into his own storylines so he isn't just chasing them around for five years.
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Mar 10, 2015 02:16
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I'm confused on why Phillip believes he has a son in Afghanistan. Wasn't he skeptical of Irina telling him about it, way back in season one?
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Mar 12, 2015 07:06
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Fun tidbit from the slate podcast - the original music choice for the climactic scene was Rolling Stones' slave. I much prefer The Chain, but interesting none-the-less. Also, they'll have Martha's actress on next week - so we're bound to get more Clark/Martha insanity next Wednesday,
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Mar 13, 2015 17:14
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I'm not sure why, but the necklace death on The Shield disturbed me way more.
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Mar 20, 2015 10:12
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I'm generally a fan of "lock a character in a room for an episode" type stuff - Mad Men's the suitcase, Masters of Sex' The Fight, even Breaking Bad's Fly. But I found Elizabeth talking to the old lady to just be a little too contrived. And as much as I'm happy to see Phillip tell Gabriel to go screw, that last scene had absolutely NO buildup in the episode itself.
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Mar 27, 2015 19:29
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What did happen to all of the foreign spies that Russia had out in the world when the Soviets collapsed? Did they all just stay in place and got a "new boss same as old boss" codex message? I'm a history nerd but that's a piece of history I know next to nothing about. -- Also, I'm pretty sure Margot made mention that they wanted Paige to eventually get a job with top secret clearance. Being american born she'd clearly be able to get in deeper than any illegal. Although given how thorough the vetting process is, that might just be some handwavey bullshit. A college friend of mine eventually went to work for the state department, and he had to come up with ungodly amounts of personal information, including contact details for all of his roommates. I got a call from an Agent SuchandSuch and basically had a quick ten minute call that boiled down to "How weird was your friend?"
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Apr 3, 2015 22:41
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The show has repeatedly shown that even "low danger" assets like Martha could be murdered at the drop of a literal hat. The conversation with Claudia at the end of last year hinted that they don't want Paige to replace Phillip or Elizabeth - they just want to use her natural born american status to clear some serious security hurdles.
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Apr 7, 2015 05:31
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Phillip and Gabriel will come to blows (if not murder) by the end of this season. That I'm certain of. I'm not sure where Elizabeth's whole reticence to sleep with targets popped up from. Its not out of character exactly, but it does feel rather sudden.
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Apr 12, 2015 02:12
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The Center's attitude is always coldly logical. Elizabeth can't go to see her mother because there's no strategic value to it - other than her own emotional health which the center doesn't give a poo poo about. But the center might go for it if presented as "my daughter needs to see the country she'll be serving."
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Apr 18, 2015 09:03
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If the show had switched around events so Paige found out about them in the finale we'd all be NO WAY!!! BEST SEASON EVER!!!ing right now. I do feel like the show suffered from trying to balance so many stories, particularly given how many are left in play at the end of the season. But if its a choice between too many stories or too few, I feel like they made the right choice.
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Apr 23, 2015 12:04
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I'm totally fine with dropping in and out of ongoing operations each season. Stuff like the apartheid plot really worked for me. But I didn't enjoy how much they built up Kimmie as this great soul destroying operation, and then have it basically off-screen the last half of the season.
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Apr 28, 2015 00:15
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