<p>We watched the pilot. It didn’t make a lot of sense to me. Why would keri russel’s character demand the Russian in the trunk fight her in the garage? That was weird. And I don’t get the husband. He seems like he is just sort of fused into the show but doesn’t fit. The weird FBI neighbor across the street is too much coincidence.</p>
<p>No, it seemed dumb. Sorry. I do enjoy most episodes of Homeland and we are DVRing it and will give it another couple chances. But doesn’t seem, at this point, to be that good.</p>
<p>Keri Russel, I know, sends a lot of guys. I don’t think many girls get it.</p>
<p>I am watching the show on ondemand so I just watched the second episode. The show is still looks good to me and Keri Russell is still gorgeous. (Her character is also softer in the second episode).</p>
<p>I really liked the second episode and I can’t wait to see more. I really want to learn how their relationship developed from when they were implanted in the United States. </p>
<p>Keri Russell is pretty. Sort of like Lee Remick.</p>
<p>Musicmom, why is this show like Walking Dead? There are no zombies. I’m hoping Elizabeth and Phillip switch sides at some point. Can’t root for bad guys. I also hope the FBI neighbor is replaced by Jack Bauer.</p>
<p>I’ve watched the pilot & part of the 2nd episode, but the writing just seems really bad.
I don’t know why? I * liked * Studio 60 & I loved the West Wing.
I think the article I read saying Aaron Sorkin was involved was misinformed.</p>
<p>Aaron Sorkin has nothing to do with this wonderful show. Tommy Schlamme, a director who worked with Sorkin through most of The West Wing, directed the latest episode and did so wonderfully. </p>
<p>Seriously The Americans is probably one of the best shows to come out of the crapshoot that was the 2012-2013 television season. It is going to be a hit.</p>
<p>I like the show so far but I generally don’t like rooting for the bad guys. The threats and fights against innocent people in the second episode bothered me. So, as a previous poster mentioned, unless something changes, I don’t think I’ll be following the series much longer.</p>
<p>Krlilies- “like Walking Dead”…no zombies in the Americans but I guess I meant the gobs of graphic brutality in the two shows. I’m not squeamish but that’s the thing that does turn me off about some of the shows I’m following now. Like “The Following”.</p>
<p>dstark- no glasses needed for me. (Though a hearing aid would be welcome).
My female attraction would be more Zooey Deschanel. To each their own. :)</p>
<p>I’ve watched 3 episodes now and am hooked. Feeling ambivalent about rooting for them… But this mirrors their feelings about the duality of their lives. First two episodes had some fairly graphic sex. My 16 yo s was walking through as episode 2 started- he said, “Soft porn!” I switched channels til he left the room… Was surprised he even knew that term! Since I’m an adult, I resumed watching. ;-)</p>
<p>I’ve been watching but not sure I’ll continue. The show is definitely a mixed bag. Can’t figure out whether we are supposed to sympathize with the Keri Russell character or despise her. I’ll give her some credit for the demands the role places on her as an actor… but she kind of vacillates between seeming coldhearted & evil, and clueless.</p>
<p>Not sure whether I’ll keep on watching. I kind of feel like I’m watching a morbidly fascinating impending train wreck. </p>
<p>++++ POSSIBLE SPOILERS BELOW +++++++</p>
<p>I do like the attention to detail of life in the 80’s & the weaving of the plot with real life events. Loved the racquetball scene in the 3rd episode, and building the plot of episode #4 around Alexander Haig’s “I’m in control” statement… though I honestly have a tough time believing that Soviet spies at any level would have been naive enough to take that statement seriously, especially given the uproar that immediately was raised at the time. The plot kind of superimposes Krushchev-era Cold War mentality on the Reagan/Brezhnev years. (Though there is some interesting foreshadowing going in dialogue of the 4th episode, given that Brezhnev will die roughly 8 months after Phillip’s statements to his wife about the differences between the US & Russia). But by the 80’s relations had thawed considerably. Vladimir Pozner was a regular on Nightline and “detente” was the word of the day.</p>
<p>I do think that the whole premise does not make sense, because “sleeper” agents would not be involved in all the cloak and daggers stuff depicted in every episode. The whole point of having such agents is to keep them laying low… if they go around leaving dead bodies all over the place, it is going to tend to draw attention.</p>
<p>I always wish people who make these shows would find better consultants on Russian life. So many things in scenes set in USSR are wrong, starting from the uniforms KGB officers wear and ending with pouring tea from a pitcher. I actually think that very early 80s( I was a teenager in USSR) felt darker and more fraught, right after Reagan was elected. Then things quieted down somewhat.</p>