The Americans (Season 6)

[Peng]

Final season! We chose an appropriate one to skip making a thread last year, as season 5 pushes the show's slow-burn nature to a fault, barred a few usual excellent episodes and one of the show's very best (and most devastating; it still haunts me a bit) in Episode 11 "Dyatkovo". But if the premier (and this being the final season) is any indication, we are back to thrilling spy developments and potential devastation down the line, with the rift between two sides in Russia, and its allegorical-to-marriage equivalent between Elizabeth and Philip, being pronounced right off the bat. Plus, [

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Paige as spy-in-training

]!

[Morris Schæffer]

This show has blown me away after the merely promising first season. I cannot wait to see the conclusion.

[Peng]

Compared to Elizabeth and Paige's spy problems, the everyday irritations shared between Philip and Henry feel like (intentional) deadpan joke now.

[Peng]

Tremendous episode, but it has me a bit terrified of what is in store for the rest of the season. The three Jennings seem to be in their own downward spirals (Elizabeth's is increasingly horrifying, Philip's hard-to-watch, Paige's forboding) and growing apart while they're at it.

[Peng]

This show has entered Breaking Bad's final season's stress level for a couple of weeks, and now that [

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Stan is 80%-90% there

], things can only get explosive when the actual Summit commences. Really raises the stakes in Elizabeth's and Philip's operations and interactions, especially their silent regard of each other. Her touching his face is a heartrending moment.

[Lazlo]

Finale thoughts?

[

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The "With or Without You" sequence was heartbreaking. Philip and Elizabeth's reaction to Paige's decision just killed me. The Beeman confrontation in the parking garage was so tense and true to all the characters. The love and cruelty in Philip's revelation of his suspicions about Renee, man.

Fantastic series.

]

[Peng]

True to the show's ethos (at least at this late stage), it's such a devastatingly quiet finale. Character-focused to the extreme, and resolving it with a dash of the family-to-spy metaphor that's been the show's bread and butter since the series' beginning; [

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now the Jenning couple goes into retirement, and experiences empty nest grief over their children striking out on their own.

]. Not one of my favorite series finales, but it's very affecting, and so full of hauntingly sad images: [

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the "burial" of their old lives, including Henry; the phone call to him; the train scene that has Philip abandon pretense after Paige leaves and go sit with Elizabeth; the final scene.

] Going to miss this show's dramatic intensity, and the Jennings is one of the best TV families ever portrayed.

[Peng]

Just for fun, ranking the seasons:

Season 3 - A
Season 4 - A
Season 6 - A-
Season 1 - A-
Season 2 - B+
Season 5 - B

[Yxklyx]

I did maximum binge. The show was really good but I don't think it's something I'm going to rewatch. I think it could have been done in 5 seasons. A slow-burn can be good but Paige, and to some extent Philip, had the same look on their faces for the last 39 episodes and it got tiring after a while. It was drawn out too much and there were parts that seemed superfluous, like the break-in to the psychiatrist's office. This is a very dark show, the way people are manipulated and of course all the senseless death.