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I want to give some advice: Don't judge it by its first few episodes. When I first checked it out, the basic setup seemed rather inane and I stopped watching.
by garyrob 2y ago
I want to give some advice: Don't judge it by its first few episodes. When I first checked it out, the basic setup seemed rather inane and I stopped watching.
Then, a couple years later, I needed something to watch during long exercise sessions and I checked it out again. It was getting much more interesting by the end of the first season.
And every season got better and richer. By the very end, I experienced it as actually deep, especially in the way the Keri Russell character unexpectedly evolves. It was a real pleasure and I'm very glad I had the chance to enjoy it. Recommended!
- eej71 2y agoI had initially ignored the show because they had cast Keri Russell which I had assumed to be a total light weight. So I missed it the first few years and then I realized after its fourth renewal - gee maybe its good - and well - I was completely wrong. She was amazing. The show was terrific. But I'm a sucker for 80s cold war dramatics.
- vlovich123 2y agoKeri Russell a lightweight? I’m curious what gave you that impression as I’ve always thought of her as an excellent actress. Probably missing out on The Diplomat too if you like political intrigue at all.
- foobarian 2y agoWell on that topic, the French series "The Bureau" [1] was fantastic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bureau_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bureau_(TV_series)
- foobarqux 2y agoI don't understand why people like these shows, there isn't a proper story just things that happen that are essentially discarded at the beginning of the next season. There is never any real 3rd-act/resolution.
- cess11 2y agoAre you sure you aren't confusing The Bureau with something else?
- indigodaddy 2y agoDon’t think he can be talking about The Bureau either. It’s in my top ten all time TV shows.
- foobarqux 2y agoNo. Every season ends on a cliffhanger that seems critical to the story and then is quickly resolved as if it were some minor point in the first episode of the subsequent season. This is the nature of this type of episodic television that runs for an indeterminate time and therefore has no real overarching story (but pretends to) like soap operas do. I only know of a few examples where writers escape this. The first is to have the episodes be essentially disconnected from one another (e.g. Star Trek). The other is what "The Wire" did by having each season have its own plot that is properly resolved at the end of each season.
- squigz 2y agoI think you're confused about what episodic TV is. Star Trek is (or was) (generally) episodic. The Wire is serialized, as is most TV these days. Some people like episodic TV, some people prefer serialized.
- smolder 2y agoI don't think they're confused about episodic vs. serialized shows; they're talking about the plot structure of serialized shows often having a change of direction at every season boundary instead of resolution of the existing plot threads. That sort of meandering never-concluding plot can be annoying. One way to avoid that pitfall is by staying episodic, (Old Trek,) another is to wrap up each season and start from a relatively blank slate on the next, as if the seasons are episodes. (The Wire.) I think a third is to have all the story structure written in advance, as with a book adaptation, so there is a real through-line.
- brnt 2y agoApparently it's the actual spies favorite.
- mayd 2y agoA.k.a. "Le bureau des légendes": criminally underrated. Was available to view in Australia on SBS On Demand, where I serendipitously encountered it. It is right up there with the best of John LeCarré's film and television adaptations: "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy", "Smiley's People", "The Little Drummer Girl", etc.
- donavanm 2y agoAs another semi-obscure “spy” series check out the british production _The Sandbaggers_. Very lecarre-esque story that reflected the inanity and stakes of the cold war, written by a RN officer.
- simonbarker87 2y agoTh Diplomat is excellent and she plays the role perfectly.
- pohl 2y agoI can understand the reflex. To me she was "that actress from that show Felicity that I never watched". The Diplomat turned me around real quick.
- nwatson 2y agoThe Americans was awesome, especially that last "showdown" climax. Best TV ever, along with parts of Breaking Bad. I watched a couple episodes of The Diplomat and couldn't get into it. I'll give it another try.
- tunesmith 2y agoEpisode 3 is the one that kicked it up into the stratosphere for us.
- filmgirlcw 2y agoIncidentally, and I realize the appeal for the show is significantly less if you aren’t a teenage girl (as I was when I watched it), but Felicity is excellent and she’s excellent in it. Like, beyond excellent. Like, there was the acting all the other WB actresses were doing in the late 90s/early 2000s and then there was what she was doing. If that show had aired on a real broadcast network (as JJ Abrams' next shows were) and not on The WB, she would have been nominated for Emmys out the wazoo. As it was, she won the Golden Globe for that first season, but she should have at least been nominated for the Emmy for her work on that show, because she was every bit as good or better than her peers on cable or network.
- Reason077 2y ago> "Keri Russell a lightweight? ... Probably missing out on The Diplomat too if you like political intrigue at all." I have a running theory that The Americans and The Diplomat are in fact set in the same universe. Keri Russell is still playing the same character, a deep-cover Russian agent, and now she has infiltrated the upper echelons of the US government...
- rasz 2y agoReminds me of The Double (2011)
- barfingclouds 2y agoEverything I see her in, her acting style to me resembles a lifeless cardboard cutout. I get that that’s “the point” of the Americans, but if that’s all she’s bringing, something’s not working here. And in the diplomat it seemed exactly the same. Lifeless acting, and it seemed a lot of her personality was expressed by other characters because she wasn’t doing it herself.
- DyslexicAtheist 2y agoyou might also be thrilled by her performance in "The Diplomat". She is absolutely no light weight.
- Krasnol 2y agoI've found the show because of a post on reddit listing TV critics ratings for TV shows, and this stood out as one of the few which were good from start to end. We're at season 5 atm and up until this point, I can confirm the ratings. ...I just wish I could find that reddit post again. Can't remember if there were others good shows on it.
- CodeWriter23 2y ago> Don't judge it by its first few episodes Strong advice for any show.
- reactordev 2y agoAgreed. I learned this with Black Sails (first few episodes were huh?) and it evolved into something awesome. The Americans as well. I think that’s usually the case with shows that are trying something new and haven’t quite got the formula down. First season of Star Trek was a freak show of theater that somehow, worked. Thrived. And blossomed. Let’s just pray Bob Igor doesn’t get his hands on the franchise. I now follow this advice with all shows. I’ll give it a full season to see if they develop something I’m interested in following.
- UberFly 2y agoThanks for the Black Sails suggestion. I hadn't heard of it but will check it out. High praise on IMDB.
- toyg 2y ago> Bob Igor Is he the hunchback brother of Bob Iger, Disney CEO?
- reactordev 2y agoI plead the 5th and assume no association… the wrath of the house of mouse is real.
- neocritter 2y agoBlack Sails in particular evolved with the writers' historical knowledge of real pirates as they moved from made up nonsense they read to actual research.
- lencastre 2y agoExcept Community, and BoJaxk
- pc86 2y agoExactly my experience. Many years ago I watched perhaps 3-4 episodes and stopped. I recently finished the entire series and by the end I was binging it in the most traditional sense, watching multiple episodes a day, telling myself I'd watch the last 20 minutes of this episode in bed and end up watching 2 more after that, etc. It's a fantastic show and while there are certainly some smaller arcs that could have been written better as is the case with any long-running show, especially one made for cable, it doesn't spend the two seasons completely destroying its reputation like most do. It ended at just the right time.
- brnt 2y agoGood advice: I also found the start not a good salesman but some peristence worth the wait.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- stronglikedan 2y agoThanks. I have a 3 episode rule. If I'm not into it by the end of the 3rd episode, I don't continue. I'll give this one another shot.
- skeeter2020 2y agoThis doesn't filter out the series that start off strong with no contingency plan to get picked up, then they get signed to 2+ more seasons, go "ah shoot we blew all our story ideas in season 1" and slow play 3 episodes worth of content for an entire season. So. many. like. this.
- Marsymars 2y agoI guess, but there are some all-time great series with relatively weak first seasons, e.g. Halt and Catch Fire and The Leftovers.
- what_ever 2y agoBreaking Bad.
- hughdbrown 2y agoTry this: look up the most highly rated episodes on IMDB and watch only those. Missing the crummy episodes usually does not interfere with understanding the story arc. Often, I set a minimum IMDB score that I will watch, like 8.5 or 9.0 to capture only the best. This works well with series that: - take a year or two to find their footing or - have a large cast (some mediocre) that get their own story lines of no consequence occasionally or - introduce cast members that don't make it or - implode towards the final season. I have done this for many series that are somewhat uneven: - The Americans - How I Met Your Mother - Fringe - Orphan Black - Halt and Catch Fire - House of Cards (watching the ratings allows you to miss all of season 6) - Arrested Development - Bojack Horseman - Veep - 30 Rock - Jane the Virgin - Black Mirror - The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel - Suits - Six Feet Under - La Femme Nikita - The Blacklist - Peaky Blinders - The Romanoffs - Ozark - Westworld (sometimes dropping episodes does not matter) - Succession - Borgen And all of these series have lots of strong episodes. Series I would not do this with: - The Bear - Breaking Bad - Money Heist - The Serpent - Fleabag - Chernobyl - The White Lotus
- swozey 2y agoThis is a very interesting way to watch a show. It feels almost illegal or wrong to me, lol. I'm one of those people who won't completely finish reading the end of a book series or game (witcher 3 easy example) because I'll like a show/game so much I don't want it to end. I'll go through this list and start from episode 1, though, so I appreciate the list of good shows!
- xarope 2y agoWow, thanks for the watching list! I agree on season 6 of House of Cards, sadly Robin Wright can't carry the series the way Kevin Spacey did. Albeit, we got bored of money heist after season 1.
- hughdbrown 2y agoIf you did not make it past season one of Money Heist, then you missed out on: - outstanding performances by Spanish actresses Ursula Corbrero, Itziar Ituno, Alba Flores, and Najwa Nimri and - humming Bella Ciao to yourself for two months.
- epolanski 2y agoThanks for the comment. I did watch half the first season years ago and wasn't too captured, will give it another go.
- dclowd9901 2y agoThe best thing about the show is how stories constantly take unexpected turns. It will sometimes seem like they’re setting some big thing up and then suddenly the characters are caught completely off guard and the show makes a hard left. It might sound contrived the way I’m explaining it, but it all makes perfect sense in the way the show unfolds.
- jfengel 2y agoThanks for the advice. I shut it off after one episode. I'll give it another try at some point.
- archon810 2y agoI have blasted through four seasons of The Americans but have been really having a lot of trouble getting through the 5th season.
- kshacker 2y agoIt does change season to season but the finale ... just talking about finale ... is at such a different level in tying up things that it elevates the entire season and the entire series. And of course the last few episodes leading to the finale tell a story so they eventually add value even though it may not be apparent when the season starts.