TMC
05-31-2018, 11:51 PM
http://www.vulture.com/2018/05/the-americans-finale-parking-garage-scene.html
There were many aspects to series finale's intense garage scene, which featured filmmaking that allowed it to operate as an "artful dance of loyalty and revelations among the actors," says Angelica Jade Bastién. She adds: "The Americans is a series primed to elude expectations, trading the typical thrills associated with espionage dramas for insightful explorations into marriage and the mutable nature of identity. What makes the garage scene the most haunting aspect of the finale is ultimately what made the series a uniquely bruising experience over the course of its six seasons: It deeply considers the price and power of true intimacy. The scene also distills the most intriguing aspects of the show: tension that bites, a clever use of silence and sound design, delicately fine-tuned performances, directorial choices that privilege the subtle gestures of the actors, and an astute understanding of the weight of history both personal and global. All of these traits — especially the raw, nerved vulnerability that defines the performances by (Matthew) Rhys and (Noah) Emmerich — work in concert to plumb the murky depths of male vulnerability, loyalty, and the price of intimacy itself."
ALSO:
The garage scene is everything The Americans has encapsulated and built up over six seasons (https://decider.com/2018/05/31/the-americans-finale-parking-garage-scene/)
The great thing about the garage scene is how open to interpretation it was (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/bastard-machine/americans-series-finale-thr-critics-conversation-1116190)
The garage scene was thoughtful, personal and, crucially, restrained -- the epitome of everything The Americans did so well (https://variety.com/2018/tv/columns/the-americans-finale-keri-russell-matthew-rhys-1202826671/)
Here's a travel guide for The Americans in Moscow (https://slate.com/culture/2018/05/things-to-do-in-moscow-when-youre-dead-inside.html?via=recirc_recent)
U2 was the perfect choice for the series finale (http://www.vulture.com/2018/05/with-or-without-you-americans-finale.html): "For one of the most dramatic sequences in its final episode, the series decided to go with a song as massive as they could find"
Why The Americans' use of a Dire Straits song was perfect for the series finale (https://slate.com/culture/2018/05/the-americans-finales-use-of-dire-straits-brothers-in-arms-was-perfect.html)
The song "Brothers in Arms" is an "elegiac slow burn, of the kind you might expect to close an episode rather than carry its middle section," says Sam Adams. "(Indeed, that’s exactly how it was used in The West Wing’s 'Two Cathedrals,' which found President Jed Bartlet facing storms both literal and metaphorical with a smile on his face.) But The Americans’ home stretch was a tribute to the power, and sometimes the frustration, of taking it slow, letting conflicts simmer like the unresolved organ chords and thundering rumbles that fade in on the soundtrack as Philip, Elizabeth, and Paige face what is left of the rest of their lives. Although it was released at a time when the threat of nuclear war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union—as chronicled in Season 4’s 'The Day After'—still seemed acute, 'Brothers in Arms' is steeped in sorrow instead of anxiety, sung from the perspective of an old soldier who’s come to the end of a war he wishes he’d never had to fight."
ALSO:
The Americans avoided the Happy Days "Chuck Cunningham Syndrome" with its treatment of Henry Jennings (http://www.vulture.com/2018/05/the-americans-series-finale-henry-jennings.html)
What should Keri Russell do next? How about a Ryan Murphy or Shonda Rhimes show? (http://ew.com/tv/2018/05/31/what-should-keri-russell-do-after-the-americans/)
A tribute to the best, sexiest and dorkiest Americans disguises (https://themuse.jezebel.com/a-tribute-to-the-best-sexiest-and-dorkiest-disguises-o-1826392075)
The Americans finale was elegant, potent and unforgettable (https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-americans-finale-was-elegant-potent-and-unforgettable)
It's a Top 10 series finale because of how it "thoroughly and almost radically it puts a bow on the series’ central preoccupation: the Jennings marriage" (https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/5/30/17392334/the-americans-series-finale-recap-start-season-6)
The Americans series finale was one of TV's best, with its shift from theater to silent cinema (http://www.vulture.com/2018/05/the-americans-series-finale-review.html)
"The subdued finale, says Matt Zoller Seitz, "is one of the best that I’ve seen, a terrific example of an ending that summarizes what the series was about while putting a new frame around it. 'START' pulverizes any idea of a script for these role-players to 'play' and forces them to work off-script. The privilege (or excuse) of needing to stick to the script, rain or shine, has allowed Philip and Elizabeth to break every last one of the Ten Commandments in the name of a higher ideal: the destruction of America and capitalism. It has also allowed Stan, the beer-drinking, flag-saluting Yankee, to feel patriotic even after hacksawing huge ethical corners, including falling in love with a double agent (later triple-agent) and straight-up murdering a Soviet operative in retaliation for the KGB killing his partner. (Philip did that deed, but thankfully Stan never found out.) Everybody’s gone off-script now, and the series goes off-script with them. And so The Americans, a series that has never shied away from its TV-ness, goes in a startling new direction in its final chapter, envisioning its two most important sequences as, respectively, a stage play produced without costumes or sets in a parking garage, and a Russian silent movie that carries much of its meaning through images, confining dialogue to a few sentences so tight-lipped that they could fit on old-fashioned title cards."
ALSO:
The finale was frustrating more than satisfying: It felt limp, unwilling to push its characters too far (http://ew.com/tv/2018/05/30/the-americans-series-finale-review/)
It was surprising in that it made a climax out of a series of anti-climaxes: "The episode was a litany of things that did not happen" (https://slate.com/culture/2018/05/the-americans-series-finale-reviewed.html)
The Americans leaving on a morally ambiguous note felt like the surest way out of the series (https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/in-a-somber-satisfying-americans-finale-philip-and-elizabeth-make-a-painful-choice/2018/05/30/25ea486c-6366-11e8-99d2-0d678ec08c2f_story.html)
The Americans needed to stick the landing, and it did with an ending that felt true to the main characters (https://variety.com/2018/tv/reviews/the-americans-series-finale-review-1202823453/)
Though it was unexpected, the finale did live up to the spirit of the past six seasons (https://uproxx.com/sepinwall/the-americans-series-finale-recap-start-review-spoilers/)
There was a "quiet elegance" in the way The Americans chose to end the series (https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/30/entertainment/the-americans-series-finale-review/index.html)
The finale managed to tick off the necessary boxes without turning into fan service (https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/tv/2018/05/31/americans-series-finale-beautiful-bold-show-bows-out-gracefully/641776002/)
The Americans landed on a conclusion that reflects the series as a whole: Tense, understated, affecting, and one of the greats (https://tv.avclub.com/the-americans-ends-as-it-lived-tense-affecting-and-o-1826435707)
The Americans never told open-and-shut stories, so it makes sense that ambiguity crept into the ending (http://www.indiewire.com/2018/05/americans-review-season-6-episode-10-start-spoilers-1201969706/)
Keri Russell cried reading the finale script at a restaurant, Matthew Rhys cried reading it on a train (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/30/arts/television/keri-russell-matthew-rhys-the-americans.html)
Rhys says the garage scene took nine hours to film, but the train scene was the toughest because they used an actual moving train (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/americans-keri-russell-matthew-rhys-talk-devastating-ending-1115922)
Rhys didn't think Renee was a spy, but Russell isn't as sure (http://gothamist.com/2018/05/31/keri_russell_matthew_rhys_interview_americans_finale.php)
Noah Emmerich said he thought the garage scene was "very beautiful and humane and poetic, and very Americans" (http://ew.com/tv/2018/05/30/the-americans-noah-emmerich-stan-beeman-series-finale-renee-henry/)
Emmerich says Stan made a "humanistic choice": "It was too conflicted for Stan" (https://www.tvinsider.com/693219/the-americans-series-finale-stan-decision-noah-emmerich/)
Holly Taylor: "I was so shocked when I read that. I was not expecting that at all" (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/holly-taylor-americans-finale-1115799)
Taylor predicts where Paige will be in five to 10 years after the series finale (http://www.vulture.com/2018/05/holly-taylor-paige-jennings-future.html)
Showrunners Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields are keeping mum on what they think happens after the series finale (http://ew.com/tv/2018/05/30/the-americans-showrunners-series-finale-interview/)
Creator Weisberg said he and Fields found that this was the only ending that worked (https://uproxx.com/sepinwall/the-americans-finale-interview-creators-spoilers/): "We did our due diligence and we ran every single possible other ending of the show through our brains to see if there was a better one, but this was still the one that we loved the best and seemed to be the most natural and true ending of this story."
The garage scene wasn't an idea that was planned years in advance
Fields and Weisberg aren't interested in doing any spinoffs, not even with Renee, Martha or Claudia (https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/05/the-americans-finale-interview-joe-weisberg-joel-fields)
Fields and Weisberg pick their eight favorite musical moments from the entire series (https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/8265481/the-americans-fx-best-music-moments)
Read an oral history of "START," The Americans' series finale (http://www.vulture.com/2018/05/the-americans-series-finale-oral-history.html)
Check out The Americans cast outside of their roles at a Wednesday night series finale event (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-5790009/Keri-Russell-rocks-white-tee-mesh-skirt-laughs-Matthew-Rhys-Americans-event.html)
There were many aspects to series finale's intense garage scene, which featured filmmaking that allowed it to operate as an "artful dance of loyalty and revelations among the actors," says Angelica Jade Bastién. She adds: "The Americans is a series primed to elude expectations, trading the typical thrills associated with espionage dramas for insightful explorations into marriage and the mutable nature of identity. What makes the garage scene the most haunting aspect of the finale is ultimately what made the series a uniquely bruising experience over the course of its six seasons: It deeply considers the price and power of true intimacy. The scene also distills the most intriguing aspects of the show: tension that bites, a clever use of silence and sound design, delicately fine-tuned performances, directorial choices that privilege the subtle gestures of the actors, and an astute understanding of the weight of history both personal and global. All of these traits — especially the raw, nerved vulnerability that defines the performances by (Matthew) Rhys and (Noah) Emmerich — work in concert to plumb the murky depths of male vulnerability, loyalty, and the price of intimacy itself."
ALSO:
The garage scene is everything The Americans has encapsulated and built up over six seasons (https://decider.com/2018/05/31/the-americans-finale-parking-garage-scene/)
The great thing about the garage scene is how open to interpretation it was (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/bastard-machine/americans-series-finale-thr-critics-conversation-1116190)
The garage scene was thoughtful, personal and, crucially, restrained -- the epitome of everything The Americans did so well (https://variety.com/2018/tv/columns/the-americans-finale-keri-russell-matthew-rhys-1202826671/)
Here's a travel guide for The Americans in Moscow (https://slate.com/culture/2018/05/things-to-do-in-moscow-when-youre-dead-inside.html?via=recirc_recent)
U2 was the perfect choice for the series finale (http://www.vulture.com/2018/05/with-or-without-you-americans-finale.html): "For one of the most dramatic sequences in its final episode, the series decided to go with a song as massive as they could find"
Why The Americans' use of a Dire Straits song was perfect for the series finale (https://slate.com/culture/2018/05/the-americans-finales-use-of-dire-straits-brothers-in-arms-was-perfect.html)
The song "Brothers in Arms" is an "elegiac slow burn, of the kind you might expect to close an episode rather than carry its middle section," says Sam Adams. "(Indeed, that’s exactly how it was used in The West Wing’s 'Two Cathedrals,' which found President Jed Bartlet facing storms both literal and metaphorical with a smile on his face.) But The Americans’ home stretch was a tribute to the power, and sometimes the frustration, of taking it slow, letting conflicts simmer like the unresolved organ chords and thundering rumbles that fade in on the soundtrack as Philip, Elizabeth, and Paige face what is left of the rest of their lives. Although it was released at a time when the threat of nuclear war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union—as chronicled in Season 4’s 'The Day After'—still seemed acute, 'Brothers in Arms' is steeped in sorrow instead of anxiety, sung from the perspective of an old soldier who’s come to the end of a war he wishes he’d never had to fight."
ALSO:
The Americans avoided the Happy Days "Chuck Cunningham Syndrome" with its treatment of Henry Jennings (http://www.vulture.com/2018/05/the-americans-series-finale-henry-jennings.html)
What should Keri Russell do next? How about a Ryan Murphy or Shonda Rhimes show? (http://ew.com/tv/2018/05/31/what-should-keri-russell-do-after-the-americans/)
A tribute to the best, sexiest and dorkiest Americans disguises (https://themuse.jezebel.com/a-tribute-to-the-best-sexiest-and-dorkiest-disguises-o-1826392075)
The Americans finale was elegant, potent and unforgettable (https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-americans-finale-was-elegant-potent-and-unforgettable)
It's a Top 10 series finale because of how it "thoroughly and almost radically it puts a bow on the series’ central preoccupation: the Jennings marriage" (https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/5/30/17392334/the-americans-series-finale-recap-start-season-6)
The Americans series finale was one of TV's best, with its shift from theater to silent cinema (http://www.vulture.com/2018/05/the-americans-series-finale-review.html)
"The subdued finale, says Matt Zoller Seitz, "is one of the best that I’ve seen, a terrific example of an ending that summarizes what the series was about while putting a new frame around it. 'START' pulverizes any idea of a script for these role-players to 'play' and forces them to work off-script. The privilege (or excuse) of needing to stick to the script, rain or shine, has allowed Philip and Elizabeth to break every last one of the Ten Commandments in the name of a higher ideal: the destruction of America and capitalism. It has also allowed Stan, the beer-drinking, flag-saluting Yankee, to feel patriotic even after hacksawing huge ethical corners, including falling in love with a double agent (later triple-agent) and straight-up murdering a Soviet operative in retaliation for the KGB killing his partner. (Philip did that deed, but thankfully Stan never found out.) Everybody’s gone off-script now, and the series goes off-script with them. And so The Americans, a series that has never shied away from its TV-ness, goes in a startling new direction in its final chapter, envisioning its two most important sequences as, respectively, a stage play produced without costumes or sets in a parking garage, and a Russian silent movie that carries much of its meaning through images, confining dialogue to a few sentences so tight-lipped that they could fit on old-fashioned title cards."
ALSO:
The finale was frustrating more than satisfying: It felt limp, unwilling to push its characters too far (http://ew.com/tv/2018/05/30/the-americans-series-finale-review/)
It was surprising in that it made a climax out of a series of anti-climaxes: "The episode was a litany of things that did not happen" (https://slate.com/culture/2018/05/the-americans-series-finale-reviewed.html)
The Americans leaving on a morally ambiguous note felt like the surest way out of the series (https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/in-a-somber-satisfying-americans-finale-philip-and-elizabeth-make-a-painful-choice/2018/05/30/25ea486c-6366-11e8-99d2-0d678ec08c2f_story.html)
The Americans needed to stick the landing, and it did with an ending that felt true to the main characters (https://variety.com/2018/tv/reviews/the-americans-series-finale-review-1202823453/)
Though it was unexpected, the finale did live up to the spirit of the past six seasons (https://uproxx.com/sepinwall/the-americans-series-finale-recap-start-review-spoilers/)
There was a "quiet elegance" in the way The Americans chose to end the series (https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/30/entertainment/the-americans-series-finale-review/index.html)
The finale managed to tick off the necessary boxes without turning into fan service (https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/tv/2018/05/31/americans-series-finale-beautiful-bold-show-bows-out-gracefully/641776002/)
The Americans landed on a conclusion that reflects the series as a whole: Tense, understated, affecting, and one of the greats (https://tv.avclub.com/the-americans-ends-as-it-lived-tense-affecting-and-o-1826435707)
The Americans never told open-and-shut stories, so it makes sense that ambiguity crept into the ending (http://www.indiewire.com/2018/05/americans-review-season-6-episode-10-start-spoilers-1201969706/)
Keri Russell cried reading the finale script at a restaurant, Matthew Rhys cried reading it on a train (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/30/arts/television/keri-russell-matthew-rhys-the-americans.html)
Rhys says the garage scene took nine hours to film, but the train scene was the toughest because they used an actual moving train (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/americans-keri-russell-matthew-rhys-talk-devastating-ending-1115922)
Rhys didn't think Renee was a spy, but Russell isn't as sure (http://gothamist.com/2018/05/31/keri_russell_matthew_rhys_interview_americans_finale.php)
Noah Emmerich said he thought the garage scene was "very beautiful and humane and poetic, and very Americans" (http://ew.com/tv/2018/05/30/the-americans-noah-emmerich-stan-beeman-series-finale-renee-henry/)
Emmerich says Stan made a "humanistic choice": "It was too conflicted for Stan" (https://www.tvinsider.com/693219/the-americans-series-finale-stan-decision-noah-emmerich/)
Holly Taylor: "I was so shocked when I read that. I was not expecting that at all" (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/holly-taylor-americans-finale-1115799)
Taylor predicts where Paige will be in five to 10 years after the series finale (http://www.vulture.com/2018/05/holly-taylor-paige-jennings-future.html)
Showrunners Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields are keeping mum on what they think happens after the series finale (http://ew.com/tv/2018/05/30/the-americans-showrunners-series-finale-interview/)
Creator Weisberg said he and Fields found that this was the only ending that worked (https://uproxx.com/sepinwall/the-americans-finale-interview-creators-spoilers/): "We did our due diligence and we ran every single possible other ending of the show through our brains to see if there was a better one, but this was still the one that we loved the best and seemed to be the most natural and true ending of this story."
The garage scene wasn't an idea that was planned years in advance
Fields and Weisberg aren't interested in doing any spinoffs, not even with Renee, Martha or Claudia (https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/05/the-americans-finale-interview-joe-weisberg-joel-fields)
Fields and Weisberg pick their eight favorite musical moments from the entire series (https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/8265481/the-americans-fx-best-music-moments)
Read an oral history of "START," The Americans' series finale (http://www.vulture.com/2018/05/the-americans-series-finale-oral-history.html)
Check out The Americans cast outside of their roles at a Wednesday night series finale event (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-5790009/Keri-Russell-rocks-white-tee-mesh-skirt-laughs-Matthew-Rhys-Americans-event.html)