Jay: After last week, this episode felt a bit like a letdown. The action was good, the tension was decent, but the dialogue basically muddled through and the plot was weaker than it was in “Gregory.”

First, though, I have to get a pet peeve off my chest. Stan’s boss says of the attempted assassin, “[If] this guy’s said ‘Nyet’ once in the past ten years, we’re gonna find out when and where.” Why do so many TV shows and movies have lines like that? No one talks in such melodramatic phrases.

But even aside from a few campy moments — another one is when Elizabeth is arguing with Phil about staying committed to the Soviet Union: that debate is already getting old for me, and Elizabeth still hasn’t looked convincing while doing it yet — the plot got into weird territory at times.

First, why are Phil, Elizabeth, and “Claudia” all so willing to talk in their car openly (and even somewhat loudly)? They drop bugs all over the place — I’m guessing one was in the pin Phil gave to that nurse, most recently — but they’re not even remotely nervous that they’re being watched? Even after Phil knows for certain Stan was suspicious enough to snoop around their garage and check out their car?

Speaking of cars, it was never explained how they got rid of the security guard’s car. Dumping a body is one thing, but making a car disappear is another matter entirely. Maybe that’ll get brought up in a later episode.

Another thing: why would Nina’s boss tell her colleague to follow her? Once again, there’s really no explanation given for why all the right people are wary of all the other right people. It’s too uncanny, and too much like network TV.

Which brings me to my next complaint: remember how Nina was recruited in the first place? Because she got caught stealing caviar from the embassy. If you were her, wouldn’t you rather just confess the theft and try to find a new job, instead of risking your life running around every time the FBI calls? In defense of the show, I suppose it’s feasible that she feels it’s now too late, that even if she stopped working for the FBI they’d ruin her life (or end it) anyway. But her risk/reward calculations don’t seem that smart right now.

Side note: I don’t get what took place when Phil called that guy with a bunch of phones and asked to get to the vice president’s office. Was he figuring out who the nurse was? And who was that dude with all the phones?

One last thing: I couldn’t help but notice that when Paige went over her friend’s house to apologize, she was playing with her hands in the exact same way Dana does all the time on Homeland. Is that the universal TV representation of “awkward teenager?”

Sam: I couldn’t agree more with everything you pointed out! My biggest mistake this week: raising my expectations. Before I watched the episode, I read that this week’s episode would cover the assassination attempt on President Reagan, and for some reason, I thought it would make for an interesting episode, to say the least. I was wrong.

Sure, the story about how wrong intelligence info could’ve “started World War III” is interesting, but the clunkiness of how this story was told just zapped it of the great potential I thought it had. For all the raving about the great actors on this show, I feel disappointed about what we’re seeing (and it sounds like there will be much more of The Americans to come). As I’ve mentioned before, Elizabeth is perhaps the most unconvincing character on the show, and the stale and awkward dialogues involving just about everyone but Philip and Gregory are just awful. Stan’s boss, Elizabeth, and Claudia/Granny especially bugged me this week.

That’s funny that you caught on to Elizabeth, Philip, and Claudia talking out in the open. I thought the same thing when they went to visit the nurse too. Good call on the pin being a bug too. I hadn’t thought of that. Also, does it strike you as weird that Philip and Elizabeth just happen to have a huge stash of tech equipment hidden in the ground in a forest? Or was that their backyard?

I also agree about the Nina story line. What makes her boss trust the dude trailing her more than her? And apparently that dude just trails people in the office, because he obeyed immediately without even a hint of suspicion.

And finally, we see Paige and Xander in the same shot again. Did I miss something or do they just regularly hang out now? Not that I really want to see any relationship between them be dragged out at all, but there are just so many parts of this show that feel abrupt.

I have to be honest: I find this show rather grating. Your devoted readers who’ve followed our conversations since episode one might feel like I never really gave it a chance, which may be somewhat true. But I feel like you just know a good show when you see it, and this, to me, has clearly not been a good show. Perhaps it’s just not my type of show, so I might be in the minority when I say I find the show fairly terrible (e.g. read this glowing review). But after four episodes, I’ve found the overall acting lackluster and boring at best (again, another problem with being a big Homeland fan).

So what happens next, you think?

Jay: I just finished Matt Zoller Seitz’s review. You’re right, it was overly positive. He did finally take note of some of the worse moments in the dialogue, though, even if we beat him to the punch by several weeks. One thing he noted, by the way, is how much he liked Stan talking about the day JFK was assassinated. But I actually thought that wasn’t the most impressive part of that scene. In a rare subtle moment on the show, neither Phil nor Elizabeth really had anything to say in response. I can’t remember the exact timeline of their time in the States, but I believe they would have been in the Soviet Union at the time of JFK’s assassination. So the uncomfortable silence following Stan’s reveries was actually a cool little moment, a brief acknowledgment that neither Phil nor Elizabeth had any authentically sad reaction to his death.

Anyway, that doesn’t change the fact that I agree with your assessment of this show on a broader level. I’m not sure I’m quite as negative on it as you are — I’ve managed to keep my expectations ground-floor-low so far — so its inevitable flaws and awkward moments don’t bother me as much as they would on, say, Homeland. (I love that Seitz also noted the weird parallel with Paige/Xander and Dana/Finn.)

The funny thing about this episode is that it didn’t really seem to leave any obvious stories to continue with for next week: it was a very closed episode, in that pretty much all the questions were resolved by the end. The Russians didn’t try to kill Reagan, the Americans knew it, Nina’s double-crossing wasn’t discovered by her weird colleague stalker, and so on. The only new wrinkle is that Stan’s wife doesn’t feel comfortable with him. Memo to The Americans‘ writing staff: inserting marital discord into a show for no particular reason isn’t very convincing. Sometimes it just feels like they’re experimenting to see what sticks.

Last whine: although it was funny for the first couple seconds, the extended joke between Paige and Xander about how dangerous it is to be a travel agent (with a huge “wink, wink” to the audience) went on a bit too long.

So basically what I’m saying is, I have no idea what’s coming up — other than the seemingly obvious next step of Stan hooking up with Nina, which will likely end up getting them both in trouble (perhaps Amador will discover it). That’s my off-the-wall prediction. Yours?

Sam: Another brilliant observation about Phil and Elizabeth’s non-response to Stan’s comment about JFK’s assassination. I read Seitz’s review again, and he does bring up a good point about the response to the assassination attempt (aside from the cheesy lines from Stan’s boss). Your note on Paige/Xander and Dana/Finn is also spot on. That said, I disagree with his positive views of Stan.

I’m really not sure where things are going next week. You’re completely right about the Beemans’ relationship troubles. On one hand, I can understand perhaps a little bit where he’s coming from and where she’s coming from, but like you said, covering one couple’s relationship troubles is plenty for this show.

As for the upcoming story lines, your prediction is pretty off-the-wall. That hadn’t crossed my mind, but I could see it happen (especially if they continue the Beeman marriage troubles angle). My thought is from a similar vein: I think Stan’s going to do something messed up and get in trouble with his superiors. He’ll go too far trying to question a suspect perhaps. Not very exciting, but maybe bust up his hand doing so and lead to more bonding time with Phil where Phil can ask him how he hurt himself (like Stan did with Phil’s “shaving” accident).

I don’t know. I have no clue either. I’m just going to have low expectations of next week’s episode — and hope the writers will surprise me like they did with episode three.

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