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Will be sure to quote your post about her lack of acting ability next Spring when she wins the Oscar and every other acting award for August Osage County. She was also Emmy nominated for the Americans, btw. I say these things not to equate awards with artistry but to point out that your opinion is not just a minority one, it exists on a plane of existence heretofore undiscovered

I only know Martindale from The Americans. So maybe she can rock a part that doesn't require us to believe she's got any real power or menace? Perhaps other directors can do better work within the limits of what she's got. Though there wasn't a single helmer on The Americans who seemed able to get her through a scene without it playing at times like she was severely out of her depth, wishing she were in a commercial or a sitcom instead, sometimes just reciting lines instead of bothering to act them. I'll stop by offering up one more actress with a similar age/look and, imho, way more chops: Ann Dowd.

warren oates wrote:So maybe she can rock a part that doesn't require us to believe she's got any real power or menace?

Season 2 of Justified amply proved she can do the latter as well.

warren oates wrote:I only know Martindale from The Americans. So maybe she can rock a part that doesn't require us to believe she's got any real power or menace?

See her in Justified and you'll see one of the most menacing performances this side of Walter White.

edit: Sausage beat me to it (but Martindale's performance deserves all the praise it gets).

She was also quite good on The Riches on FX a few years ago.

In a world where 90% of studio covers are total shit, kudos to Fox for using the stellar promo art for the first season packaging:

Neat idea, but I don't like the too-clean Photoshopness of it.

I believe this was very similar to the promotional art for the 1st season, so it was probably an easy decision for them to simply just adapt it a little bit for the DVD/BR release.

Old news, but three prominent first season guest stars are being promoted to series regulars for season two, which gives some indication of the show's (continued) direction. They are:

Spoiler

Nina, Martha, and Stan's wife

domino harvey wrote:

Spoiler

...and Stan's wife

I'm a little bit surprised by that considering they started leaving her out of entire episodes during the first season (from what I can remember). I figured she would be done with the show after a few more episodes, but I guess they need a female friend at a similar stage of life for Elizabeth to interact with.

Second season premieres Feb 26th

The Americans was certainly back with a bang last night - it barely even allowed time for the audience to catch it's breath before throwing us right back in the thick of things. It's clear that the delicate family situation is going to rise to the forefront this season, and I personally can't wait to see how it unfolds.

After catching up with Season 1 online, this has become second only to Justified among my favorite shows - and like Justified, it has so much that other TV dramas lack: well developed worlds populated by interesting characters (even interesting female characters), action sequences that are actually memorable, and scenarios rich with subtext and irony. Somebody at FX is doing something right.

I really like that they're starting to bring the kids into the equation more too. Good, sobering start to the season, with the smart parallel of another "happy" spy family wiped out giving credible threat to the increasingly risky endeavor everyone is involved in. One of the best things about this show is that as it progresses, it becomes clear that not only is there probably not a happy ending in store for any character, but I can't even figure out what a happy ending would look like.

Also, I appreciated how the show addressed right out of the gate what many of us were vocally wondering: What happens if someone tries to rip their wig off?

...and I see thanks to the rumor mills that Rhys and Russell's on-screen chemistry must be working out offscreen, as they're apparently dating!

Margo popped up in the "This season on The Americans..." promo at the end of the episode, so apparently we'll see her at least once.

First It's Always Sunny, now the Americans is getting a DVD-only release

Just finished watching S2 of The Americans - brilliant series. IMHO, S1 was excellent but S2 was even better.

I grew up in the metropolitan Washington D.C area back in the '80's, so I remember that time period & the locale extremely well - i.e. the cold war, the primitive (by today's standards) tech, the Rubik's Cube, early video games, etc.

Excellent cast & performances, from the smallest role to the largest. This series is the first time I've seen Kerri Russell in action; excellent actress (she was also great in Dawn of the POTA this past summer). Lee Tergeson was also great as the "villain" in S2; very unrelenting (He was also solid in HBO's Oz years ago).

Just like S1, the last episode of S2 was the best of the season - I like how they played the 1982 Golden Earring hit single Twilight Zone over the beginning suspenseful key scene - it really set the tone/mood of the era, and was especially effective because they rarely use pop/rock music in the series...

The last scenes of the finale were shocking:

Was truly amazed

Spoiler

when Jared, as he was dying, revealed that he had been the one who took out his parents & sister in the beginning because he got into a fight with them re: his being recruited by Kate...Truly mind-blowing, since that was the last thing I would have expected; I never suspected him at all throughout the season - I truly thought he was legitimately shocked/surprised/horrified when he found their bodies after coming back from the hotel pool....In any case, glad they cleared up this mystery, since who k. that family was one of the focal points of the entire season...

Looking forward to S3 -

Spoiler

I wonder if Paige will get recruited into "the cause" by her parents?!....

Season Three premieres January 28th

Is this the season that Oliver North is consulting on?

colinr0380 wrote:Is this the season that Oliver North is consulting on?

He consulted on an episode this past season about the Contras and Sandinistas.

Did they model Tergesen's character after him?

domino harvey wrote:First It's Always Sunny, now the Americans is getting a DVD-only release

As if that wasn't bad enough, all four discs in the set are nested one upon the other. Are the single size flipper cases that hold four discs really that much of an expense?

On the brighter side, it could've been a DVD-R....