I think they shot some exterior footage on location — Costa Ronin tweeted that one of his brush passes was shot in three locations in two countries, plus a green screen — but most of it is shot in NY. Regardless, the Moscow architecture looks beautiful, especially at night.

Nope, I was wondering that also. I think that commission dealt with Soviet psychiatric incarceration of dissidents.

I miss him so much. I suppose it makes sense that Oleg would avoid him since he was partially responsible for getting him PNG'd. I mean, they were going to do it anyway, but they added the bioweapons thing to it. Gosh, I hope that doesn't come back to bite Oleg in the ass.

You should give it a shot. The Young Pope is one of my favorite things in recent memory. It's up there with Hannibal and The Leftovers in emotion, dreamscape imagery, and gorgeous cinematography.

And possibly the Catholic church. One of the funniest lines in The Young Pope was Cardinal Spencer sneering about psychoanalysis: "The one profession that involves no work and a great deal of money that we let slip through our fingers."

Clea Lewis plays her to perfection. Trivia: she is married to Peter Ackerman, one of the writers.

To be fair, we have seen him interact with only one woman, Elizabeth, whose persona is a somewhat vapid, giggly person ("I'm in fashion, I'm not that deep.") who encourages him to teach her ("I don't know anything about wine or food or hiking or gorp.").

I was so distracted (and disgusted) by that stain!

And Arkady! Half the cast is in Russia now.

Joe Weisberg is from Chicago, so he would know that, wouldn't he? Perhaps it was an intentional mistake.

Elizabeth breaks up with an entire family. Go big or go home.

I could swear I saw the tiniest hint of a smile on Philip's face when he asked, "Who's she?" Philip's been stuck with Deirdre, the boring woman who prickles at Philip's neediness while Elizabeth got the perfect Peace Corps charmer who is trying to feed the world. I wouldn't be surprised if he had a tiny bit of…

And worse, to someone whose insides were liquefying, offering them a Coke is like offering them battery acid. It's the thought that counts, though, and it made for a hilarious reaction.

I had the impression that the world does not end, much like the numerous predicted endings in the opening sequence, but something does happen to Kevin. Perhaps it could be like seeing the survivor side of the Lost ending and not knowing what happened to Jack.

"He is saved."
"That didn't count."

I know of that park from The Master and Margarita. If the writers were also referencing that masterpiece with its Faustian undertones and the themes of cowardice and courage, redemption, and the emptiness and hypocrisy of oppression, then all the more applause to them.

Something I did not notice until my second viewing is that the statue that Oleg visits is not a political figure (and certainly not Lenin, whose portrait in the rezidentura the show loved to place Oleg in front of). The statue is of Ivan Krylov, a beloved writer and fabulist, which makes Oleg's parallel scene to…

I agree. I thought what Ben had told her earlier, that people assume the proper thing to do is just move on, which is what Paige had accused Elizabeth of doing and said that she could not and did not want to do that, influenced Elizabeth to channel Paige as a way of understanding what Paige is experiencing and how to…

He wore virtually the same disguise when he confronted Arkady in the Season 2 finale, except he wore round Lennon glasses then. Lennon + Lenin, haha.

I could not agree more with the opening to the review: “Crossbreed” is the type of Americans episode that makes you want to grab an Emmy voter by the lapels and scream “What do these people have to do win a trophy?” Such an impressive hour of understated yet powerful acting. One of my favorite such moments not…