Thanks for digging up this article, I appreciate it. I wasn't getting any of this from the show. I guess some of the shots inside the grocery stores (e.g. the one with Martha shopping) were supposed to make food look scarce, but for all I knew, that was just an under-stocked part of the store. And it still had stuff…

It didn't look like that much blood to me. I've seen minor head wounds that spilled more blood than that. But of course a lot of blood could have soaked into the bedding and been invisible to us. There's no denying the fact that he had passed out from blood loss. I don't know if there's a huge margin between "passed…

Can you recommend a wikipedia article or some other resource where I can read about this?

I'm sure it's very basic training for people in this line of work. What if you need to stage a suicide, like Philip had to stage that guy hanging himself the other season? You'd need to know how to do all this…

As someone who doesn't know much about Russia or the cold war, the significance of this plotline was lost on me. Surely they could have done a better job explaining it, or crammed their 2-season (?) story arc into one season and made it that much more interesting…?

The Americans has been my favorite TV show for years because the action and suspense drive the character development.

I admit that I'm not a doctor and I have no experience in this area beyond watching TV, which I realize is ridiculous. But a TV trope is the guy who tried to slit his wrists and screwed it up and that's why he's in the mental ward somewhere and/or has bandages on his wrists. So it seems like it's possible to screw up…

I agree completely with pretty much everything you said, except that Tuan was callous and didn't care about Pasha's life.

Haha, I'm with you, I actually found the hole digging pretty riveting. It's like, "oh yeah, I guess they would have to take breaks… oh yeah, of course they would have brought food…" and there was the constant danger of them getting caught, considering they were on a military base that was regularly patrolled. And then…

Yeah, maybe they should have gone with their alternate plan. Oh wait, they had been working on this for weeks and weren't really getting anywhere and didn't have an alternate plan.

It wasn't like that before this season.

No but it's been recommended to me by a few people. It's on my list. :)

Yeah I came here to express (and maybe discuss) my opinion, not to have it changed. Sounds like you're of the same mindset. I think the odds were 99% in Tuan's favor, sounds like you think it was some other percentage, neither one of us is provably right. I think we've both said our piece and I suppose we can move on.

IMO the show worked because it was a combination. The action and suspense drove the character development. If the main characters didn't go on exciting spy missions, there would be no character development and no reason to watch the show. Without that interesting, intriguing, motivating force I think the show might as…

Okay, great, you have your opinion about what the show is about and I have my opinion.

"My MAYBEs were just to point out that there were a lot of possible scenarios, any one of which could have derailed his plan."

What's your point? P&E are busy people so it's okay if they don't have any ideas for how to accomplish their missions?

If P&E are so great at making these plans, why didn't they? They were getting nowhere. They've spent the whole season sitting around that kitchen table complaining that they're getting nowhere and waiting for Tuan to have ideas. Tuan was the one who came up with the idea of secretly getting Pasha bullied at school.…

You mean that riveting plot about… uhh… some food shortages, I guess?

LOL. Yeah, a brisk walk might have been too vigorous for our super-spies. Let's end the season with a long relaxing sit.