After watching the current “Vanity Fair” I watch the one from the 1980s with Eve Matheson as Becky. I enjoyed it quite a bit more because it was much more detailed.
I have been watching “The Americans,” on my older daughter’s recommendation, and she is watching “The Good Wife,” which D2 and I watched in real time and during D2’s college breaks. It is fun to share tidbits with each other, such as me telling D1 about Elizabeth flipping out about her daughter going to a church youth group meeting, and D1 reminding me about Alicia’s reaction to Grace going to church.
I like many lawyers I know could not watch The Good Wife after a little while. The stories were so fundamentally flawed legally and unlike most shows which dealt with criminal law ( about which I know very little so they don’t bug me ) they just drove me crazy. I was surprised that so many people at work at my civil law firm felt the same way and we all felt that one of the things that drove us the most crazy was that there were very easy ways to not have that mistake by minor changes to the facts and importantly not in any way effect the dramatic element. It wasn’t a matter of “ you’ve got to suspend disbelief so that the story works”. It seemed to all of us like pure laziness on the part of the writers.
Well, to each her own. I’m a lawyer, too, and didn’t mind the unrealism of “The Good Wife.” Nor do I mind the unrealism of “The Americans.” (And I named one of my dogs after Will Gardner.)
After many recommendations and two false starts, DH and I are in the penultimate season of The Americans and liking it very much.
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@greenwitch That wasn’t the end of Ray Donovan. It has been renewed for a 7th season.
Which version of “Hannah” are people discussing? What is it about? I see several possibilities when I do a search, and I can’t tell.
I am a few episodes from the end of the last season of The Americans. I have always been impressed by this show, but the last season is extraordinary.
The other long-running show I belatedly finished watching recently was Orphan Black. The last season of that was not especially great, although it had plenty of great moments. It briefly revisited a selection of favorite secondary characters from the past, and came up with a fairly satisfying resolution to the central conflicts.
We watched the first episode of The Americans and were not impressed. Does it get better?
I think it does. It’s kind of hard to tell what’s going on sometimes; that gets easier as the show progresses. And you have to keep your eyes on the screen, because those subtitles when the Russians are talking are key to understanding.
Yes, The Americans develops into a rich show. At its best, it’s a show about love, commitment, marriage, and the complex ways in which a person’s childhood and circumstances affect who and how that person loves. Also, of course, a constant meditation on ends and means. And Keri Russell in an endless variety of disguises that generally fail to disguise how gorgeous she is. (Matthew Rhys, too, but he’s merely very nice-looking.)
The specific plots of The Americans are generally outrageous and silly, although they do set up some nice emotional and ethical dilemmas. But the real pay-off is the complex, dynamic marriage of the central characters.
Yes - LOVED The Americans!!! It actually is very complex and makes you think. Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys are great!
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Really great show that builds as it goes- keep watching! Satisfying ending, too! I love that MR and KR are together in real life.
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I loved the Americans, and thought the last season was the best.
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I enjoyed the Americans but not enough to stick around for the last season or two.
I watched Russian Doll over the weekend. It took until the third episode to pull me in but I couldn’t stop watching it after that. I can’t really say that I enjoyed it, but it is intriguing and compelling, funny, sad, poignant. Difficult to describe it with any degree of specificity, as it is unlike other shows. One thing I will say is that it has a terrific ensemble cast, in addition to Natasha Lyonne, who seems to be the face of the show in most articles; including Dascha Polanco, Natasha’s fellow OITNB castmate; Elizabeth Ashley, Chloe Sevigny, Burt Young, Yul Vazquez, to name just a few. Excellent actors.
We’ve just started the last season of The Americans. We’d started it two times and gave up, but the third was the charm. I’m looking forward to seeing how it ends, but will miss it when it does.
I just finished 2nd season of Bordertown. Oddly, think I’ll miss the family.
@psychmomma I stopped short a season or two of The Americans but I skipped to the very last episode so I could see what happened.
I don’t like that a lot of the storyline was soft porn-ish and I suspect that’s probably what contributed to the two stars falling for each other. It’s sad that Russell left her hubby and two small children but oh well 
https://people.com/tv/keri-russell-and-matthew-rhys-inside-their-love-story/
Watching the third season of Love on Netflix.
Good enough. Some episodes are good and a few not so much.