One of the best endings of any show I can remember. It answered the biggest question of the show (concerning Stan) so well, and the ending was both surprising and fully earned. Masterful television.
Got introduced to Rufus Sewell in 'The Man in The High Castle'. He played an SS commander. Most intimidating and frightening presence on the screen - without raising his voice and no (direct) acts of violence. Great actor.
He is indeed an extremly good actor .. wasted in some earlier US productions that bought him in for the Shakespearean Gravitas (pissed away by poor scripts in Eleventh Hour) .. but a shining light in various UK productions such as Petruchio in ShakespeaRe-Told.
I never finished The Americans but The Shield had the most perfect ending possible for that show and it was amazing! Worth checking out for anyone who has not already seen it.
FWIW I absolutely love The Shield, one of my favorite shows. The Americans is better. But it was also hard to get into, and I stopped a few episodes in the first time. It gets much better the more the story goes on.
As a fellow The Shield-lover, I highly recommend you try to finish The Americans.
I couldn't agree more. It was masterful, and had an enormously shocking ending emotionally - in multiple ways, including the Stan ending, though I'm sure we're both talking about something else.
Btw, funny enough, on rewatches, I actually focus more on the one big Stan question that isn't answered (and, in fact, is actually asked to him for the first time). I'm happy it was never resolved, though I keep wondering if there's some clue that they are hiding in there that will resolve it for real one of these days :)
That last part is the miracle. So many shows start out strong, and are just dogshit for the finale. Does anyone really believe that Severance will manage this trick? Would love to be surprised and mistaken, but they're just throwing crap at the wall to see what will stick, and that only lasts so long.
