The idea that this would get cancelled after 3 seasons I believe speaks to the feeble conceptions we've adopted about what counts and where in a television series. While the casting left something to be desired, the vast scope and care the series gave to a whole host of issues you don't ever see in media anymore. It's the backdrop that lends itself to what shows like The Wire showed us what television could be. The biggest problem with the show isn't so much lackluster writing or stiff performances, it's that it has to pack so much quality subject matter and potentially interesting characters into a "regular" TV format. The plot lines move on quickly. For a show that may not see more seasons, I appreciate that they were able to get in as much as they did, but can still feel the sense of longing for what more could be.

The Americans nails pacing and silence, you feel the deaths and they can haunt you like they haunt the characters. While Tyrant pulled out it's "wtf no!" moments related to important deaths, the show stopping harrowing moments cannot be so pronounced because there's so much more to explore. That doesn't mean they didn't hit, but it means we didn't get to be as intimately attached as we may have been to even minor players in then series given more time. I understand why, if you're just a fan of a few shows or binge what's recently popular, this might not exactly click with you. But as someone who devours TV, it was nice to get lost in a foreign, yet familiar, world where the characters aren't offering canned conversation and things feel marginally resolved after each episode.

This is such a contribution. It's a thoughtful show. It's deliberate in its goals and agenda. The mess of whatever happens in the background of production is what would provoke you to dislike it, not the story itself. And at the end of the day, isn't that what tends to count the most? Isn't that what separates American Horror Story seasons and why, even when I heard and lamented Nashville was getting cancelled I empathized with the idea there wasn't much left to tell about that world? This should be a 10 season show where more focus can be given to who's left and who you can discover you're rooting for. This is culturally relevant unwinding psychology. It's brilliant in enough ways for me to kick and scream here for someone to recognize and support the same things I do.