> Like, don't insult my intelligence.

The real Americans was you, all along

Smart people don’t like sex scenes?

I guess smart people visit porn sites when they want to watch some.

For me it's just boring filler and I skip them.

While we’re expressing opinions: in a show about navigating a partnership that accepts seduction as a necessary part of intelligence work (not solely of a romantic nature, but often), where the main characters are also being seduced by the capitalist lifestyle — I suspect some smart people might also view those less-clothed scenes as contributing (and even critical to) the underlying themes.

I'm with them, I don't enjoy those scenes (in general - haven't seen the one in question). Not because I'm a prude, I just find them a little boring and they usually take too long - and often are immersion breaking themselves with how they clothe or position characters to appeal to TV decency standards. An implication and a fade away is enough for me, unless something pivotal happens within the scene itself.

I agree that there are many stories where the fade away works just fine. I’m a bit baffled at the use of The Americans in this context though. It is distinctly not one of those stories, but one where each such scene — down to the literal blocking of action — helps explicate the narrative in terms of both plot and emotional arcs.

> I guess smart people visit porn sites

I chuckled and thank you for the compliment!

Also: I agree. It's pretty much always a tedium. Now, American series almost always suffer from that: not just the sex scenes are used as filler, and could be replaced with a line or two suggesting the events if relevant. House of Cards is my go to example: just take the British original for how you can condense the story by a factor of 10 without any loss. Putting it that way: it'd be hilarious if a compression format would work this way.

> Putting it that way: it'd be hilarious if a compression format would work this way.

https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-3045

US:ian media doesn't have sex scenes, it has symbolic innuendos standing in for sex scenes.

That was probably the only "cheap stunt" of the entire series. They still had to consider the average viewer, I suppose. But I know a few people I recommended it to were turned off by that exact early scene and never got past it. Really unfortunate.

Thanks for this. Maybe I'll give it another go.