Author: Jen Chaney / Source: Vulture
Over the years, The Americans has excelled at excavating some of the more obscure pop songs from the 1980s to underscore intense and emotional moments. But for one of the most dramatic sequences in its final episode, the series decided to go with a song as massive as they could find.
As Philip and Elizabeth Jennings begin their escape from the U.S., avoid law enforcement detection, and ultimately realize their daughter, Paige, has defected from the train they’re taking, the song that plays is U2’s “With or Without You.” In every way possible, this is a big song choice. Musically and emotionally, it’s expansive, the kind of ballad designed to reverberate in a stadium setting. It is played in the series in its entirety once, and then revisited again in that shocker of a moment when Paige is spotted on the platform.
Outside the context of The Americans, “With or Without You” was one of the biggest hits of the year in which The Americans ends its story, 1987, and the first track released from one of the biggest albums of 1987, The Joshua Tree. And it’s the song that helped U2 credibly claim the title of world’s biggest rock band. Once “With or Without You” gets going — when Edge’s signature guitar chords explode from the speakers and Bono lets loose his cathartic wail — there is absolutely nothing subtle about it. Which makes it a pretty interesting choice for a series that, in so many other ways, has been an exercise in understatement.
While “With or Without You” is often thought of as a love song delivered from the point of view of someone conflicted about a romantic relationship — those whose first TV association with the song involves Rachel and Ross from Friends definitely may think of it in that context — its lyrics apply just as directly to what unfolds on and off that train, to the point of almost — but not quite — being too on the nose.
As Matt Zoller Seitz writes in his review of the finale: “Philip and Elizabeth can’t live with or without the USSR, the United States, the KGB, the travel agency, or their family. Philip, Elizabeth, and Paige fear giving themselves away — the parents by somehow slipping up and getting caught, Paige by letting her parents know that she’s really not up for a…The post Why ‘With or Without You’ Was the Perfect Song Choice for The Americans Finale appeared first on FeedBox.