The Americans (2013)

Genre

drama television series, espionage television series, thriller television series

Country

United States

Length

6 seasons, 75 episodes

Rated

TV-MA

Rating

7.9 of 10 from 1,074 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A Soviet spy couple live undercover as a normal American family in a Washington D.C. suburb during the 1980s. They carry out espionage missions while raising their children and managing a dangerous double life that puts them in conflict with an FBI agent who is their neighbor.

tensesuspensefulslow-burncold waratmosphericcharacter-drivenmoral complexitybleakintrospective

What happens

The Americans is an American period spy drama television series created by Joe Weisberg for FX. It aired for six seasons from January 30, 2013, to May 30, 2018. Weisberg and Joel Fields also served as showrunners and executive producers. Set during the Cold War, the show follows Elizabeth (Keri Russell) and Philip Jennings (Matthew Rhys), two Soviet KGB intelligence officers posing as an American married couple living in Falls Church, a Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C. The couple combine their spying duties with raising their American-born children Paige (Holly Taylor) and Henry (Keidrich Sellati). The Americans also explores the conflict between Washington's FBI office and the KGB Rezidentura there, from the perspectives of agents on both sides, including the Jenningses' neighbor Stan Beeman (Noah Emmerich), an FBI agent working in counterintelligence. The series begins in the aftermath of the inauguration of President Ronald Reagan in January 1981 and concludes in December 1987, shortly before the leaders of the United States and the Soviet Union signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. The show explores themes of marriage, identity, and parenthood, which were structured around the metaphorical connection between the Cold War and the Jenningses' marriage. The Americans was acclaimed by critics, many of whom considered it among the best television shows of its era; its writing, characters, and acting were often singled out. The series's final season earned Rhys the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, while Weisberg and Fields won Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series; it also received the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Drama. Margo Martindale twice won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for her performances in the third and fourth seasons. It was one of the rare drama shows to receive two Peabody Awards during its run. It has since been named one of the greatest television series of all time. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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