Why you should be watching The Americans

In the modern age of television, it feels easier and easier for shows to slip under the cultural radar, even truly great ones; last year, 599 scripted series aired on broadcast television, compared to 288 a decade earlier, with seemingly more and more of these shows aiming for the coveted title of “prestige drama.” 

One show that has seemingly fallen to the wayside of cultural conversations in our contemporary content glut is The Americans, which aired for six seasons and seventy-five episodes on FX from 2013 to 2018. Created by former CIA agent Joe Weisberg, The Americans focuses on Soviet KGB agents Elizabeth and Phillip Jennings—portrayed by Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys, respectively—living undercover as an everyday married couple in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. at the height of the Cold War in the 1980s. The duo navigate love and spycraft in the ever-shifting political tides of international intrigue, all while hiding their true status from well-meaning next-door neighbor Stan Beeman, portrayed by Noah Emmerich, an FBI counterintelligence agent. 

While the show immediately engages from plot and action alone, The Americans is a cut above many of its peers in portraying the nuanced relationship between its two lead characters. While the show is ultimately a spy thriller, Joe Weisberg described the show’s heart as “a marriage story. International relations is just an allegory for human relations sometimes, when you're struggling in your marriage or with your kid. For Phillip and Elizabeth, it often is.”  

Phillip and Elizabeth are two some of the most engaging and nuanced lead television characters of their era, expertly brought to life Rhys and Russell, and frankly deserve to be kept on the same pedestal often reserved for TV roles such as James Gandolfini on The Sopranos or Bryan Cranston on Breaking Bad. The fact that Russell and Rhys eventually entered into a relationship and got married after meeting on the show speaks to the tremendous chemistry between the two. The actors’ real-life relationship bleeds on screen as well; when Phillip and Elizabeth fight and disagree, the viewers feel the sting of every betrayal and the sharpness of every verbal barb. 

While dealing with elements of spycraft, usually unfamiliar to a general audience, it tackles the development of love and relationships in adverse conditions, which all viewers can likely relate to. In addition, the extraordinary supporting cast deserves some love. Emmerich, best previously known for his supporting role in 1998’s The Truman Show, plays a role that would have been very easy for a lesser performer to caricaturize or make seem incompetent come to life with such incredible pathos (I won’t try to give too much away, but Emmerich’s turn in the series finale is the stuff that Emmy Awards should be made of, if we lived in a fair universe). The entire extended cast performs quite excellently as well, with Alison Wright as Martha and Costa Ronin as Oleg being particular favorites.

The Americans is consistently edge-of-your-seat television. Phillip and Elizabeth’s role as undercover agents constantly pushes the characters to their limits in ever-escalating missions and situations. With every disguise the characters don, facility they infiltrate, or potential source they try to recruit, one can scarcely breathe until the resolution. The everyday dirty work of spying is shown in great detail, but never to the state of monotony. 

Additionally, the immediacy of the plot and the long-term construction of character work never seem to find themselves in opposition: the tasks assigned to Phillip and Elizabeth from Moscow push themselves to the limits of their morality and relationship. By the end of its sixth season, The Americans has racked up enough high-stakes missions and near-misses with Uncle Sam to keep even the most restless viewer engaged.

With 80s nostalgia seemingly all the rage these days, with shows such as Stranger Things dominating the market, The Americans seem to have somewhat forecast our current cultural moment. Unlike works like Stranger Things, however, this is consistently engaged with the dark side and real-life history of the 80s as well. While featuring a soundtrack of notable 80s pop throwbacks and all the expected cultural references, The Americans does not shy away from the brutal nastiness of Cold War statecraft and frequently incorporates history into the development of its plotlines. Events such as the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan, American support for terrorists in Nicaragua, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the eventual Glasnost era are woven into the lives and development of its characters without ever feeling hackneyed or forced. 

Creator Joe Weisberg’s background with the CIA lends the show particular credibility in portraying spycraft and Cold War politicking. With this in mind, however, the beating heart of The Americans remains squarely in the expertly-depicted relationship of Phillip and Elizabeth; advertisements for the show’s first season proclaim that “all’s fair in love and Cold War,” and I can’t think of a better slogan for the series. This show deserves considerably more mainstream attention than it has received—lucky for you, you can stream all six seasons of The Americans on Hulu.