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The Americans returns for a 13-episode fifth season starting Tuesday, March 7th at 10pm on FX. Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys star as two KGB spies posing as Americans in Washington D.C. in the 1980's. The cast also includes Noah Emmerich, Frank Langella, and Margo Martindale. Joe Weisberg is serving as showrunner with a few other EP's, including Graham Yost, helping out. Seasons 1-4 are available on Amazon Prime if you're interested in catching up on the series. Note that The Americans has been renewed through Season 6, which will conclude the story.
FX said:The Americans is a period drama about the complex marriage of two KGB spies posing as Americans in suburban Washington D.C. during the Reagan administration.
The arranged marriage of Philip (Matthew Rhys) and Elizabeth Jennings (Keri Russell) grows more passionate and genuine by the day, but as the pressures and demands of the job grow heavier, the personal toll becomes almost too exhausting to bear. Having revealed their true identities to their teenage daughter Paige (Holly Taylor), Philip and Elizabeth's ability to protect their cover and their family's safety has become even more tenuous.
Even as Paige pushes her parents to bring her deeper into their confidence, Philip and Elizabeth struggle to maintain normalcy in their family, especially around their son, Henry (Keidrich Sellati). Paige's budding romance with Matthew, the son of their neighbor, FBI Agent Stan Beeman (Noah Emmerich), further complicates matters since Stan – Philip's best friend – remains the greatest threat to the Jennings' safety. He and his partner, Agent Dennis Aderholt (Brandon J. Dirden) are on the task force that seeks to uncover the Soviet illegals living among them.
After Stan's KGB lover/asset Nina was sent back to Moscow and executed for treason, he cultivated a relationship with KGB officer Oleg Burov (Costa Ronin), who, torn between duty and conscience, shared top Soviet secret intel with Stan that allowed the FBI to avert a potentially catastrophic loss of life. Disillusioned with the KGB, Oleg returned home to Russia, but he is finding it harder to escape his past transgressions than he had hoped.
As the Cold War rages on, paranoia on both sides reaches new heights, making Philip and Elizabeth's work increasingly vital – and eminently more perilous.
Cast:
- Keri Russell as Elizabeth Jennings
- Matthew Rhys as Phillip Jennings
- Noah Emmerich as Agent Stan Beeman
- Holly Taylor as Paige Jennings
- Keidrich Sellati as Henry Jennings
- Costa Ronin as Oleg Igorevich Burov
- Margo Martindale as Claudia
- Frank Langella as Gabriel
Videos (please spoiler tag discussion of promotional material)
- Quotes full trailer
- Season 4 recap video from FX
- Inside The Americans Season 5 | First Look
- Return promo
- "TV's Most Acclaimed Drama" Promo
- Belly of the Bomb promo
- Formation teaser
- School's Out teaser
- Couple teaser
- Fist trailer
- Steam teaser
- Dinner promo
- Bulava teaser
- Day teaser
- Problems teaser
- Paper Trail teaser
- Beastie Boys Sabotage mashup with The Americans
Links
- FX official site
- IMDB
- Wiki
- NeoGAF Season 1 Thread
- NeoGAF Season 2 Thread
- NeoGAF Season 3 Thread
- NeoGAF Season 4 Thread
News:
- THR: 'The Americans' On- and Offscreen Couple Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys in Rare Joint Interview
- Deadline with a few S5 teases from today's TCA panel
- NY Mag: 10 Things We Learned About The Americans' Final Seasons at TCA
- Variety: ‘The Americans': 10 Things We Learned From the Showrunners at TCA
- Deadline interview: Keri Russell & Matthew Rhys On 'The Americans' Emmy-Nominated 4th Season
- ‘The Americans' Casts Brett Tucker
- THR panel discussion with Russell, Rhys, Fields, and Weisberg from last night at the 92nd Street Y in New York
- EW: The Americans: First season 5 cryptic details
- 'The Americans' and the New Cold War
- YahooTV's Winter Preview
- TVLine's Winter TV preview on The Americans
- Deadline recap of the TCA panel
- TCA Report: NY Mag
- TCA Report: Nerdist
- LA Times Winter TV preview
- Washington Post interview: How Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell learned to stop worrying and love their characters' chilly fates
Reviews & Comments
Forbes said:Knowing the next two seasons are the last also makes everything feel heightened. Thus far, nothing about The Americans feels like its spinning its wheels. Everything is done with calculated precision and swiftness. We move from one scene to the next in blinding efficiency. That said, moving fast doesn't mean moving unjustly. Nothing is without impact. Emotion is still intact. The Americans has never been this good at what it does best - emotionally complex spy drama.
Collider said:In all of these ways and others, The Americans continues to be a deeply complicated but beautifully nuanced portrait of a family. The family isn't typical, but their dynamics are. It's what makes the formula for the show, if you can even dare to call it a formula, so compelling. There's action and tension and incredibly cold and brutal violence (that is also swiftly effective), but alongside it are parents and teenagers sparring, fears over emotional infidelity, over job security, and about complicated adult friendships. It's muted, tense, and in Season 5 it takes its time. It's building to something else, and while we don't yet know what that is, there's no reason to be suspicious. It is not the catastrophe the Jennings are waiting for (Able Archer, perhaps?), but it will surely be astonishing, and never more relevant.
Rating: 5 stars Excellent — Still one of the best, if not the best show on TV.
S5 Poster:
Special thanks to griffy for the thumbs up gif.