The Americans is FX’s period drama about the complex and complicated marriage of two KGB spies posing as Americans in suburban Washington, D.C., shortly after Ronald Reagan was elected President.  Philip (Matthew Rhys) and Elizabeth (Keri Russell) have a network of spies and informants under their control, while their two children – 13-year-old Paige (Holly Taylor) and 10-year-old Henry (Keidrich Sellati) – know nothing about their parents’ true identity.  Even though Philip’s growing affinity for America’s values and way of life leads to tension with Elizabeth, the two must work together to keep the FBI from discovering who they really are.

During this recent interview to look back on Season 1 and ahead to Season 2, executive producers Joseph Weisberg and Joel Fields talked about the origin of the series, finding the perfect lead actors, determining how much of a cliffhanger they wanted to end on, where they’re hoping to take Season 2, their possible plans for the kids and their inevitable suspicions, and that they’ll have to get to work pretty quickly on the second season.  Check out what they had to say after the jump, and be aware that there are some spoilers.

This is how The Americans ends / This is how The Americans ends / not with a bang but a whimper. The Americans was renewed for a second season, which is good since pretty much everything that was happening before is still in play. “The Colonel” could technically have worked as a series finale I suppose, though the only thing that made it feel like a season finale rather than a regular episode was that several subplots were wrapped up neatly and nicely — “nice” being the operative word. For a show that has been so languid and complex, things in “The Colonel” moved rather rotely. As it was, the big build up to the “is it or isn’t it a trap” moment was as predictable as anything the show has ever done. Hit the jump for why “you know you’re not allowed to wake up mom.”

Things really picked up this week on The Americans as we barreled towards next week’s finale.  It’s hard to believe we’ve spent twelve weeks with the show, but the payoffs are finally coming, and, meanwhile, they are developping in very strange ways.  Philip, as Clark, takes things to a whole new level with Martha, leaving both him and Elizabeth wondering what went wrong in their marriage, while Nina finds out the information she has been seeking, even if it wasn’t offered.  Many have died for the cause so far, both American and Russian, but The Americans was quiet on the action this week, though high on emotion.  Hit the jump for why if she sounds like Pat Benatar, she probably is righteous.

The Americans has its flaws, but the one thing it gets really right — and that it dedicated almost all of “Covert War” to — is its bleak deconstruction of marriage.  The Americans has always been dour, and it’s not a show I ever get excited about watching.  But once I’m in the show’s world, I’m interested to see how things play out.  “Covert War,” though, highlighted some of the best things about The Americans, and in the process, made everyone feel like crap.  Hit the jump for why “I only have fear … and you.”

“We’re in a war, even if it’s a secret.  Blood gets spilled.  It’s the way it goes,” Gaad tells Stan this week on The Americans, and how true it is.  But unlike other shows that depict violence, The Americans always makes it personal.  The show has gone from being a little sterile to being very emotional, all in the same muted tones of the Cold War it depicts, but those smothering feelings, whispers and quiet anguish make it all the more visceral.  A lot of The Americans is built on issues of trust — Elizabeth and Philip need to be trusted by everyone, but they themselves trust no one (not even, sadly, each other; at least, not fully).  Stan lies to his wife and to Nina, but they are also forced to trust him whether they want to or not.  In war there are always sacrifices, and as we experienced this week, martyrdom.  Hit the jump for more about how “we’re not monsters.”

The Americans took a break last week — something FX never does with its dramas — because of filming delays, but “Safe House” was well worth the wait.  Things got messy thanks to one personal mistake that lead to a Cold War crisis, and it was handled with controlled chaos.  What was great about the confusion and fallout that happened throughout “Safe House” was that it wasn’t arbitrary.  On some series, miscommunication and mistakes happen because people don’t speak or are unwilling to ask basic questions or confirm anything (Lost comes to mind, a show where almost no one asked anyone anything obvious).  The Americans pulled off an amazing feat of plotting this week by allowing things to happen realistically in turn, and following a situation until its natural, though most extreme, end.  Hit the jump for more on why “we should have fried chicken every day!”

The title for The Americans really said it all this week, didn’t it?  There is a secret war going on that no one wants to become full-fledged combat, regarding both the U.S. and the Jennings’ marriage.  Parallels!  That being said, the Jennings’ marriage (one of the strangest yet most honestly portrayed ones on TV) went to some dark, sad places this week whereas the rest of us got a history lesson.  I said early on in The Americans that the show presumed probably a little too much from the audience in terms of a deep knowledge / understanding of that time period and the political motivations within it.  This week, the show did a good job of having the characters ask some pretty straight-forward questions about why the U.S., if it knows but doesn’t “know” that the Russians are targeting the country, retaliate?  “We do not want to start a war,” was the straight-forward reply.  Hit the jump for why we just have to “act like nothing happened.”

The subject and nuances of marriage were again at the forefront of this week’s The Americans, and this time it seemed to focus mostly on loyalty (and also, you know, “Duty and Honor”).  The Jennings’ uneasy marriage can sometimes be a reflection of their own complicated feelings about their lifelong mission for their country, of which their marriage is an integral part.  After several weeks of seeing Elizabeth’s side of things, from her affair with Gregory to hints from her childhood and her initial hesitations at being with Philip in the first place, we finally got to see some of Philip’s background, including a former love, Irina, with whom he is now reuniting.  The two were coming together to enact a scheme that would help to discredit a Polish resistance leader who was being sheltered in the United States during his Polish exile.  And that was just the beginning — hit the jump for more on why “I’m sorry I didn’t kill you.”

Dobry den, my comrades – The Americans got real tonight, da?  Philip and Elizabeth’s story took a surprising turn (quite a few turns, though not quite how I expected), but even they were overshadowed by the tricks Stan pulled to keep Nina from harm, not to mention that haunting interlude where Paige and Henry decided to hitchhike.  This was a pretty flawless episode from top to bottom, building off of what we have experienced in the last five weeks (Elizabeth and Philip’s relationship, Stan’s protectiveness towards Nina) and rewarded us for staying true to the cause.  Things are coming together as much as they were split asunder this week, and per usual I’m not sure what to expect going forward (one of the series’ greatest traits).  But for now, hit the jump for why “I believe in God, not coincidence.”

Another nuanced episode of The Americans this week, focusing on the tit-for-tat back and forth of intelligence and counterintelligence.  Just as the FBI found a way to not only encrypt but make portable its communication, the Russians (via Elizabeth and Philip) found a way to hear them anyway.  Within a day the FBI had adjusted the code to block out the Russians, and so forth.  The bigger revelation was not this cat and mouse game, though, but that the Russians discovered that there was a mole.  And, despite their Herculean efforts to keep their agent in the Department of Defense, Adam Dorma (who we meet briefly at the start of the episode), in the end he became as much of a liability to them as an asset because his loyalty was briefly questioned in his moment of distress.  In the spy world, the slightest hesitation could mean everything.  Hit the jump for why you shouldn’t ask questions, even for all of our 35 years and 8 months together!

Just four episodes into its inaugural season, FX has already granted its spy drama series The Americans a 13-episode order for a second season.  The show has garnered a lot of critical acclaim and is backed by strong performances from its leads, Keri Russell, Matthew Rhys and Noah Emmerich.  According to the network, the series premiere was the most-watched debut in FX’s history, with 5.11 million viewers tuning in.  The network is also reporting ratings gains every week, making The Americans a bona fide hit.

The show, created by Joe Weisberg (a former CIA agent), takes place in 1981 just after Ronald Reagan’s election, and follows two embedded KGB spies, Elizabeth and Philip Jennings, (Russell and Rhys) who spent years preparing to become “typical” Americans so they could help out their government from U.S. soil.  Though Elizabeth struggles with the emotional aspects of assimilation, Philip seems to be developing some positive feelings for the land they were bred to hate.  In addition to the spy elements, the show also focuses on the newly budding relationship between the two leads, who were forced into a marriage for appearances sake, but have only now begun to see each other as more than business partners.  Hit the jump for more on the series, and click here to catch up on my recaps.

I solicited a lot of feedback about The Americans this week because I was confused about how I could still be left so cold by a show that seems so beloved and full of things I should like (spies! Russians! Keri Russell‘s hair!).  It seemed I wasn’t really alone though, and there were plenty of people who felt like I did, that while the show was objectively good, it lacked a spark.  However, last week’s episode, “Gregory,” went a long way in repairing my feelings about the show, which is tough and can be difficult to follow.  It’s not a casual experience, but a deeply involved one that asks us to be completely engaged in it, with a fair amount of background knowledge.  It’s a show that, I know, will grow richer with repeated viewings.  Finally though, this week, I saw the light.  “In Control” was a very solidly entertaining hour of TV.  Hit the jump for more on why “one mistake is all it takes.”

Last week I pondered what it was about The Americans that lacked a spark.  It’s a great show, and “Gregory” proved in a number of ways why (the complexity of Elizabeth and Philip’s marriage, the perfect execution of the heist, a look into the inner workings of a deep spy cover).  Still, I find the show dour and self-important, and as one commenter mentioned last week, it very simply lacks humor.  There’s never a reason for so much as a smirk (thank the lord for the advent of Margo Martindale as Gabriel’s replacement, but even still).  The Americans isn’t as hardcore as Sons of Anarchy or evenBreaking Bad, but both of those series find plenty of ways to inject some much-needed comic relief from time to time.  Hit the jump for why, in Soviet Russia, the jump hits YOU!

The Americans is FX’s new period drama about the complex and complicated marriage of two KGB spies posing as Americans in suburban Washington, D.C., shortly after Ronald Reagan was elected President.  Philip (Matthew Rhys) and Elizabeth (Keri Russell) have a network of spies and informants under their control, while their two children – 13-year-old Paige (Holly Taylor) and 10-year-old Henry (Keidrich Sellati) – know nothing about their parents’ true identity.  Even though Philip’s growing affinity for America’s values and way of life leads to tension with Elizabeth, the two must work together to keep their new FBI agent neighbor (Noah Emmerich) from discovering who they really are.

During this recent exclusive interview with Collider, actor Matthew Rhys talked about how he came to be a part of this show, his reaction to the material, the research he did to get into the mind-set of a guy like this, embracing the ‘80s, the journey his character will be taking this season, and working with co-star Keri Russell.  Check out what he had to say after the jump.

There’s something missing in The Americans that I can’t quite put my finger on.  The concept is certainly compelling, and the pilot set up so much on both the KGB and FBI sides of the story.  The series is written by a former CIA officer, and the show is nuanced to a fault and is backed up by great casting.  But there is still something lacking in the execution of the material.  I wasn’t blown away by the pilot, though it did deliver a lot for the series to cover, and this second episode, “The Clock,” felt like it was a mid-season coaster rather than an early season episode that would really revved up viewers (particularly as a new show).  The Americans is not an easy series, but it may have great pay off.  Is it grabbing us enough, though?  Hit the jump for more.