The Americans
For a lot of people, the Siberian chilliness of The Americans will be a bigger turnoff than the fact that its two protagonists are undercover KGB spies looking to sabotage Cold War America from within. Even more so than in its fantastic first season, Season 2 of The Americans densely layered the emotional and moral responsibilities of Philip and Elizabeth Jennings. Every conversation they had, whether with their American-born kids, a high-value intelligence target, or just each other, had to be filtered through a multitude of identities and allegiances. Just keeping all the deceit straight can be a mental workout, and The Americans asks the viewer to do their share of the lifting.
After Season 1 worked so hard to establish Phillip and Elizabeth as flawed human beings instead of Boris and Natasha-esque villains (just with a better wig collection), Season 2 was free to focus itself around a central theme and mystery. The brutal murder of another sleeper cell family forced the Jennings to weigh their commitment to the cause against their commitment to a fake family that was becoming more real by the day. As much as they were waging a covert war against America, the Jennings, along with the other intelligence agents on the show, faced a constant struggle to stay alive and free in a world overtaken by paranoia.
Creators Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields drew out the season’s arc with the patience and cleverness of the very best spy fiction, all while maintaining The Americans’ status as the most emotionally complex show on television. Its smarts did nothing to spoil the pervading sexiness of all the intrigue, and thanks to terrific performances and direction, the show could change identities whenever need be. An episode like “New Car” could open like a sitcom in order to blind the characters and audience to an impending gut-punch, only to then further complicate the situation by viewing it through a new set of eyes. The geopolitics of the time seem simple compared to the personal politics at play every week, and that the show can do all this while staging some of TV’s best action sequences makes The Americans a pretty cool show indeed.
