WASHINGTON — How well do we really know each other? How many of our secrets do we share with our closest friends, neighbors and co-workers? How much of each of us is an iceberg to others? And what steps do we take to make sure the 90 percent stays underwater?
It’s easy to be all-in on FX’s acclaimed TV drama “The Americans,” which wraps its sixth and final season with a hotly anticipated series finale at 10 p.m. Wednesday.
The spy show takes place in D.C. during the Reagan years, and unlike the movie “No Way Out,” did not have anyone boarding the Metro in Georgetown. There’s been plenty of violence, sex and ’80s references (David Copperfield really did make the Statue of Liberty disappear!).
Over six seasons, the show was equal parts up-tempo and slow-burn, led by real-life couple Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys as a pair of travel agents who might be working for the KGB.
The seemingly normal couple with two kids and a nice house in Falls Church, Virginia, (I swear a buddy of mine used to mow lawns in that neighborhood) were doing their darnedest to undermine the good old United States of America. And this was no “Boris & Natasha” — they were chillingly effective at what they did (case in point: the suitcase from season three).
Ultimately, the show was just as much about an evolving marriage as it was about the spies.
Deception lurked around every corner for six strong seasons, from the semi-convincing wigs to having a teenage daughter swipe pages of her minister’s diary. Between all of the targets (poor Martha) and handlers (Frank Langella as Gabriel remains my favorite), the characters of Philip and Elizabeth — or Mischa and Nadezhda, as they were known in the mother country — went from spies pretending to be married to a married couple pretending to not be spies.
Parents always want a better world for their children, and after they brought Paige into their world of spycraft, viewers saw both parents push back from condemning their daughter to their world of deception. Elizabeth wanted Paige to take a safe job as a State Department mole, while Philip wanted her to move completely out of the family business (I know what you’re thinking: poor Henry Jennings was going to be captain of his prep school hockey team).
As fate would have it (aren’t TV coincidences crazy?), “The Americans” added the wrinkle of having an FBI agent move next door. Unlike most sitcoms where the wacky neighbor provides welcome comic relief, Noah Emmerich’s Stan Beeman was akin to having missiles in Cuba (or Turkey, depending on whose perspective you prefer). It’s danger on the doorstep.
Naturally, Stan and Philip became best friends to drive up the tension. And while we saw Philip evolve in his marriage and career, we saw Stan’s marriage crumble and work go sideways to the point of him leaving counterintelligence. Now, in the final episodes, Stan can’t stop thinking that the Jennings might not be all that they seem.
What makes the show work is that you want to root for Stan and his FBI colleagues to win (it doesn’t hurt that Emmerich played assistant coach Craig Patrick in the Cold War hockey flick “Miracle”), while still rooting for Philip and Elizabeth in some way — but not too much.
The final episodes take place in 1987, during the INF Treaty talks. Elizabeth has turned against her handler who is trying to overthrow Gorbachev and ruin the summit. Philip is on the run after being spotted with a Russian Orthodox Priest in D.C. — which looks a lot like Brooklyn. Stan is getting closer. And everybody’s favorite machine, the Mail Robot, continues to hum.
Break out the disguises and deception for one final episode.
