The Americans–Cold War at Home
In this multiple award-winning six-season Hulu series (2013-2018), The Americans has invaded the hearts of countless viewers. The Americans takes place during the Reagan era of 1980-1987, the Cold War with Gorbachev and what was known then as the Soviet Union.
Philip (Matthew Rhys) and Catherine (Keri Russell) Jennings are high-level Soviet KGB spies who live in Falls Church, Virginia close to where the action is in Washington, DC. Matched as husband and wife by their KGB handlers, all allegiance in the first few seasons is to their homeland. Their two American-born children, however, Paige (Holly Taylor) and Henry (Keidrich Sellati), have no cultural or emotional connection to the Soviet Union.
The longer the Jennings family resides in the US, the more the viewer sees their identities and allegiance morph. Philip and Catherine’s marriage shape-shifts as Philip becomes more understanding of the personal toll and sacrifices they are making to protect their children.
One particular neighbor underscores the secrets and lies that harm everyone. FBI agent Stan Beeman (Noel Emmerich), is tasked with identifying Soviet spies. Since the Jennings family seems to be a “normal” American middle-class suburban household, Beeman never suspects that they are spies.
The Jennings mental and emotional contortions become increasingly exhausting, and the resulting repercussions and collateral damage are expected, but perhaps not in such brutal expression. As the FBI acquires more data and evidence leaning in towards an accurate identification, extreme pressure on the Jennings to survive and save their family leads to more savagery and cold-blooded “survival” skills. Can the Jennings continue to lie and live as Americans?
Everyone is simply striving to stay afloat amidst the carnage, including at least one wrecked marriage, a “fake” second marriage, unintended friendships and bonds, and questions of identity and homeland.
The Soviet Union Catherine and Philip remember is twenty-years past, not current. Moreover, they have spent more than half of their lives in Virginia. Unlike Catherine who gags at the attempt to pronounce America, consistently revealing her contempt for her adopted homeland, Philip begins to learn his children’s identity as Americans would be difficult to transform. He becomes increasingly conflicted, straddling the liminal zone between dual identities and homelands–between being a Russian and being an American. Can the Jennings family be both? As Philip’s conflicts are revealed, can he reconcile them or will there be a day of reckoning for all?
Moreover, what about family, friendship, and patriotism? Loyalty to country over family can be one choice. Holding on to one’s own soul and integrity can be another. And then there is family and friendship–are they primary? These eternal dilemmas: integrity, humanity and morality on one hand and self sacrifice, allegiance to homeland and duty on the other are explored and eviscerated with unsatisfying answers.
The value system of American exceptionalism and Soviet communism values are splayed and dissected in all their ugliness like few other shows to date. The Americans has its flaws, of course. Prosaic dialogue, too many scenes of just sitting in a car looking grim, and the pedestrian tendency to let the drama petrify in order to take up the necessary time to end an episode under studio contract. If you binge-watch this six-season show, and have perhaps unrealistically high expectations for a masterpiece, then The Americans’ limitations are more obvious. The acting on the part of the entire cast, particularly Russell, Rhys, and Emmerich are at the highest level. However, this is no masterpiece, no matter what the most ardent fans consider it to be. The ending was overdone, dragged out, and needed to be ruthlessly cut to highlight what identity, both of self and of community, entails.
The Americans is a cultural must for any cinephile, in line with watching other projected US television classics like “The Sopranos”, “Succession”, “Game of Thrones”, “Breaking Bad”, and “Dexter”.
Availability: Hulu