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Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell find their characters pushed to new limits in a season aiming to break one of them, if not both.

“The Americans” has always been a show about questions. In the spy genre, questions arise all the time. Who’s lying? Who’s telling the truth? Why? For what purpose? But creator Joseph Weisberg has also been quite adept at allowing each of his first two seasons to be summed up by a central, thematic question — and then answering them through the most trying of circumstances.

The first season of Weisberg’s “marital drama through spies’ eyes” focused on the not-so-basic concept of how two KGB agents ordered to live together, work together and pretend to love one another (and have kids together) could actually fall in love by traditional romantic standards — in other words, how could such a marriage work? Elizabeth (Keri Russell) and Philip (Matthew Rhys) built a sexual tension comparable to the risks taken in the field, vetting the positives of falling in love versus the dangers it could bring to their war against the U.S. Their path to each other was fascinating because, in so many ways, they were already there, but not in the way most important to a successful marriage.

After resolving that the good outweighed the bad — in a rather brilliant example of the “love conquers all” mentality — Season 2 brought about a new challenge for the suddenly authentic couple. What happens to a real family built around falsities? As their children grew older, they were also more exposed to their parents’ secret world. A couple became a family, but what happens to the couple when the family is threatened? Continue reading Review: ‘The Americans’ Season 3 Asks How Far Is Too Far For Family

“The Americans” picks up pretty deftly from where last season’s cliffhanger left off, while advancing that storyline at a relatively slow pace. Mixing the micro and the macro, the FX series grapples with questions surrounding the central couple’s daughter, while finding the Soviets in near-panic mode over the Vietnam-like quagmire that Afghanistan threatens to become for them. Throw in the arrival of Frank Langella in a supporting role, and it’s a solid start to a show that, despite its flaws, has quickly grasped the mantle of being perhaps the network’s most-heralded series.

At the close of season two (and SPOILER ALERT if you’re not caught up), the two Soviet spies operating in the U.S. as a married couple, Philip (Matthew Rhys) and Elizabeth (Keri Russell), were presented an unsettling proposition, or really ultimatum, from their handlers: Begin training their 14-year-old daughter, Paige (Holly Taylor), to join what amounts to the family business. Continue reading TV Review: ‘The Americans,’ Season 3