Category Articles & Interviews

“The Americans” finally broke through at the Emmys with a Best Drama Series nomination for its fourth season, but the Cold War thriller is back to being the underdog two years later, as it gears up to contend for its final season, which premieres March 28 on FX.

By the time that “The Americans” received its Best Drama Series nomination, it had amassed 12 nominations from the Television Critics Assn. — more for its first four seasons of any show ever, except “The Sopranos.” “The Americans” then fell out of the Emmys’ Best Drama Series lineup last year for its fifth season. For the first time, “The Americans” received only one nomination from the TCA, no Critics’ Choice Award nominations and it was not listed among the annual American Film Institute’s Top 10 Programs.

Based on the first three episodes of the 10-episode sixth season, “The Americans” is continuing with its more intimate pace. These episodes are light on watercooler developments, so no plot points are embargoed from mention in advance reviews. For the most part, both KGB operative Philip Jennings (2016/2017 Best Drama Actor nominee Matthew Rhys) and FBI agent Stan Beeman (Noah Emmerich) are out of the spy game, leaving Keri Russell (2016/2017 Best Drama Actress nominee) with the meatiest acting material, as her character — KGB operative Elizabeth Jennings — trains her and Philip’s daughter Paige (Holly Taylor) under KGB handler Claudia (2015/2016 Best Drama Guest Actress winner Margo Martindale).

“The Americans” is positioned well for Emmys nominations by virtue of this being its last chance. The Emmys are infamously stingy when it comes to awarding final seasons, but continually give “goodbye hugs” at the nominations stage. The finale of “The Good Wife” was divisive at best, but earned the show its first Best Drama Writing nomination in six years, since its pilot. The final season of “Downton Abbey” that same year got the show back into the same category for the first time in three years. Maggie Smith also won Best Drama Supporting Actress, having been snubbed altogether the year before for the first time in the role, which had previously won her two Emmys.

Like Smith, Margo Martindale of “The Americans” was nominated for each of the first four seasons, including two wins, then was snubbed for the penultimate season. That Martindale has finally joined the main credits sequence this season suggests that she will have more material than ever before.

If “The Americans” adds a first-time nomination this year, it might be Noah Emmerich, who scored a Critics’ Choice nomination as Best Drama Supporting Actor for the first season. The Emmys continually nominate performances for final seasons that they had wholly ignored prior, including Becky Ann Baker (“Girls”), Ann Dowd (“The Leftovers”) and Laurie Metcalf (“Getting On”) in the past two years.

Source: http://www.goldderby.com/

As spies for Soviet Russia, Philip and Elizabeth Jennings have spent years trying to undermine Reagan-era America from the inside, and now their great game is coming to a close. The latest teaser for the final season of The Americans, which jumps ahead three years to 1987, indicates how much things have changed on the show.

The brief collage of clips is set to Elizabeth (Keri Russell) talking about a successful mission — but at the end of the teaser, it’s revealed she’s not talking to Philip (Matthew Rhys) at all, but rather to their daughter, Paige (Holly Taylor), now wearing her own spy disguise. Like mother, like daughter.

Bringing Paige along on her spying missions represents a dream come true for Elizabeth, as The Americans executive producer Joe Weisberg recently told EW.

“This is what Elizabeth has wanted for a long time, and it’s finally happening,” Weisberg said. “She’s getting to bring her kid along and go out and work with her sometimes and do things with her. She sometimes makes mistakes and that’s a little worrisome, but other times Paige really does well and is successful and that feels great.”

Watch the teaser above. The Americans season 6 premieres March 28 on FX.

Source: http://ew.com

Keri Russell isn’t ready to say goodbye to The Americans.

Currently halfway through production on the sixth and final season of the FX spy drama, the 41-year-old actress took a moment to reflect on her six-year journey playing Elizabeth Jennings, a KGB officer posing as one-half of a married couple opposite real-life partner Matthew Rhys.

“I had no idea from the beginning the experience that it would turn into. I relish this experience,” Russell said at FX’s Television Critics Association press tour during The Americans’ farewell panel on Friday. “It’s been such an enjoyable, creative [time]. I know we’re set in this 1980s spy show, but it’s truly one of my favorite marriage stories, couched in this Cold War spy world. It’s just really sparse, interesting storytelling.”

“For me, playing Elizabeth, I just think as a woman, it’s been an incredible feminist role to get to play,” she continued. “It’s so rare to be so single-minded and she’s so successful at doing it. I’ve really enjoyed it. I’m happy it’s ending on such a high note while I’m still so excited and interested in the storylines. It’s been a great ride.”

Russell admitted that because they still have “two months” left in the filming schedule, she hasn’t had the opportunity to look back on this era in her life and career with any particular significance.

“It’s such an uphill sprint in a great way — that type of work lends itself to the show, the cold and the struggle of it all. I feel like heads are still down, charging up that hill. There’s not a lot of time for reflection. It’s about getting through these last few months,” she said. “It feels really good and satisfying, what [executive producers] Joe [Weisberg] and Joel [Fields] have created.”

The Americans returns for its sixth and final season on Wednesday, March 28 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on FX.

Source: http://www.etonline.com/

One of television’s great series will wrap up a spectacular six-season run this year when The Americans airs its final episode. It’s been called the best drama on television, even during this period of amazing television, and you won’t find any disagreement here.

But the end is coming, and as much as we’d love to see how the story of Philip and Elizabeth Jennings ends, there’s a bittersweet feeling that it will all be over later this spring. Fortunately for the actors, they’re too busy putting together a big final season to worry about it yet.

“The perennial struggle of The Americans, and I’m sure I’ve bored you with this, is where to land these huge momentous moments,” star Matthew Rhys, who plays Philip, said. “And I think one element of trying to restrain yourself in the final season is preempting any of that [feeling of an end] or if there’s a sort of temple to an impending end or such, you have to remember that it is the present. You’re not working toward the end. So that’s a process I’m still grappling with.”

“We shoot the dead of winter in New York, and it’s such an uphill sprint and I think that type of work lends itself to the show, and the cold and the struggle of it all,” said Keri Russell, who plays Elizabeth. “But I feel like heads are still down charging up that hill, and there’s not a lot of time for reflection yet. It’s about trying to get through those final months. But I will say, because we’ve read a lot of scripts, it feels really good and satisfying what Joe and Joel have written.”

Russell continued later in the panel: “I relish this experience, it’s been such an enjoyable, creative — I love the storytelling of it. I know we’re set in this 1980s spy show, but it’s truly one of my favorite marriage stories couched in this Cold War spy world. I think that it’s just really sparse, interesting storytelling. And for me playing Elizabeth, I just think as a woman it’s been an incredible feminist role to get to play.”

As for the final season itself, it will take place after a three-year time jump with Philip and Elizabeth seeing new tests in their relationship. And of course, there’s always the chance that everyone can die, given the severity of the show. Even the subject of the safety of Henry (Keidrich Sellati), the youngest member of the Jennings family and the one not involved in spy games at all, came up. And the producers wouldn’t say anyone would be safe.

“Don’t get too comfortable about anyone turning out well,” said Joel Fields. No, not Henry!

The Americans begins its final season Wednesday, March 28 at 10/9c.

Source: http://www.tvguide.com

The sixth season of the spy drama will bow Wednesday, March 28 on FX.

As The Americans heads into its sixth and final season, FX trekked out the cast and creators of the critically-beloved spy drama to the Television Critics Association press tour for the very last time on Friday.

On hand to field questions about the upcoming episodes, which will begin airing this Spring, were executive producers Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields, along with actors Matthew Rhys, Keri Russell, Holly Taylor, Keidrich Sellati and Costa Ronin. The panel quickly turned sentimental when reporters began asking about how the castmembers were feeling about the show ending, though Russell acknowledged that they haven’t quite gotten there emotionally yet as they are only about halfway through filming.

“We shoot the dead of winter in New York and it’s such an uphill sprint — the cold, the struggle of it all. I feel like heads are still down charging up that hill so there’s not a lot of time for reflection yet,” she said of the series, which centers on the complex marriage of two KGB spies posing as Americans in suburban Washington D.C. during the Reagan administration. “But I will say, since we’ve read 11 scripts, it feels really good and satisfying what Joe and Joel have created.”

For Rhys, he’s still figuring out how to not think about the end of it all. “The perennial struggle of The Americans has been knowing where to land these huge momentous moments as an actor. And I think one element of trying to restrain yourself in the final season is pre-empting any of that. You have to remember that it’s the present,” he told the crowd at the Langham Hotel in Pasadena. “So that’s a process that I’m still grappling with.”

Looking back on her time on the show, Russell noted that when she first signed onto the project, she had no idea what it’d turn out to be. “I have relished this experience. It’s just been such an enjoyable, creative one, and I love the storytelling,” said the actress, who alongside Rhys landed an Emmy nomination last year, even though the series didn’t manage to crack the outstanding drama category. “I know we’re set in this 1980s spy show but it’s truly one of my favorite marriage stories couched in this cold war spy world… and as a woman, it’s been an incredible feminist role.”

The final season of The Americans will debut March 28 at 10 p.m. on FX.

Source: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/

Paige Jennings was destined to go into the family business, “The Americans” showrunners Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields told reporters Friday as cast members and producers of the beloved FX drama discussed plans for the show’s sixth and final season, which bows March 28.

Weisberg and Fields said they have been planning for some time for Paige (played by Holly Taylor) to follow her mother into the Soviet spy ranks for some time. Her younger brother Henry (played by Keidrich Sellati), however, is another story.

“From the beginning, Paige sort of had her mother’s Russian soul and that was going to work throughout the series and create a certain darkness inside her,” Weisberg, creator of the 1980s-set series starring Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys as covert Soviet spies in Washington, D.C. “But you could feel from the beginning that Henry did not get even the part of his father that had a Russian soul. He got sort of his father’s American side, and even though he probably, like Paige, had deep down some sense that something was wrong, he just didn’t seem affected by it from the very beginning. He seemed like the one true American kid from the beginning.” Continue reading The Americans Cast and Producers Brace for Emotional Final Season