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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

The star of the FX spy drama dishes on the show’s eerie parallels to modern-day U.S.-Russia relations and the projects she wants to tackle next.
The Americans is gearing up for its sixth and final season, and star Keri Russell thinks the timing is just right.

“It’s always nice to be able to be given the option to go out on a high note instead of at year 15 when they’re running out of storylines,” she tells The Hollywood Reporter. “It will be sad to see it go but the time is right.”

Always a critical darling, the FX drama didn’t break into the Emmys until last year, when it received its first series nomination and nods for stars Russell and Matthew Rhys. Though the series didn’t crack the outstanding drama category this year, the co-stars still landed nominations in their respective acting categories.

Ahead of the Sept. ceremony, THR chatted with Russell about the end of Philip and Elizabeth’s journey, the show’s eerie parallels to modern-day U.S.-Russia relations and the projects she wants to tackle next.
Continue reading Keri Russell on the Perfect Timing of The Americans Final Season