Category TV Show

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

Following the recently wrapped season 5 of FX’s spy drama The Americans, Creators/Eps Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields hit up Austin’s ATX Television Festival and offered a bit of insight into what’s to come in the sixth and final season.

Though no specific plot details were revealed, Weisberg teased that it will be “action packed and emotional packed.”

“A lot of pieces hanging out there, a lot of stories,”he said, adding, “threads to who these people are and how their lives are gong to end up… we’ve got 10 episodes to pull that all together.”

The duo said they’ve known early on how the show would end. “Our stories sometimes change a lot, we write pretty far ahead and we’ll have ideas written down in pretty extensive thoughtful form earlier on and then some will stay with us,” said Fields. “The ending itself has stuck since middle of season 2”

Season 5 left off with Elizabeth (Keri Russell) and Philip Jennings (Matthew Rhys) having to put a hold on their plans to return to the Soviet Union with their children. Continue reading The Americans Creators On Slower Season 5 Pace & Action-Packed Final Season 6

It took 20 minutes for the cast and creators of “The Americans” to address the elephant in the room.

For a show that centers around undercover KGB Russian spies in America, bringing up President Donald Trump seemed like an expected segue. During the FX show’s FYC event at the Saban Media Center at the Television Academy on Thursday evening, Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields, executive producers and writers for “The Americans,” said they already broke the story for Season 5 right as Trump was getting elected and preparing to enter office.

Fields said when writing, they tried to isolate themselves into a bubble of the 1980s to stick to the show’s setting. However, the current political climate subtly tapped onto their subconscious. Continue reading The Americans Look Back at Season 5, Tease Changing Season 6 at FYC Event

Well, hey, look who dropped by for a visit — it’s Tuan and his parents! Come right in, the Morozovs say, Pasha should be upstairs.

He’s upstairs all right, bleeding out on his bed after an attempted suicide. Tuan told him to do it to get their attention (part of a blackmail scheme to drive the family back to Moscow so the mother can continue her affair with a CIA operative).

Philip and Elizabeth are horrified by Tuan’s actions, and they’ve taken an incredible risk in showing up unannounced for a “casual” visit that ends with Pasha being wheeled into an ambulance in critical condition

An American surveillance agent who sits outside the Morozov home to monitors potential threats helps rescue the boy and comes into close contact with Philip and Elizabeth, who are now (potentially) part of whatever investigation may follow.

The exposure here is immense, but Philip and Elizabeth’s consciences won’t allow them to sit back and let this nightmare play out.

Afterward, Alexei finds his son’s note: “He is sorry… but he cannot live in America.” Continue reading The Americans finale recap: The Soviet Division

Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields break down the FX drama’s penultimate finale episode and look back on the recent season: “We thought we were moving pretty fast.”
The fifth season of The Americans ended with a twist on Tuesday.

The jam-packed season finale of the FX spy drama saw Philip (Matthew Rhys) and Elizabeth (Keri Russell) seriously contemplate a return to Russia but ultimately decide to stay put. The episode, a rare one co-written by showrunners Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg, was directed by series vet Chris Long.

“We felt it was very emotional,” says Weisberg, looking back on the season. Fields adds that the pair have heard from viewers that the recent episodes have felt slow — but they feel differently about the pacing. “We thought we were moving pretty fast,” he says. “I mean, they got married. Elizabeth told Paige [Holly Taylor] about her rape. Phillip found out about his father. Gabriel [Frank Langella] left. We can hardly keep up. We’re exhausted.”

The series has become more topical this year due to striking parallels between U.S.-Russian relations today and those explored in the show. “If anybody had said a few seasons in that suddenly Russia would be perceived as the greatest threat and possibly one of the greatest enemies that the United States possibly has, we would have said, ‘That’s insane. You are bonkers,'” says Fields. Continue reading The Americans Showrunners Talk Emotional Season 5 Finale