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LLeave it to The Americans showrunners to entirely subvert our expectations. With their acclaimed FX spy thriller heading into its penultimate season, do Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields tell us how season 5 is gaining steam toward some exciting conclusion? Nope! Not even a little.

“We’ve come to embrace the slow burn — such a slow burn that it may not even be burning at all,” Weisberg says wryly. “It’s not ramped up. It’s not hyped up. It’s not building the tension — but it will be a great season.” So what, then, is going on with EW’s first look image of stars Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell in flight crew garb? Below we spoke to the ever-crafty producers and tried our best to get some answers about the new season, which debuts in March.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: When producers know they’re doing a penultimate season, they usually opt for one of two tactics: Either more ramping up to the dramatic final season or they approach things like it’s actually the first half of the final season and major events are happening throughout. Which did you opt for?

JOE WEISBERG: We are doing neither of those tactics. We have a whole new tactic. People have called this show a “slow burn.” We used to think that was a back-handed compliment, or possibly even an insult. We’ve come to embrace the slow burn — such a slow burn that it may not even be burning at all. We’re just telling a story as it unfolds. For us, the penultimate season is just another season of telling a story of this family and the people around them. It’s not ramped up. It’s not hyped up. It’s not building the tension — but it will be a great season.

JOEL FIELDS: In a strange way this story has come to life so much for us that we’re just telling the story we have and following it. It would seem backward to us to say, “How do we construct backward from the final season of the show?” When FX picked up the final season they didn’t say, “You have 23 episodes left.” They said, “What do you guys feel?” and “let’s have a dialogue and how much we need together to tell this story.” The story is giving us more than we’re giving the story.

WEISBERG: Just to be really difficult, we should tell everybody that we’re slowing down. Because when you’re about to come to a stop, you’ve got to slow down! So we’re slowing down some and then next season we’re going to cruise very slowly to the finish line. There were no airbags in the ‘80s, you have to be very careful. Continue reading The Americans: First season 5 cryptic details

With just two seasons left of The Americans, fans of the FX series about Cold War-era Soviet espionage are eager to know how it will end.

Co-showrunners Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg remained tight-lipped about specific developments planned for seasons five and six during The Hollywood Reporter’s TV Talks panel discussion with chief TV critic Tim Goodman but they did discuss, in broad terms, how they were approaching the end of the critically-acclaimed show (which earned its first Emmy nominations in major categories this year). And star Matthew Rhys was full of humorous suggestions for a dramatic finale.

Speaking at the 92nd Street Y in New York, the actor, who was joined by his on- and off-screen partner Keri Russell, joked throughout the panel about ideas for how the central secret, that Rhys and Russell’s characters are Russian spies posing as a married American couple in the U.S., would be revealed.

“I think the last scene is [the couple’s FBI agent neighbor] Stan Beeman (Noah Emmerich) going, ‘Wait. They were what?’,” Rhys quipped.

Russell also prompted Rhys to reveal his other idea, which involves a connection between the couple’s teenage daughter Paige (Holly Taylor) to one of the most famous political sex scandals of the late ’90s.

“Paige changes her name to Monica Lewinsky,” Rhys said to laughs and murmuring from the audience. Continue reading ‘The Americans’ Star Jokes About Show’s Connection to Lewinsky Scandal as Cast, Writers Tease End of FX Series

Check back at 7:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, Oct. 30 to watch chief TV critic Tim Goodman moderate a discussion with the team behind the Emmy-nominated FX series.
On the heels of their first Emmy nominations (after four seasons) in the categories of best drama series and best drama actor and actress, the stars and showrunners of FX’s critically acclaimed series The Americans will sit down with The Hollywood Reporter’s chief TV critic Tim Goodman in New York City.

For the second installment in THR’s TV Talks series, Goodman will moderate a discussion with Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys, who play the undercover KGB couple at the center of the Cold War-era series, and co-showrunners Joel Fields and creator Joe Weisberg.

FX recently announced that the series about Soviet espionage in the U.S. in the early ’80s has been renewed for a final two seasons, set to air in 2017 and 2018, respectively.

Check back at 7:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m. PT to watch the livestream of Goodman’s discussion with the team behind The Americans.

Source: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com