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We were all a little stunned when Felicity Porter, the University of New York’s most famous student (aka Keri Russell), showed up as a gun-toting operative alongside Tom Cruise in 2005’s Mission: Impossible III. But the gamble worked. Nobody was talking about her haircut, that’s for sure. In a weird way, then, Russell’s role on FX’s The Americans is a logical progression. She and Brothers & Sisters’ Matthew Rhys play Elizabeth and Phillip Jennings, married spies who live in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., in the early 1980s, but there’s a twist: They work for the other guys, specifically Cold War-era Soviets.

TVGuide.com sat down with Russell to find out why she signed on, what’s in store for the Jenningses and how Felicity creator J.J. Abrams had a certain prescience about her new job. Continue reading Felicity’s Keri Russell Is All Grown-Up and Spying on The Americans

The cold war is red hot.

Wednesday’s premiere of FX’s espionage thriller The Americans attracted 3.22 million total viewers and 1.57 million adults 18-49, besting the debuts of American Horror Story in the former category and Sons of Anarchy in the latter.

When you factor in the two encore telecasts that followed the premiere, the show drew combined 4.7 million viewers and 2.54 million adults 18-49 for the night.

“We’re very happy with premiere ratings for The Americans and, just as importantly, we’re proud of the widespread critical acclaim the show has received,” said FX president John Landgraf. “We have no doubt that when we get the Live+7 time-shifted ratings from last night, The Americans will rank among the best series debuts ever on FX.”

Source: http://tvline.com/

That person you think you know well — someone in your family, someone in your neighborhood, someone in your bed — maybe you don’t really know them at all.

The creepy realization that, to put it in horror-movie terms, the call is coming from inside the house, has been more and more prominent as of late on television. That understanding therapist on “American Horror Story”? A serial killer. That regular guy from the neighborhood? Chances are he’s been turned into a vampire, a werewolf, a zombie, a meth dealer, a Lannister or a terrorist. Your brother, the demon hunter? Someone removed his soul.

Secrets have always been part of storytelling, but from “Breaking Bad” to “Supernatural” to “Homeland,” television has made a hard turn toward the realm of painfully intimate betrayals in recent years. People who should be close end up turning on each other, and — even scarier — sometimes they have to stand by as a loved one is transformed into an unrecognizable thing.

“The Americans,” a solid spy vehicle for its strong cast, fits right in with this sullied-homefront trend. Maybe mom and dad aren’t necessarily fighting whatever lurking menace threatens the family: Maybe mom and dad are the threat. Continue reading ‘The Americans’ Review: Keri Russell Gets Her Spy On