Category The Americans

“Think of all the military families… it would be perfectly normal for a 16 year-old to say, ‘I’m going to go into service,'” she said.

The Russian spy couple is back.

The Americans star Keri Russell promises that the third installment of the FX period drama, bowing Wednesday, will be just as much about marriage as it will be about turning tricks and kicking ass.

In the previous season, Phillip and Elizabeth Jennings were starting to look like an actual married couple. But that sense of normalcy doesn’t last long. A wedge, once again, is driven between the two when they respond differently to the Center wanting to recruit their daughter, Paige. Phillip, less loyal to his homeland, can’t bear to see his daughter enter into their dangerous world, while Elizabeth believes Paige deserves to know the truth about who she is.

Russell says that upcoming episodes explore challenges that any married person can relate to, with more top-secret missions, affairs and, of course, wigs along the way. “For me being a woman that reads films, this is a good f—king job,” Russell said of her complicated female character. “Of the last things I’ve read, you’re a girlfriend. You got two scenes going, ‘Are you OK?'” This is so much better than that.”

Here, Russell explains Elizabeth’s perspective, talks her onscreen sexual relationship with co-star Matthew Rhys, and reveals her favorite cover identity. Continue reading ‘The Americans’ Star Keri Russell on Season 3: Is it Sexist to Not Recruit Paige?

Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell find their characters pushed to new limits in a season aiming to break one of them, if not both.

“The Americans” has always been a show about questions. In the spy genre, questions arise all the time. Who’s lying? Who’s telling the truth? Why? For what purpose? But creator Joseph Weisberg has also been quite adept at allowing each of his first two seasons to be summed up by a central, thematic question — and then answering them through the most trying of circumstances.

The first season of Weisberg’s “marital drama through spies’ eyes” focused on the not-so-basic concept of how two KGB agents ordered to live together, work together and pretend to love one another (and have kids together) could actually fall in love by traditional romantic standards — in other words, how could such a marriage work? Elizabeth (Keri Russell) and Philip (Matthew Rhys) built a sexual tension comparable to the risks taken in the field, vetting the positives of falling in love versus the dangers it could bring to their war against the U.S. Their path to each other was fascinating because, in so many ways, they were already there, but not in the way most important to a successful marriage.

After resolving that the good outweighed the bad — in a rather brilliant example of the “love conquers all” mentality — Season 2 brought about a new challenge for the suddenly authentic couple. What happens to a real family built around falsities? As their children grew older, they were also more exposed to their parents’ secret world. A couple became a family, but what happens to the couple when the family is threatened? Continue reading Review: ‘The Americans’ Season 3 Asks How Far Is Too Far For Family

“The Americans” picks up pretty deftly from where last season’s cliffhanger left off, while advancing that storyline at a relatively slow pace. Mixing the micro and the macro, the FX series grapples with questions surrounding the central couple’s daughter, while finding the Soviets in near-panic mode over the Vietnam-like quagmire that Afghanistan threatens to become for them. Throw in the arrival of Frank Langella in a supporting role, and it’s a solid start to a show that, despite its flaws, has quickly grasped the mantle of being perhaps the network’s most-heralded series.

At the close of season two (and SPOILER ALERT if you’re not caught up), the two Soviet spies operating in the U.S. as a married couple, Philip (Matthew Rhys) and Elizabeth (Keri Russell), were presented an unsettling proposition, or really ultimatum, from their handlers: Begin training their 14-year-old daughter, Paige (Holly Taylor), to join what amounts to the family business. Continue reading TV Review: ‘The Americans,’ Season 3

When The Americans returns, it will do so with marriage at the center.

The FX spy drama, which comes back with its third season on Jan. 28, will follow the relationship between KGB agents Phillip and Elizabeth Jennings (Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell) when the Soviet Union readies to recruit their daughter, Paige (Holly Taylor).

“Our goal this season was to do a different kind of story, to take a married couple who are committed to one other, who want to make the marriage work, and ask the question: what happens when two people are truly respectful of their partner, yet have a conflict over the most important thing in their lives?” said executive producer and writer Joel Fields Sunday at the Television Critics Association winter press tour. “Everybody can relate to that — it just happens to be a little heightened with this two.”

A wedge is driven between the couple, once again, when Elizabeth entertains the idea of indoctrinating her daughter. Phillip, who values Paige’s safety more than anything, struggles to understand his wife’s unfailing allegiance to the Center. Russell, however, was hesitant on stage to say who her character would choose if it were to come down to her children or her country.

That degree of patriotism — the kind that would even suggest that loyalty to one’s country is more important than a parent’s relationship with their own kids — is a largely unfamiliar notion, and may make it difficult for viewers to feel empathy for Russell’s character. But the creators don’t think the idea is so far-fetched, noting a couple of historical examples of young people being recruited to the KGB by their parents. “Maybe there’s a different parenting style there,” Fields suggested, with creator Joe Weisberg adding: “We’re so used to in real life the kids coming first these days. It’s getting a little irritating.”

Any scenes revolving around the marriage are Russell’s favorite, and she feels that the martial challenges are what make The Americans relatable. “That’s when I love the show, when [it poses] real, vulnerable questions that are probably true to most people,” she said, adding as an example of such honest moments: “You’re not always into your spouse.”
Mere hours earlier, FX chief John Landgraf called the third installment of the period drama the best yet and acknowledged that he’d like to see the series run at least five seasons, something more awards recognition could help. “I sure would like the Emmys to step up and take notice,” he said. “I think that would be really helpful for the show.”

Source: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/