A KGB couple, living a normal suburban life, secretly gather intelligence, using sex, extortion, & violence in Reagan-era Washington.
The Americans is a strong action drama about a Russian husband & wife team of `illegals' planted in the USA by the KGB back in the 1960s so that they have deep cover. When Reagan takes power in 1981, he ramps up the Cold War rhetoric and orders several huge military projects: Star Wars (satellite lasers), radar-defeating stealth aircraft, medium-range cruise missiles, and antiballistic missiles. Russia & its KGB urgently need technical intelligence on these projects to keep pace in the arms race. So, they fully activate their illegals, ordering them to cultivate multiple US defence workers.
The series shows the lives of two KGB illegals, Elizabeth & Philip, who outwardly lead moderately successful lives as travel agents, with a large house in the Washington suburbs, and two early teen children. Secretly, however, they are experts in one-to-one combat, in seduction & the exploitation of vulnerabilities, and in the art of self-disguise. They use these abilities to recruit, and then pressure, their defence contacts into providing vital intelligence.
Guardians of internal US security are the FBI counterintelligence department, and their most active operative, agent Beeman. Beeman, who ironically lives nextdoor to the illegals, runs his own sting operations, and successfully uses extortion to recruit a young female KGB officer, officially attached to the USSR embassy.
Over the first two season, the illegals are ruthless & efficient. When things go wrong, they kill their sources without mercy, or throw allies to the wolves. There is a lot of violence, the corpse count is high, and there are a number of expensive stunts involving multiple cars. The illegals are equally active in the bedroom. One Season 2 episode had 5 separate middle-aged sex scenes. On the other hand, Beeman is so majestically confident and succesful, he gives the impression he could defend the USA on his own.
As the seasons advance, Philip & Beeman begin to show flaws. They become emotionally involved with the female agents they run, and find it harder to live with the deceptions and killings. As nextdoor neighbours, they often comfort each other, and begin attending a support group seminar together. Paige, American-born daughter of the illegals, begins to suspect her parents, and this also causes complications. Elizabeth, on the other hand, stays stronger for longer. The later seasons have fewer stunts & deaths, and those deaths are agonised over by the principals.
The later, lower-action story lines are a little bit melodramatic, for my taste, and hint at cost-savings as more of the budget of the long-running serial found its way into the lead actors' pockets. However, it must be said that the main actors, Russell, Rhys, & Emmerich, are equally at home with drama as they are with sex & violence. Dramatic heavyweight, Frank Langella, is also introduced in the middle seasons as an older authority figure, representing the KGB's Moscow Centre.
Personally, I enjoyed the scenario, the history, & the violence more than the sex and melodrama, but all of it is very well done and compulsive viewing. Like the Sopranos, and earlier gangster films and books, this series sanitises some very bad people, and recruits your sympathy for the devil. Nonetheless, I would strongly recommend this, despite the high cost. 8/10.
Verified purchase: YesCondition: Pre-owned