Published Sep 9, 2026, 3:00 PM EDT
Ben Sherlock is a Tomatometer-approved film and TV critic who runs the massively underrated YouTube channel I Got Touched at the Cinema. Before working at Screen Rant, Ben wrote for Game Rant, Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop. He's also an indie filmmaker, a standup comedian, and an alumnus of the School of Rock.
In the post-Sopranos Golden Age of Television, we saw a lot of TV dramas about antiheroes with a secret double life. Dexter Morgan is a blood spatter analyst by day, and a vigilante serial killer by night. Walter White is a mild-mannered husband, father, and chemistry teacher who also happens to be a drug lord. Barry Berkman is a contract killer who dreams of becoming an actor. Don Draper’s whole life is a lie: his marriage vows, his ad campaigns, even his name — it’s all built on deception.
The Americans creator Joe Weisberg put a completely fresh spin on that double-life drama. It plants the thrill of the Breaking Bad-style double life in a Cold War setting. Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys star as a pair of Soviet spies who have been sent to impersonate an American couple living in the Washington suburbs, so they can gather intel to destabilize the U.S. under the guise of living the American Dream with a house and a picket fence and a couple of rugrats.
Walt’s double life is pure pulp fiction — a fantasy set in the criminal underworld — but The Americans’ double life has historical precedent. Soviet intelligence really sent these plants to assimilate into American society (although, if they’d been half as good at their jobs as Philip and Elizabeth Jennings, the Soviets wouldn’t have lost the Cold War).
The Americans Is A Unique Take On A "Double Life" Drama
Apart from Hannah Montana, most TV shows about a double life tend to revolve around a criminal keeping their illegal activities from their law-abiding friends and family. In Your Friends and Neighbors, Jon Hamm puts on a friendly face for everyone in his gated community, but he secretly spends his evenings plundering their mansions. But in The Americans, there’s a lot more at stake.
Philip and Elizabeth are deep undercover for the Soviet Union, and their illegal activities have wider ramifications for the ongoing Cold War. The series begins with the inauguration of Ronald Reagan and ends with the resolution of the Cold War, so we see this entire historical conflict play out through the eyes of these two secret agents caught in the middle. Whereas Walt had a brother-in-law in the DEA, the Jennings family have a neighbor in the FBI, creating the same inherent tension at otherwise innocuous social functions.
The Americans Is Perfectly Cast
Every role in The Americans is perfectly cast. Of course, the series is anchored by Rhys and Russell, and they’re an on-screen pairing for the ages. They each capture the internal conflicts within their characters, and individually round out their roles with so much depth and personality, but they also share the electric on-screen chemistry to make this high-stakes will-they-or-won’t-they couple work.
They’re surrounded by great supporting players, too. Holly Taylor and Keidrich Sellati both give brilliant performances as their children — the Meadow and A.J. of The Americans — and Noah Emmerich is reliable as always as their neighbor, Stan Beeman, a jovial but competent lawman. The recurring cast is filled out by legendary character actors, like Dylan Baker as an expert in biochemical warfare, Margo Martindale and Frank Langella as two of the Jenningses’ KGB handlers, and an early-career turn by Julia Garner as the daughter of a CIA boss.
The Americans remains one of the most underrated shows of the Golden Age. While The Sopranos and The Wire and Breaking Bad and Mad Men and Six Feet Under have all gotten their due flowers, The Americans is still an underappreciated gem. Now that we’re in the midst of a new Cold War (of sorts), the show is more relevant than ever, so it’s the perfect time to catch up.
The Americans
10/10
Release Date 2013 - 2018-00-00
Showrunner Joe Weisberg
Directors Daniel Sackheim, Thomas Schlamme, Daniel Attias, Kevin Dowling, Stefan Schwartz, Adam Arkin, Matthew Rhys, Nicole Kassell, Noah Emmerich, Andrew Bernstein, John Dahl, Kevin Bray, Roxann Dawson, Steph Green, Sylvain White, Alex Chapple, Alik Sakharov, Bill Johnson, Charlotte Sieling, Christopher Misiano, Constantine Makris, Gavin O'Connor, Gregory Hoblit, Gwyneth Horder-Payton
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Keri Russell
Elizabeth Jennings
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Matthew Rhys
Phillip Jennings
English (US) ·