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January 13th, 2025 | 1:24 PM ET

State of Play Review – The Americans, Season V

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Posted: March 13th, 2017

By John Sipher

John Sipher worked for the CIA’s clandestine service for 28 years. He is now a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and a co-founder of Spycraft Entertainment. John served multiple overseas tours as Chief of Station and Deputy Chief of Station in Europe, Asia, and in high-threat environments. He is the recipient of CIA’s Distinguished Career Intelligence Medal.

Season 5 of the acclaimed FX Series The Americans has returned after a 9-month hiatus, and it might be hard to follow if you start at this point.  I’ve watched religiously over the past four seasons, and I found the new episode hard to understand, at least for the first half hour or so.  Nonetheless, despite the violence, tension, and sometimes confusing scenes, it is comforting to have The Americans again to look forward to each week.

The story revolves around Elizabeth and Philip Jennings who live in 1980s suburban Washington, DC with their two teenaged children.  They lead dual lives as middle-class travel agents and deep cover “illegal” Russian spies – so deep that they have false U.S. citizenship, and their children have no idea that their parents are Russian.  The story follows their personal and espionage exploits during the height of the Cold War nuclear stand-off and the dying days of the Soviet Union.

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