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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