I think it’s time for some disclosure here: I have never seen The Americans. It’s a show I’ve always wanted to watch because people love it, but I never got around to watching it. I think it’s time for me to change that. During The Americans panel and Q&A, a crazy montage from last season was shown and the cast and creators gave us plenty of teases on the upcoming season. And let me tell you, the people ate it up.
As any casual viewer can surmise, The Americans is very much about Cold War era America. Heck, the main characters are KGB agents living in secrecy outside of Washington D.C. What else would it be about? It looks like that is changing a bit this season. From the very beginning, Executive Producer Joel Fields made it clear that this season won’t focus on Cold War politics as much as the last two. Instead, it will be more about the Elizabeth (Keri Russell) and Philip Jennings (Matthew Rhys) growing their family in their dangerous world of espionage. According to Fields, now that their daughter Paige (Holly Taylor) is about the same age Elizabeth was when she first joined the KGB, she’ll have a lot on her mind when it comes to actually raising this maturing girl.
Outside of the increased parenting angle, the cast and crew provided a little more information about what else to expect this season. One particular tidbit is that the country of Afghanistan will loom large. Fields and fellow EP/creator Joe Weisberg didn’t want to spill any details, but obviously any history buff can reasonably assume they’re talking about the Soviet war in Afghanistan that occurred from 1979-1989. You’ll obviously have to watch this upcoming third season to find out exactly how this will impact our main characters.
Speaking of the characters, most of what was said about them had to do with the actors on screen or hypotheticals asked by the audience. The one question that brought the most discussion was whether or not the cast believes their characters would have actually survived the Cold War in real life. Every person was confident there’s would get out just fine, but Russell was a little less positive, giving the crowd a terse, “No” when it was her turn. The fact that both Noah Emmerich and Annet Mahendru believe Stan Beeman and Nina Sergeevna would get away fine is especially interesting when you look at what’s happened to them. It’s assured to us by the producers that Beeman, already someone who isn’t doing well, will continue to do worse.
“Will Stan ever catch a break?” asked moderator Andy Greenwald of Grantland.
“Nope!” was the paraphrased response.
Things are even worse for Sergeevna too, but Annet is still hopeful. When asked if her character will die, Annet replied, “Well, she’s on her way to death, but the last time we saw her she was still alive,” meaning you shouldn’t count her out just yet.
Lastly, the cast and crew couldn’t help but talk about how the east coast’s crazy winter impacted their filming. Remember the polar vortex that put everything in a deep freeze? Turns out that was a blessing for the producers as they, “feel that what they did was fully accurate.” So when you’re watching the characters freeze their asses off on television, remember that the shivering is entirely real.
The Americans will return for a third season in early 2015.
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Luke Kalamar is Pop-Break.com’s television and every Saturday afternoon you can read his retro video game column, Remembering the Classics. He covers Game of Thrones, Saturday Night Live and The Walking Dead (amongst others) every week. As for as his career and literary standing goes — take the best parts of Spider-man, Captain America and Luke Skywalker and you will fully understand his origin story.
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