The Americans Ending Explained, Plot, Reviews, and More
by Ushapriyanga | Updated Apr 19, 2023
The Americans Info
The Americans is a television series that aired on the FX network for six seasons from 2013 to 2018. Created by Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields, the show is set during the Cold War and follows two Soviet KGB officers, Elizabeth and Philip Jennings, who pose as a married American couple living in Virginia with their children.
The series also explores the conflict between the FBI and KGB in Washington, D.C., from the perspectives of agents on both sides, including FBI agent Stan Beeman, who is the Jennings' neighbor. The show starts in 1981 after President Reagan's inauguration and ends in 1987 before the signing of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.
The Americans Ending Explained
The finale of the TV show "The Americans" saw Jennings, who were Russian spies and the show's main characters, getting away with their crimes while a hero went to jail and their two children were left behind. Despite the unresolved mysteries, the show's final moments focused on the successful marriage between the protagonists and their transition to retirement and an empty nest.
However, before the Russian denouement, there was a crucial sequence that began with an unexpected encounter between Jennings and their neighbor, an FBI agent named Stan Beeman. Despite the potential for a violent confrontation, Jennings managed to escape without incident, leaving Stan behind in shock.
"The Americans" is a show about intimacy and the dangerous vulnerability it entails. The Jenningses, posing as a family but really strangers, are spies controlled by their Russian handlers. After a crisis and a radical leap of faith, their intimacy deepens despite their opposing politics and periods of estrangement.
In a scene with Stan, Paige improvises a cover story that falls apart, leading Stan to brandish his gun. Philip acknowledges that they had a job to do, and Stan, unable to accept that their friendship was fake, offers a bridge that Philip crosses. Philip manipulates the situation, gaslighting Stan and negotiating what was real and what was not.
He delivers a confession that lets Stan move toward what he really wants, to feel closer to his friend, and then help him escape. Philip's effective facial expressions are an act of domination camouflaged as an act of submission, and only Elizabeth knows him well enough to admire his craft.
Is The Americans Based on a true story?
This series is partly inspired by a real-life event that happened in 2010, where a group of Russian sleeper agents were discovered to have been living in the United States for decades under the guise of ordinary citizens. They had families, friends, and coworkers who were unaware of their true identity as spies. The agents were later exchanged for some Americans who were being held in Russia.
"The Americans" was primarily filmed at Eastern Effects Studios in Gowanus, Brooklyn, as well as various street locations in Boerum Hill, Carroll Gardens, and Cobble Hill in Brooklyn. Other locations used for filming included Prospect Park, Astoria, Washington Heights, Mamaroneck, Coney Island Avenue, Kew Gardens, Morningside Heights, Farmingdale, and Staten Island.
The pilot episode was filmed from May to mid-June 2012, while the rest of the first season was filmed in November of the same year. Due to Hurricane Sandy, production was delayed. Filming for the second season began in October 2013, and some scenes in the fifth and sixth seasons were shot in Moscow.
Unfortunately, the highly praised TV series created by Joe Weisberg, "The Americans," is not currently available for streaming on Netflix. However, you can purchase episodes of the show on platforms like YouTube, Google Play, and Vudu. Alternatively, you can subscribe to FX+, which costs $5.99 per month and is available to existing cable subscribers.
With FX+, you can watch over 100 seasons and 1,000 episodes of FX originals without any commercials. Moreover, you can stream current FX programs at the same time as they air on TV. If you're interested, you can try FX+ for free as a new subscriber.
The Americans Plot
The Americans is a television series created by former CIA officer, Joe Weisberg, and is set during the Reagan administration. The show focuses on the lives of the Jennings family, a Soviet couple working undercover as spies in Washington D.C. during the 1960s, and their children who are unaware of their true identities. The story continues in the early 1980s.
Weisberg has described the series as primarily a marriage story, using international relations as an allegory for human relationships. Joel Fields, the other executive producer, has explained that the show works on two levels of reality, one being the fictional world of the marriage between Philip and Elizabeth, and the other being the real world involving the characters' experiences during the Cold War.
The idea for the show came from Weisberg's novel, An Ordinary Spy, which led executive producer, Graham Yost, to discover a pilot for a possible spy series. Weisberg was interested in creating a show about a family of spies, rather than just one person, based on stories he had heard from agents who served abroad as spies while raising their families. He integrated some of the tactics and methods he learned during his CIA training into the show.
Weisberg was partially influenced by the events of the Illegals Program in 2010 to write the pilot script for the show. He conducted research on the KGB's Cold War notes left by Vasili Mitrokhin and spoke with former colleagues at the CIA. However, he chose to set the story in the early 1980s because a modern-day setting didn't seem like a good idea, and the '70s appealed to him initially because of the hair and music.
He ultimately settled on the '80s due to Ronald Reagan's rhetoric about the "evil empire." The show's creators attempted to resist the influence of the current political climate to avoid viewers thinking that they were capitalizing on current events.
The Americans Ending Explained - FAQs
The Americans is a TV series set during the Reagan administration that focuses on the personal and professional lives of a Soviet deep-cover agent couple and their American-born children.
The Americans was created by Joe Weisberg, a former CIA officer, who was inspired by his experiences in the agency and stories from agents who served abroad as spies while raising families.
The show's concept is essentially about a marriage, with international relations serving as an allegory for human relations.
Weisberg was inspired by stories from agents who served abroad as spies while raising families and wrote a pilot script for the series after the events of the Illegals Program in 2010.
The Americans is not currently streaming on Netflix, but episodes are available to purchase on YouTube, Google Play, and Vudu. It is also available on FX+, a streaming service for current cable subscribers that allows you to watch over 100 seasons and 1,000 episodes of FX originals ad-free.