“The Americans”

Hollywood

by Janet Donovan | on March 28th, 2018 |

HollywoodOn Productions: Janet Donovan & Brendan Kownacki
Photo credit: Brendan Kownacki

Who knew that Sears would play such an integral part in the making of FX’s The Americans which premiered the sixth and final season at The Newseum in Washington, DC; but such was the case for costume designer Katie Irish. “I look at all kinds of research – Sears Catalogues, magazines……then you say if it’s in Sears catalogue you know that it reaches the middle of the country,” she told Hollywood on the Potomac. The Americans is a period drama so the costumes are a vital aspect to accuracy.

Katie Irish

Synopsis: The Americans is about the complex marriage of two KGB spies posing as Americans in suburban Washington D.C. during the Reagan administration. The arranged marriage of Philip (Matthew Rhys) and Elizabeth Jennings (Keri Russell) grows more passionate and genuine by the day, but as the pressures and demands of the job grow heavier, the personal toll becomes almost too exhausting to bear. Having revealed their true identities to their teenage daughter Paige (Holly Taylor), Philip and Elizabeth’s ability to protect their cover and their family’s safety deteriorates.

After a particularly fraught mission, Philip and Elizabeth decide to end their tour and take their family home to Russia. However, a game-changing development in one of their ongoing cases forces them to abandon those plans for the sake of the motherland. Now, Paige delves deeper into the family business, even as Philip takes a step back from it. The Jennings struggle to maintain a smokescreen of normalcy, especially around their son, Henry (Keidrich Sellati), who remains blissfully ignorant of the spies in his midst. Their neighbor and Philip’s best friend, FBI Agent Stan Beeman (Noah Emmerich), has also yet to discover their true identities. Although he’s transferred divisions, Stan remains their greatest threat since his friend and former partner, Agent Dennis Aderholt (Brandon J. Dirden), leads the force tasked with uncovering the Soviet Illegals hiding in plain sight. With Gorbachev in power in the Soviet Union, the winds of change are sweeping through both Russia and America, creating new perils. A growing rift within the KGB draws disillusioned former officer Oleg Burov (Costa Ronin) back into the fray, and may set Philip and Elizabeth on opposing sides as the Cold War reaches its boiling point.

Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys

“The show is about the illusion of comfort,” Rhys told us. He was, of course, referring to how others perceive you and how you perceive yourself. He thought it was a ‘good time to get out’ – to wind down the series: “There’s not much sympathy for Russian characters on television at the moment.”

On The Red Carpet:

The Trailer: