TV Review | ‘The Americans’ returns strong in second season

Television, it seems, is rife with political thrillers of all kinds: from “Scandal” (2012-present) and “Homeland” (2011-present) to Netflix’s “House of Cards” (2013-present) and the upcoming “Crisis,” the genre is clearly in no short supply. These buzzy shows have garnered intense and loyal fans, impressive ratings and frequent critical acclaim (the exception here is “Crisis,” which doesn’t premiere until March 16). But despite the current popularity of the political thriller, FX’s superbly crafted “The Americans” hasn’t seemed to be able to capitalize on the trend. To be sure, the spy series, which just recently returned for a second season, is a critical darling and has earned nominations at the Emmys and other smaller awards shows, but it certainly does not pervade the pop culture landscape the way its counterparts do.

The reason for this is unclear, and fans may wonder why the series has not gained the following it deserves. Perhaps it is because the Cold War drama doesn’t have the twists of “Scandal,” the breakneck pacing of “Homeland” or the Machiavellian sensibility of “House of Cards” — or perhaps it is some combination thereof. Indeed, these shows center on major figures in the political world: presidents, first ladies, congressmen, high-powered CIA agents. Unless your last name is Clinton, Bush or Obama, you are unlikely to relate to the struggles the characters face on “Scandal,” “Homeland” or “House of Cards.” Nevertheless, the often preposterous scenarios these dramas concoct might even astound Washington’s top players. But while these shows serve as a form of escapism, “The Americans” is decidedly focused on something much more real: the classic ‘80s suburban family.

While the drama certainly has its fair share of fight scenes, wigs and phone tapping (it is, after all, a spy series), the real heart of “The Americans” lies in its depiction of the Jennings family (and, to a lesser degree, their neighbors, the Beemans). The Jennings appear to be your average American family — mom Elizabeth (Keri Russell) and dad Philip (Matthew Rhys) run a travel agency and look after their adolescent kids Paige (Holly Taylor) and Henry (Keidrich Sellati) in a suburban Washington, D.C. neighborhood. But as the audience knows, Elizabeth and Philip are actually not travel agents at all but Soviet KGB agents who have spent the majority of their lives posing as your average (and quite good looking) all-American couple.

The act is exhausting. Philip and Elizabeth are forced to lie to nearly everyone they know: their kids, their neighbors, their friends, their colleagues and, sometimes, to each other. And if this weren’t tiring enough, they spend their nights stealing American state secrets, seducing unsuspecting government officials and narrowly escaping bloody crime scenes. It’s a miracle they can get up in the morning to make breakfast for their kids.

The first season showed us just how much of a toll this life of lies and secrets has taken on the Jennings. The couple — whose marriage was not a choice, but required for their mission — separated for a time, only to reunite in the final episodes. But the pair isn’t out of the woods just yet; they face trouble on the home front and at work. The season two premiere saw their daughter Paige attempting to learn more about her parents’ suspicious late night absences, only to find them enjoying — to put it delicately — some private time. Work isn’t going much better either, as their friends (fellow Soviet spies) were suddenly and gruesomely gunned down in a hotel room.

Philip and Elizabeth are far from ordinary in some respects, but in others, the choices they are forced to make and the lies they have to tell resonate with viewers — and this is what makes the series both dynamic and thought-provoking.

Meanwhile, life isn’t easy for the Jennings’ neighbor Stan Beeman (Noah Emmerich), an FBI agent whose personal life — which features a crumbling marriage and an increasingly-distant Russian mistress — is a disaster and whose job is just as stressful. Stan is fascinating; he’s a “good guy” who has somehow unwittingly made a mess of his life. In a parallel universe, he would be the hero of this show, the upstanding American agent who saves the day from the evil Russian spies. But, thankfully, “The Americans,” is much more complex than that; the most layered and well-acted scenes come when we see the moments of friendship that comradely Stan and his wife (Susan Misner) share with Philip and Elizabeth. There is something so genuine and honest in these interactions that viewers will find themselves wondering where exactly the line between truth and fiction lies.

The barely-maintained boundary is especially intriguing because it is tied so closely to the Jennings’ duplicitous existence and the show’s engaging depiction of family and marriage. “The Americans” may be far from your typical political thriller, but its exploration of more complicated and nuanced material is some of the most compelling stuff on TV. It’s a shame more people aren’t tuning in each week to see where it takes us next.