Fans hope Emmys Cold War will thaw
NEW YORK — In the end, after six seasons of murder most foul, high-stakes espionage and international intrigue, it somehow felt perfect that the climactic scene of “The Americans” should happen in the most mundane of places: a parking garage.
There was no bloodshed, and not a single bullet fired. “Just four people talking in a parking garage,” said executive producer and co-writer Joel Fields. But that scene, and the much-acclaimed series finale it anchored, was deeply true to the ethos of a show that was never really about action anyway, despite the body count or the sweeping themes at play. It was about a marriage. The show became big by going small.
Monday’s Emmys will be the TV academy’s last chance to honor the FX spy drama which, after being passed over in major categories during its run, is up for four, including drama series and acting nods for Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell, aka Philip and Elizabeth Jennings. (It has won two guest acting awards for Margo Martindale.) Avid fans of the series are rooting for the KGB spy couple, who did lots of REALLY bad stuff but were still always the ones you cared about.
Is it time for the critically adored but Emmy-ignored series to finally get its due? This for a show whose fan base includes, famously, former President Barack Obama, whose fandom led to a state dinner invitation for Russell and Rhys. Other fans, according to the show, include Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, and the current head of the CIA, Gina Haspel.
“For unknown reasons this show flew under the radar for a while, and that was something we scratched our heads about,” said Eric Schrier, president of original programming at FX. But he said the critical response to the show has been gratifying, as have other awards, such as AFI and Peabody honors.
Schrier said the “best marriage I ever made” (besides his own) was matching series creator and writer Joe Weisberg, a former CIA agent, with co-writer Fields. Weisberg says the two are now “walking around in a constant state of relief” that the show worked the way it did. “Not only could it be a disaster from the get-go,” Weisberg said, “but it walked a pretty fine tonal line. It could have turned ridiculous at any time.”
Not that the premise was ridiculous: It was based on reallife sleeper spies who built lives in the United States, had children, posed as normal families. Though “The Americans” was inspired by the 2010 arrests of 10 Russian sleeper spies in the United States, the show was set in the Reagan era, to more easily convey the tinderbox state of U.S.-Soviet relations.