The highly-acclaimed FX series, The Americans, is starting its fifth season this week. Its 2-3 million devotees have typically overcome a powerful political taboo to root for the well-being of two Soviet “illegals” operating as spies in Washington, D.C.---during the Reagan Era---while posing as husband and wife in an All-American family. Adding to the challenge, the couple’s undercover work occasionally has led to heart-wrenching betrayals and the occasional death of innocents.

This peculiar manifestation of the biblical injunction “love your enemy” certainly owes, in part, to the spy couple’s masterful depiction as appealing human beings and loving parents who, at times, express moral qualms over assignments ordered by their “handlers.” And, if the actual history of US and Soviet foreign policy is considered, it is even easier to empathize with Elizabeth and Philip Jennings, particularly during the series’ time frame, the 1980s. While the Soviet Union was unquestionably far more repressive at home than the US during those years, America’s long-time allies were some of the planet’s worst human rights abusers.

Although the Soviet Union controlled its Eastern European satellites, it did so with minimal violence compared to that exercised by the tyrants we befriended, who normally could be as repressive as they wished if they were perceived as hostile towards Communism, loosely defined, and allowed US businesses interests free reign. Moreover, the Soviets fully supported Nelson Mandela’s struggle against apartheid (The CIA played a critical role in his 1962 capture which led to 27 years of imprisonment) and other leftist opposition movements against anti-democratic right-wing regimes throughout the world. (The Jennings’, on one occasion, reflect the Soviet stance by “neutralizing” a white South African undercover intelligence agent seeking to discredit anti-apartheid activists by planting a bomb which would have been attributed to them). Some of those leftist movements, when successful, did prove repressive as well (e.g., Mozambique’s FRELIMO), but never on the scale of the most lethal rightist regimes.

In this new season, the Soviet Union will begin a profound transformation. The earliest episodes will take place in mid-1984, but later ones should cover the March 1985 ascendance of Mikhail Gorbachev, the extraordinary figure who presided over the liberation of Eastern Europe and, unintentionally, after introducing previously unimaginable democratic reforms in the country, the ultimate dissolution of the Soviet Union and Communist rule. The Jennings’ world view will no doubt be significantly affected in unpredictable ways. It should also make it easier for American audiences to sympathize with them, assuming they embrace Gorbachev’s policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (the restructuring of political and economic institutions). Philip, increasingly ambivalent about his role, is likely to make that journey faster than Elizabeth, still largely convinced of the righteousness of the sclerotic Soviet system she grew up in. One wonders then, as US-Soviet relations gradually improved in the latter stages of the Reagan era and, most dramatically under President George H.W. Bush, how (if the series covers that ground) the Jennings’ will evolve.

Time-travel back to the 1980s in US-Soviet relations is essential for appreciating The Americans. But, it is difficult to view the past solely on its own terms, ignoring the vantage point of the present. The Americans first appeared when the comparison between the US and (post-Soviet Union) Russian leadership pitted Barack Obama--- accurately perceived as an advocate for human rights---against Vladimir Putin, a former KGB agent in the Soviet Union turned autocratic and repressive President in Russia’s sham democracy. Although he may not be responsible for all the evils attributed to him---specifically, the notorious “false flag” arson, every dissident assassination, and orchestrating the invasion of eastern Ukraine---Putin clearly tolerates no serious opposition and wants Russian status as an international power restored. One must not assume this will invariably be a bad thing. Putin, like Obama, believes in climate change, the Iran nuclear deal, and is an ally against ISIS and al-Qaeda, without declaring Islam per se a threat. However, as we have learned, he has succeeded to some degree in affecting our most recent election---possibly with the collusion of our new President, Donald Trump. Viewing the Jennings’ activities without being affected by our perception of Putin today is a challenge. We cannot be sure they would no longer be spies or, perhaps, handlers.

But, finally, we have the elephant in the room, Donald Trump, who has replaced Obama as President. It is increasingly clear the authoritarian, ignorant, bigoted and paranoid Trump and his coterie of white supremacist associates, together with the rabidly ideological and opportunistic far right-wing GOP congress, has the potential to create almost as profound a transformation of life in the U.S. as Gorbachev did in the USSR and Eastern Europe---but in reverse. Putin’s Russia might well be the model for the Trump regime. The U.S. media will struggle against anti-glasnost---attacks on press freedom and truth itself. American institutions may experience perestroika aimed at undermining the independence of courts and gutting government oversight and regulation of economic and political institutions that affect quality of life, democracy and civil rights. Those watching The Americans now might wonder if the caricature of America Philip and Elizabeth presumably absorbed before embarking on their espionage careers---a plutocratic, racist, gun-toting and militaristic land---might have even more veracity now than it did then. Donald Trump might just be Putin-Lite, or, more disturbingly, Putin might come to be Trump-Lite. Our ‘Age of Innocence,’ like the Jennings’, is about to end.