Though it’s set in the past, the timing for The Americans couldn't be better. In the wake of the Edward Snowden revelations, US culture has grown more paranoid than ever about what its government is willing to do in the name of security. The Americans’ KGB agents may use unsettling tactics including seduction, blackmail and murder – but their opposition in the US doesn't exactly take the high road. In fact, the FBI uses many of the same techniques as the KGB. And when an FBI supervisor meets his KGB counterpoint on a chilly street and says, "You target our people, we target yours," it's hard to determine which side can claim moral righteousness. A scene like this would have been unthinkable in American pop culture of the 1980s, with its strict divide between us and them, heroes and villains. Just think of jingoistic films like Red Dawn, Rocky IV and Rambo: First Blood Part II. The Americans projects contemporary fears about government overreach into the past.

Shades of grey

A revision of the typical Hollywood perspective on the Cold War fits in well with the mood of television today. Since Breaking Bad, the medium has been drawn to anti-heroes. But The Americans goes one step further. By the end of Breaking Bad, there's no doubting Walter White's intrinsic villainy, but in the case of The Americans, nothing is certain. Both sides are passionate about their cause and prisoners to it.

And the show even subverts the idea of patriotism itself by engaging with the messy humanity behind national conflicts. Philip is accused of liking life in the US too much, while Elizabeth weighs her duty to Mother Russia against her maternal instincts. (Her two children remain in the dark about their parents' missions.) The dinner table silence that concluded the second season followed the revelation of the couple's orders to turn their daughter Paige over to the KGB, who will force her to become a spy and face terrible danger. With the Jennings divided between professional and personal obligations, the season finale contained an unnerving sense of ambiguity about what might happen next.

The Americans makes history personal – and maybe even turns these Russian spies into the good guys, as it becomes clear that they are captives of their home country’s government as much as they are its agents. Far from being yet another ‘us v them’ story of the Cold War, Philip and Elizabeth’s escapades ultimately have us questioning the idea of national identity itself. That’s how you make the Cold War burn with new relevance.

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