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The sixth and final season of The Americans will air in 2018. The spy/family drama’s last five seasons have been in the upper echelons of critics end of year lists, and been nominated for countless awards. Except not many people watch it, and the nominations rarely result in wins. With this in mind, here is five reasons you should catch up on The Americans before its final season.

1. Keri Russell

Those of you that remember Keri Russell from Felicity, or Dawn of the Planet of the Apes are in for a real shock. Her role as Elizabeth Jennings: mother, wife, and super-deadly Soviet spy is one of the best you will see on this, or any TV show. Russell brilliantly layers her character with motherly warmth, clinical callousness, and a need to believe that her side is the good guys. It’s not that simple.

2. Matthew Rhys

Elizabeth’s other half, Matthew Rhys as Phillip Jennings is just as sensational as Russell, and perhaps a little more sympathetic. If Elizabeth is the good soldier, Phillip is the one with doubts, and it’s this slow disintegration of his core beliefs that makes him so watchable.

3. Elizabeth and Phillip’s relationship

The Americans is many things: a spy show, a family drama, a political thriller, but at its heart it’s a love story. At the beginning of the show Elizabeth and Phillip aren’t in love, they are together because it’s their cover, kids and all. The beauty of this is the growth of affection, which s hard-won, between the two.

4. Everyone loves the 80s, right?

The Americans version of the 80s might actually be scarier than Stranger things. This version is much closer to the truth as the Cold War was raging, and both the Soviet American intelligence agencies were trying to protect their secrets, and find out what the other was up to.

5. The Soundtrack

Being a show set in the 80s it stands to reason that the music would be on point. Except The Americans doesn’t just use songs to set the scene, they implement them with style and reconfigure hits from Fleetwood Mac, Soft Cell, and Phil Collins to soundtrack anything from a covert operation, a honey trap, or a brutal murder. Tainted Love indeed.

6. Paige Jennings

In most serious family dramas, the teenage kids are the absolute worst. Think of The Sopranos, did you like Tony’s kids? Or Homeland, or Ray Donovan? Nope, but The Americans has Paige, and to a lesser extent Henry. Paige is a crucial character in the show, and she is far from the teenage caricature of other shows. Instead she is a smart, grounded young woman who knows there is more to her parents than meets the eye.

7. The Writing

Yes, that sounds vague, but The Americans is deft at keeping its audience on its toes. The twists and turns on this show are never expected, and never disappointing. You will thin that you have everything figured out, you won’t.

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