Wed Menace

The marital politics of Cold War drama The Americans

Frank OCKenfels / FX

The Americans Keri Russel and Matthew Rhys

Like many Suburban parents in 1981, Elizabeth and Philip Jennings feel a gulf between them and their two growing kids. Unlike their Reagan-era peers, though, for them the issue is not rock music or Pac-Man addiction. It's the international proletarian revolution.

Unbeknownst to the kids, Elizabeth and Philip--born Nadezhda and Mischa in the Soviet Union--are deep-cover KGB spies, matched in an arranged marriage, taught pitch-perfect English and sent to the U.S. to run missions. Now their beloved children are happy American consumers, gulping orange juice, reading teen magazines and demanding new leg warmers. In the debut of FX's The Americans (Wednesdays,...

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