I enjoyed Season 1 of The Americans, but Season 2 is a definite improvement. While it doesn't really raise the bar that much higher than its predecessor, it does pretty much everything just a little bit better.
Season 2's main storyline is already a bit more fun and intriguing than that of Season 1. The season starts with a couple of KGB agents just like Philip and Elizabeth being murdered, and the rest of the season has the main duo try to figure out and track down who killed them. That's right, this season is a murder mystery, and you probably know how much I love those by now. But honestly, it's not really the mystery that had me hooked, it's the feeling that Philip and Elizabeth are in constant danger and could be killed at any time by whoever the culprit is. However, once again, I actually thought the spy stuff was the least interesting part of the season, and once again, I actually preferred the storyline of Stan's informant Nina. Season 1 ends with Nina double-crossing Stan and working for the KGB again. It's start off pretty fun watching Nina play both sides, but then it actually turns really tragic between Stan getting turned and Nina's eventual fate.
What I really like about Season 2 compared to its predecessor is just how much more it's willing to explore its characters and themes. The most obvious example is how the kids are treated and utilized. In Season 1, Paige and Henry were mostly put on the sidelines since the season had put more of a focus on their marriage. In Season 2, Philip and Elizabeth's relationship with their kids is given more of a focus. You get to really see how Philip and Elizabeth's outlook and job reflects on the fact that they are truly awful parents (poor Paige), and Paige and Henry are also put in danger quite a bit more often this season. It's really made clear that there are personal stakes if the titular spies mess up. It's more than just the kids though, Season 2 also focuses more on Philip and Elizabeth's increasingly different outlook, particularly how Philip is beginning to feel more and more awful whenever he has to kill an innocent person.
Highlights:
The Deal: The Deal was a super-sized episode of the show, longer than your standard episode, so that's how you know it's going to be great. Most of the episode really just revolves around the Soviets and Israel making a trade deal that Philip just happened to get in the middle of, but the really impactful stuff was the way it impacted Philip's character. Both captives involved in the deal had interactions with Philip, and both interactions seemed to have left a pretty massive impact.
Arpanet: This episode was just plain fun. Arkady and Oleg coaching Nina into passing a lie detector test was a ton of fun. Philip performing a heist with an alcoholic KGB member was fun (at least until Philip had to kill another innocent). Arpanet as a whole is just a really slick and enjoyable episode of The Americans that probably did the best in terms of the spy stuff.
Echo: Now this is a slam-bang finale. The Colonel was decently satisfying, but Echo was tense, thrilling, and even pretty shocking. Between the several character deaths, the brutal final fight with Larrick, Jared's reveal as the murderer, Stan letting Nina get taken away, and biggest of all, the Paige cliffhanger, Echo had a lot going on and it left me very excited for what Season 3 has in store.
Overall, Season 2 doesn't completely blow its predecessor away or anything, but it just simply takes everything that made the first season so good and improves on them and fleshes them out more.
4/5 Stars
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