Episode Rankings: The Americans

The Americans is a really good show with great acting, strong writing, a nice balance of spy action and family drama, and some truly impeccable needle drops. While the last two seasons can drag a bit and the show won't quite make my all-time favorites list, I still really enjoyed The Americans and would definitely recommend it. Here's my ranking of its episodes:

1. The Magic Of David Copperfield V: The Statue Of Liberty Disappears (S4.08)
2. START (S6.10)
3. Echo (S2.13)
4. Stingers (S3.10)
5. Travel Agents (S4.07)
6. Chloramphenicol (S4.04)
7. Jennings, Elizabeth (S6.09)
8. The Colonel (S1.13)
9. Safe House (S1.09)
10. Walter Taffet (S3.07)
11. Arpanet (S2.07)
12. Do Mail Robots Dream Of Electric Sheep? (S3.09)
13. Dinner For Seven (S4.11)
14. The Deal (S2.05)
15. Only You (S1.10)
16. Martial Eagle (S2.09)
17. Harvest (S6.07)
18. Persona Non Grata (S4.13)
19. Dyatkovo (S5.11)
20. Trust Me (S1.06)
21. Divestment (S3.08)
22. The Great Patriotic War (S6.05)
23. Operation Chronicle (S2.12)
24. Glanders (S4.01)
25. March 8, 1983 (S3.13)
26. One Day In The Life Of Anton Baklanov (S3.11)
27. The Oath (S1.12)
28. Comrades (S2.01)
29. The Rat (S4.06)
30. Dead Hand (S6.01)
31. Munchkins (S4.10)
32. New Car (S2.08)
33. The Soviet Division (S5.13)
34. Pilot (S1.01)
35. Pastor Tim (S4.02)
36. The Summit (S6.08)
37. I Am Abassin Zadran (S3.12)
38. The Walk In (S2.03)
39. Duty And Honor (S1.07)
40. The Committee On Human Rights (S5.07)
41. Urban Transport Planning (S6.03)
42. A Roy Rogers In Franconia (S4.12)
43. Yousaf (S2.10)
44. Experimental Prototype City Of Tomorrow (S4.03)
45. IHOP (S5.09)
46. Rififi (S6.06)
47. Dimebag (S3.04)
48. The Clock (S1.02)
49. The World Council Of Churches (S5.12)
50. Cardinal (S2.02)
51. Amber Waves (S5.01)
52. The Day After (S4.09)
53. Baggage (S3.02)
54. Clark's Place (S4.05)
55. Covert War (S1.11)
56. Tchaikovsky (S6.02)
57. In Control (S1.04)
58. Born Again (S3.06)
59. Stealth (S2.11)
60. Open House (S3.03)
61. A Little Night Music (S2.04)
62. Mutually Assured Destruction (S1.08)
63. Immersion (S5.08)
64. EST Men (S3.01)
65. Pests (S5.02)
66. Gregory (S1.03)
67. Darkroom (S5.10)
68. Salang Pass (S3.05)
69. Mr And Mrs Teacup (S6.04)
70. Crossbread (S5.06)
71. COMINT (S1.05)
72. The Midges (S5.03)
73. Lotus 1-2-3 (S5.05)
74. Behind The Red Door (S2.06)
75. What's The Matter With Kansas? (S5.04)

The Americans (Season 6)

So, Season 5 wasn't that great. It was slow-paced, clunky, and just not very fun to watch. Thankfully, right from that opening Don't Dream It's Over needledrop, I knew Season 6 was going to be better. The Americans is back, and ready to end things on a grand finale.

Right from the get-go, Season 6 has a strong feeling of finality, like things are really starting to come to a close. It's doom-laded, everyone's tense and on edge, and you have a feeling like things just aren't going well for the main characters. Gorbachev is now in power, meaning that the Cold War is beginning to wind down, Philip's travel agency is having financial issues, and Elizabeth is really struggling with work. While this does make for yet another slow burn of the season, it does really feel like all of the series' biggest tensions are coming to a head, especially between Philip and Elizabeth. A major theme of The Americans was the different viewpoints of the two Jennings, how Philip tends to feel more sympathetic towards his victims while Elizabeth remained staunchly dedicated to her cause. Probably the most engaging thing about Season 6 is that Elizabeth is slowly starting to come around to Philip's point of view, between the overwhelming amount of work she's had to do and learning some dark secrets about the KGB and Gorbachev. Keri Russell gives what is probably her best performance in the whole show, perfectly conveying the internal struggle Elizabeth spends the whole season dealing with. I can't believe I didn't like Elizabeth at first, she's really good this season!

Another thing I thought was great about Season 6 was Stan finally starting to pick up on the fact that The Jennings are KGB agents. I remember how tense the start of Season 1 was, and how the Jennings were frequently dangerously close to outing themselves to Stan. This was barely a source of tension these last few seasons, so it was a ton of fun to watch Stan close in on the Jennings, culminating in a pretty fantastic confrontation in the finale. However, one thing that I think this season kinda mishandled was Paige. The season starts with a time jump, during which Paige had been training to properly become a Soviet agent. For most of Season 6, Paige is suddenly super passionate about the cause, and plans to become a proper spy, which is something I just don't buy. Do I believe that Paige would probably become more okay with her parents' work? Sure. Do I believe that she would suddenly completely change personalities to "Elizabeth lite"? Not in the slightest, and it doesn't help that we completely skip over her transformation thanks to the time jump.

Highlights:

Jennings, Elizabeth: I found it pretty interesting how much Jennings, Elizabeth actually focuses on the FBI, arresting Oleg and closing in on Philip. Not to say there also isn't a lot of great Elizabeth moments, especially that fantastic confrontation with Claudia. Between those two storylines, the penultimate episode does a great job at setting up for the finale.

START: This was a great series finale, I love how personal it is. The show started with Stan and the Jennings, and now it ends with the Jennings. Like a third of the episode takes place in the same garage with the same four characters, but that confrontation is so tense and gripping that I hardly even cared. I also like how things turned out for the Jennings. It's so easy to want them to get arrested or face a greater punishment because they're the main characters, but plenty of KGB agents returned safely to Russia. The real punishment is that the Jennings lost their kids, and I think that's more heartwrenching than anything that could've possibly happened to them.

Overall, Season 6 is a great return to form for The Americans and a solid final season. While it's a bit of a slow burn and Paige's characterization feels incredibly off, the development it gives to Elizabeth is fantastic, the sense of finality and doom is potent, and the final two episodes are a strong way to end the series.

4/5 Stars

My ranking of the seasons of The Americans is:

1. Season 4: The first eight episodes alone justify me putting this season first, but the whole thing was super tense and gripping.
2. Season 2: I really liked the mystery storyline here, and it felt like every episode was better than the one before it.
3. Season 3: The first half is really slow and dull, but the second half is absolutely fantastic.
4. Season 6: I still wouldn't put it up there with the show's peak but the last few episodes do a great job at resolving everything.
5. Season 1: A bit on the simple side, but a fun and action-packed season that I still found really enjoyable.
6. Season 5: It had its moments but this season was an absolute drag, aimless, clumsy, and an utter bore.

My ranking of the finales of The Americans is:

1. START: This shouldn't be much of a surprise, The Americans had a great ending! Tense, personal, and satisfyingly bittersweet.
2. Echo: Sure, the reveal was a bit cheesy, but Echo is probably the most "climactic" finale, and the two twists involving Nina and Paige are fantastic hooks for Season 3.
3. The Colonel: It's not super game-changing, but the whole car chase sequence was tense and exciting, and everything got resolved pretty satisfyingly.
4. Persona Non Grata: The William stuff was pretty underwhelming, but it still had a lot of great stuff going on outside of that.
5. March 8, 1983: The cliffhanger was absolutely fantastic, but putting that aside, it doesn't feel like anything got resolved here.
6. The Soviet Division: Definitely one of the better Season 5 episodes especially in regards to Philip and Elizabeth, but it still felt tired.

Favorite Episode: The Magic Of David Copperfield V: The Statue Of Liberty Disappears

The Americans (Season 5)

Season 5 of The Americans is often regarded as the worst season of the show for having a much slower pace than all of the other seasons. I went into the season pretty skeptical that this was at all a bad thing considering I usually like the "slow-paced seasons", but when the first episode had a ten-minute-long wordless montage of the Jennings digging out a dead body, I started to get a bit concerned...

As you could probably tell from my previous reviews, I think the spy stuff is probably the weakest element of The Americans. It's not inherently bad, but it tends to fall short compared to the more gripping personal struggles involving characters like Stan, Paige, Martha, and Nina. Season 4 did show signs of things getting better, with a genuinely strong and engaging storyline about bioweapons, but this season falls right back into old habits. The point of Season 5 is to show the Jennings overworking themselves on a lot of missions, and finding themselves in a rut as a result. So we get a lot of drawn-out scenes showing off the monotony of the missions that they go on. Compared to stuff like nukes or a deadly bioweapon, the big world-ending threat of pest-resistant wheat feels purposefully lame. However, this also comes at the cost of the missions feeling especially boring for the viewer. I already mentioned that grave-digging sequence that went on for what seemed like eternity, but there are moments like this in nearly every episode and it gets pretty damn insufferable. The only mission I found somewhat interesting is the Jennings using a fake adopted son to force a traitor back to Moscow, but even that has its issues. Due to the nature of the mission, the "adopted son" ends up getting to do most of the work, leaving the Jennings without much agency or screentime whenever that storyline is involved. As a whole, the spy stuff in Season 5 is just plain boring, and because of how drawn-out it is, it takes up a lot of the season.

And that's a shame, because when Season 5 isn't focused on its drawn-out mission sequences, the family drama is still as solid as it ever was. Paige still remains the highlight here, watching her continue to struggle with her new life is great, and leads to some strong moments like her meeting with Gabriel. I also think the central conceit of the Jennings (and also Stan) becoming exhausted with their jobs is interesting and leads to a strong final stretch, though that's not an excuse for the season being mostly boring considering Season 4 conveyed the same point while remaining engaging. However, there is still one subplot I found incredibly disappointing, which involves Philip's adopted son Mischa. I was so excited at the end of Season 4 when it was revealed that he's coming to America to try and reunite with his father, there was so much potential for fun drama there. The introduction of that aforementioned fake adopted son could've made things even juicier. But a few episodes in, Mischa's plans are thwarted, he's sent back to Russia, and we never see him again for the rest of the season. What was even the fucking point then? This is easily one of the lamest dropped storylines I've ever seen in a show, a move that felt so amateurish for what has otherwise been in an incredibly well thought-out series.

Highlights:

Dyatkovo: This was the only Season 5 episode I really liked. It's a fairly standalone story about the Jennings suspecting a woman of being a Nazi collaborator, but you can tell it was the breaking point for them in terms of work given how intense that final scene was. Also, Henry meets the Mail Robot is probably the funniest scene of the whole show.

Overall, Season 5 still has some great family drama as well as a solid final stretch, but otherwise, this is easily the weakest season in the series. It's not just that it's slow paced, it's the overlong sequences where nothing happens, it's the underwhelming spy stuff, it's the dropped storyline about Mischa. I admire the attempt to illustrate the rut the Jennings have gotten themselves in, but there had to be a better way that didn't involve also boring the viewer as well.

2/5 Stars

The Americans (Season 4)

Season 3 of The Americans ended with most of the show's big lingering conflicts coming to a head, and most of the fallout not entirely being resolved. As a result, Season 4 is easily the most intense season of the show to date, and definitely the best one as well.

The first eight episodes of Season 4 forms the strongest streak of episodes in the entire series, mostly because all of the show's best storylines are going on pretty much at the same time. Nina's prison storyline finally gets resolved, albeit with her shocking and tragic death. Martha is predictably not in the clear despite Philip's best attempts and she ends up having to move to Russia in some similarly heartbreaking episodes. Pastor Tim now knows the Jennings are spies, meaning there's a chance they could be outed at any moment. And in case things couldn't get even more tense, the Jennings' newest mission involves a deadly pathogen, which forms probably my favorite out of the seasonal "saving the world" plots that is usually the least interesting part of the show. The pacing is so brisk and thrilling, and there's never a dull moment in any of these eight episodes. And you can tell the constant panic is taking a toll on Philip and Elizabeth, because the moment things finally die down and seem to get resolved in that eighth episode, they completely and utterly snap. It's fantastic.

But Season 4 isn't eight episodes long, it's thirteen episodes long, so what happens for the last five episodes of the season? Well, Philip and Elizabeth are forced to take a short break from work, and we get a time jump to after the break. It's not a super long jump, only seven months, but it had me worried that it would make the season come off as disjointed. Thankfully, while I would still say the pre-time jump episodes are mostly better, many of Season 4's major storylines still progress fairly smoothly despite the big leap in time. The bioweapon-stealing William returns with an even worse virus than the one before the time jump, Paige is still trying to keep Pastor Tim at bay, and seeing Philip and Elizabeth deal with getting a chance to take a break from KGB work fits in perfectly with their storylines about slowly becoming more and more discontented with work. However, I am left a bit mixed on the finale. It's definitely not bad and has a lot of great hooks for Season 5, but it resolves things pretty anticlimactically (once again) and lacks any punchy or tense cliffhangers like in the last two seasons.

Highlights:

Chloramphenicol: Chloramphenicol is a tense episode that brings that opening storyline about the glanders virus to a head by having the Jennings get themselves infected. I like how the fact that they had to quarantine in secret left characters like Martha and Paige thinking they disappeared, it gives the event consequences even if no one dies. Well, except for Nina, who's appeal to leave prison is denied in the cruelest possible way.

Travel Agents: As a fan of puns, this is one of my favorite episode titles ever. You think it's about Philip and Elizabeth's cover, but then you realize it's about Martha (who's frequently called an agent) being forced to travel to Russia. It's hard not to feel really, really bad for Martha the moment you realize what the Jennings were planning for her, and that there's no real way out of it. 

The Magic Of David Copperfield V: The Statue Of Liberty Disappears: This was that eighth episode I mentioned, and it's easily my favorite one in the series to date. Even if Martha leaves pretty early on and most of it focuses on dealing with the fallout of that event, I actually think the fallout is more interesting. Philip and Elizabeth are really at the end of their rope here and seeing them snap at Paige, their past victims, and each other led to some really impactful scenes, and the acting is better than ever. That time jump scene at the end was also super smooth and left me really wondering how the rest of the season would play out.

Dinner For Seven: This was definitely my favorite post-timejump episode in the season. The titular dinner with the Jennings, Pastor Tim's family, and Stan was so brilliantly awkward and nerve-wracking, I kinda wish it went on a bit longer just to see how far things could go. The final scene where Paige sees Elizabeth kill was also pretty shocking, in case the poor kid wasn't traumatized enough.

Overall, Season 4 was the best season of The Americans easily. The first eight episodes were especially fantastic, with all of the show's greatest storylines coming to a pretty explosive head. But even the timejump was fun, being smoothly integrated into the Jennings' character arcs while not mucking up the pacing too much.

5/5 Stars

The Americans (Season 3)

The Americans has had a lot of secrets in the air these past two seasons, and Season 3 is the point where they finally start to get revealed. I think that was what the show really needed.

Season 3 of The Americans mostly focuses around Paige. Philip and Elizabeth are both told by the KGB that they need to reveal their true identities to Paige and start trying to recruit her. Of course, this almost immediately leads to division between the two parents due to their different ideologies at this point. This is a great hook for the season and the conflict between Philip and Elizabeth regarding what they should do with Paige is really compelling, however, there really isn't that much else to latch onto during the first half of the season. Season 3 is a slow burn, for sure, and aside from a few neat subplots about Stan's divorce and Nina's imprisonment, there just really isn't much going on for those first few episodes. The most noteworthy moment at the start of Season 3 is a tooth pulling sequence that was probably a very good scene, if I didn't have my eyes closed for most of it due to my own squeamishness.

It's not until Episode 7 when this season starts to actually gain some energy, and it's all because of Martha. There's been this whole subplot about Philip marrying the FBI's secretary so that she can plant a bug in the office, and in this season, that bug is finally discovered. I never cared too much about Martha, but her attempts to stay calm and not get caught with the FBI under investigation was incredibly tense and gripping. I especially loved the investigator Walter Taffet, his actor's performance feels just off as to make him incredibly unnerving. And of course, that's not it, because soon after, Philip and Elizabeth finally tell Paige that they're spies. It's a big moment and Paige gets a lot of episodes that deal with her struggle with this revelation. Between these two storylines, the second half of Season 3 is easily the best stretch of episodes in the show to date, though the fact that the finale doesn't really resolve a lot leaves me to wonder if the season really needed that slow burn at the start where nothing really happened.

Highlights:

Walter Taffet: As mentioned above, this episode was the big turning point in the season for me. The entire sequence where Gaad finds the bug in the pen is incredibly compelling and tense, and was the point where Martha almost instantaneously shot up near the top of my favorite characters list.

Do Mail Robots Dream Of Electric Sheep?: We needed an episode like this. Elizabeth was always the less sympathetic character compared to Philip due to her greater allegiance to the Soviet Union, but especially this season since she tries to go behind Paige's back and prepare her for recruitment, so having an episode where ends up getting attached to a victim of one of her missions feels really important. Also, I love that this entire episode is centered around a running gag.

Stingers: If you've seen this episode, you already know why it's on here. Paige learns about Philip and Elizabeth being spies, and it's absolutely heartwrenching.

Overall, Season 3 is yet another great season of The Americans, though it's also easily the most uneven one. The first half is incredibly slow and lacking in any sort of drive, but once Martha gets in trouble and Paige learns about her parents, the season really kicks into high gear and results in some of the most compelling episodes in the show to date.

4/5 Stars

The Americans (Season 2)

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

The Americans (Season 1)

It's funny that I'm watching both The Americans and Spy X Family (can't wait to talk about that one) in the same year because they have very similar premises about a secret agent family in the Cold War. But what's especially interesting is that despite their drastically different tones and mediums, they prioritize telling a story about their respective families over a simple spy thriller.

The Americans is a show about two KGB agents (Philip and Elizabeth) undercover in the US pretending to be a standard suburban family, two kids and all. They spent much of the season going on missions and interfering in the currently-occurring Cold War, all the while trying to keep their cover and not getting caught by their new neighbor, Stan, who happens to be an FBI agent. There's a decent chunk of The Americans that's basically a spy thriller, with a bunch of gritty Bourne-esque action scenes and a decent main storyline about the threat of Reagan's infamous "Star Wars program". But personally, all of the episodic missions and that SDI storyline was probably the least interesting part of the season for me. Personally, the best parts of the spy storyline involved the more personal conflicts. Subplots like Philip and Elizabeth almost getting their cover blown by Stan, Stan's mole-turned-love-interest Nina, and Philip and Elizabeth's shady new KGB supervisor Claudia (played excellently by Margo Martindale) were a lot more interesting to me. Speaking of which, it's hilarious that the first thing I saw Margo Martindale was Bojack Horseman, where she plays a complete parody of herself, because it means I keep getting surprised that she's actually really great at acting.

As I mentioned earlier on, The Americans isn't primarily a story about spies. In its simplest form, The Americans is about marriage. Philip and Elizabeth's relationship gets the most focus here, and Season 1 takes a lot of time to really delve into their complicated feelings towards their technically fabricated marriage. Philip and Elizabeth are very different people, with the former getting attached to America and the latter having a fierce loyalty to Russia, but they both end up getting more attached to their family, which ends up causing things to completley spiral out of control between the two as the season goes on. Starting in Episode 6, where the couple gets tested by the KJB to make sure they're not moles, Season 1 of The Americans really starts to get gripping and intense entirely because of the personal drama between Philip and Elizabeth, amplified even more when they start contemplating "divorce" a few episodes later. Also, and I can't believe I'm saying this, I actually like their children Paige and Henry. It's so hard to get children right in TV shows but these actors are really solid and their sibling dynamic is genuinely really fun to watch. 

Highlights:

Safe House: Easily the most tense episode of the season, Safe House kinda just keeps spiralling further and further into insanity, right from the moment Phillip runs into Amador and knocks him out. It all culminates in Amador's increasingly inevitable death, though it still came as a shock since we hadn't really had any major characters bite the dust yet.

Only You: And then right after Only You, we get the death of yet another side character in Gregory. This episode wasn't as chaotic as Safe House and I didn't care about Gregory quite as much, but I'd be lying if I said his suicide by cop didn't hit hard. Maybe it was the music.

The Colonel: While it doesn't really end up resolving much, The Colonel was still a great and action-packed way to bring the first season to a close. The final car chase that culminated in Elizabeth getting shot was super intense and fun, and the last few minutes toss in cliffhanger after cliffhanger after cliffhanger, hopefully setting up an even better Season 2.

Overall, though it took a few episodes to really get going and the main threat isn't super compelling, The Americans still got off to a pretty great start in its first season thanks to a fascinating and well-developed core duo, some great action, some incredibly tense moments, and a killer score

3/5 Stars