The Americans - Series finale out now.

FX ORDERS SECOND SEASON OF THE AMERICANS

Critically-Acclaimed Drama Starring Keri Russell, Matthew Rhys and Noah Emmerich

Earns 13-Episode Order for Season Two

Nine All-New Episodes Remain This Season, Airing Wednesdays at 10:00 PM ET/PT

With the Season One Finale Scheduled for May 1

FX Schedules The Americans Marathon Featuring the First Five Episodes

Friday, March 1 at 10:00 PM ET/PT

LOS ANGELES, FEBRUARY 21, 2013 – FX has picked up its critically-acclaimed drama The Americans for a 13-episode second season, it was announced today by John Landgraf, President and General Manager, FX Networks. The most recent drama to join the network’s coveted roster of hit original series, the renewal comes just four episodes into The Americans’ freshman season. There are nine all-new episodes remaining in the current season airing Wednesdays at 10:00 PM E/P with the season finale schedule to air on May 1.

Created by Joe Weisberg and starring Keri Russell, Matthew Rhys and Noah Emmerich, the series premiere episode of The Americans was the most-watched debut of any FX series ever with 5.11 million Total Viewers (Live+7, 1/30/13). Through three weeks, time-shifted viewing of The Americans is the highest of any first-year series on FX with weekly gains of +44%, +58% and +63% respectively. On Live +3 basis through three weeks, the series is averaging 3.63 million Total Viewers and 1.87 million Adults 18-49. After declines in each of the previous two weeks, last night’s fourth episode of The Americans rebounded to week two levels posting gains of +46% in Adults 18-34, +22% in Adults 18-49, +64% in Women 18-34, +30% in Women 18-49, and +33% in Men 18-34.

“The Americans has quickly established itself as a key part FX’s acclaimed drama line-up,” said Landgraf. “Executive Producers Joe Weisberg, Joel Fields and Graham Yost and their collaborators are telling riveting and deeply emotional stories and the performances of Keri Russell, Matthew Rhys, Noah Emmerich and the entire cast are simply outstanding. The show is truly worthy of its widespread critical acclaim and we are confident that its quality will continue to yield a robust and passionate audience.”

“We’re very grateful to John Landgraf, Nick Grad, Eric Schrier and everyone at FX for their unwavering support of our show,” said Weisberg. “We’re thrilled to be able to continue writing stories for such an incredibly talented cast led by Keri, Matthew and Noah. This has been an amazing experience for me and it couldn’t have happened without the tireless efforts of our cast and crew. We appreciate the support of the audience and we believe they have a lot to look forward to the rest of this season.”

Fields added, “Working with Joe Weisberg, Graham Yost, Josh Brand, Adam Arkin, our writing staff, and the brilliant cast and crew has been a blast and I’m delighted we get to keep doing it. We couldn’t have made it happen without the constant support of Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank at Amblin TV, David Madden at Fox Television Studios and Eric Schrier at FX Productions and their wonderful teams as well.”

In next week’s fifth episode, “Comint” - (Airs February 27, 10:00 PM E/P), a crucial agent crumbles under emotional distress and threatens to topple a valuable network of KGB informants. Professionally, Philip and Elizabeth are tasked with infiltrating the FBI's new communications encryption system while personally they are forced to grapple with one of the darker aspects of life as a spy. (Written by Melissa James Gibson; Directed by Holly Dale)

Set in 1981 just after Ronald Reagan is elected president, The Americans, starring Keri Russell, Matthew Rhys and Noah Emmerich, is a drama series about the complex marriage of two KGB spies posing as Americans in suburban Washington D.C. Created and Executive Produced by Joe Weisberg (Falling Skies), a former CIA agent who went on to become an accomplished author, Joel Fields and Graham Yost are also executive producers, along with Amblin Television heads Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank. The Americans is produced by Fox Television Studios and FX Productions.

In celebration of the series renewal, FX will air a marathon of The Americans, showing the first five episodes back-to-back on Friday, March 1 beginning at 10:00 PM E/P

dmin wrote:Yea, its been the best new show this season. Looking forward to the finale.

When is it meant to be coming to itv?

If anyone was worried that THE AMERICANS couldn't get better in its second season you can stop worrying now.

Watching THE AMERICANS S2 Eps 1 & 2. Crisp, densely packed storytelling; double lives abound, more family emphasis.

The Americans is a period drama about the complex marriage of two KGB spies posing as Americans in suburban Washington D.C. shortly after Ronald Reagan is elected President. The arranged marriage of Philip (Matthew Rhys) and Elizabeth Jennings (Keri Russell), who have two children – 13-year-old Paige (Holly Taylor) and 10-year-old Henry (Keidrich Sellati), who know nothing about their parents’ true identity – grows more passionate and genuine by the day, but is constantly tested by the escalation of the Cold War and the intimate, dangerous and darkly funny relationships they must maintain with a network of spies and informants under their control. Complicating their relationship further is Philip’s growing sense of affinity for America’s values and way of life. Tensions also heighten upon the arrival of a new neighbor, Stan Beeman (Noah Emmerich), an FBI agent. Stan and his partner, Agent Chris Amador (Maximiliano Hernández), are members of a new division of Counterintelligence tasked with fighting against foreign agents on U.S. soil, including KGB Directorate S illegals, Russian spies posing as Americans.

It's taken a major creative leap — the kind that can elevate a show from a strong example of its era to one that transcends eras — and as I barreled through the five episodes FX sent out to critics, I felt my pulse quickening in that way I want to feel so often in my job but so rarely do: when something good becomes something great.

Really liked “The Americans” in S1, but starting to feel evangelical based on early S2 episode. SO good.

Season 2 is just as brainy and twisty and kinky [as season 1], and it ratchets up the suspense by making the threats to our "heroes" even more personal.

The new season—suspenseful as ever, more brutal in its violence, perhaps, and more expansive in its reach into history—easily upholds the standard of the first. As before, its echoes of a past era sidle in eloquently, none more effectively than in the look and manner of the Jennings's children. As before, the uniformly distinguished cast performs its wonders, and it is, as before, impossible not to feel dread at the approach of an episode's ending.

It's not just the writing or Rhys' stronger work. The direction is more confident, the tone is darker, the show feels more tactile. There are fight scenes, especially a great one in episode 2.4, that feel dirty, gritty, and almost unrehearsed. The program is physical, visceral, and consistently intense. Even the dialogue sounds smarter.

It's an incredibly deft balancing act that's accomplished through strong character development all around.

Five episodes into the second season of "The Americans" on FX suggest this is one great series that isn't in immediate danger of that second-season slump. All of the elements that made it must-see last year are working at full throttle in season two, which kicks off Wednesday night: intrigue, deception, sex, duplicity, spy vs. spy stuff and, most of all, irony.

The first five episodes of Season 2 press point toward this season being a particularly strong one, with some electrifying narrative arcs jumpstarted within the first episode. It took the first season a few episodes to find itself, but Season 2 of The Americans quickly coalesces into a taut and unpredictable sequence of episodes. There’s a sense of danger and intrigue embedded within these upcoming installments that remind the viewer that, while these events may be rooted in the semi-distant past, the show’s nuanced explorations of the concerns of the family and of the self remain provocatively contemporary.