The Americans, a Cold War drama starring Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys has been ordered to series by FX. The much-buzzed-about-pilot has Russell and Rhys as a Russian couple who are actually KGB spies living under cover in the suburbs of Washington, D.C..
A period drama that takes place just after the election of Ronald Reagan to the Presidency, The Americans follows two KGB spies in an arranged marriage designed to help sell their cover. Over time the two come to find love with each other while they run their network of spies and informants, raise two kids who don’t know mom and dad are Russian spies, and deal with an ever-growing fondness for the American way on the part of the husband. The series also stars Noah Emmerich as an FBI agent whose area of expertise happens to be counter-intelligence, and who also happens to move in right next door to the undercover couple. The pilot was created and written by Joseph Weisberg (Falling Skies).
Deadline says FX has given The Americans a 13-episode order for its first season, and the show will start production early in the New Year. There’s another Cold War project also in the works over at NBC, but it takes place in the 1960s so it sounds like it would be quite different. That one had Aaron Paul in talks for the lead; he’ll be looking for a new gig after Breaking Bad wraps at the end of the current season.
