The Americans is a period spy drama television series set in the United States.¹⁾

Joe Weisberg developed it for the FX television network.²⁾

The series takes place during the Cold War. It tells the narrative of Elizabeth (Keri Russell) and Philip Jennings (Matthew Rhys), two Soviet KGB intelligence officials posing as an American married couple living in Falls Church, Virginia, a Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C., with their children, Paige (Holly Taylor) and Henry (Matthew Rhys) (Keidrich Sellati).³⁾

The show also delves into the rivalry between the FBI office in Washington and the KGB Rezidentura there.⁴⁾

It follows both sides' agents, notably Jennings' neighbor Stan Beeman (Noah Emmerich), an FBI agent engaged in counterintelligence.⁵⁾

The series begins in the aftermath of President Ronald Reagan's inauguration in January 1981. It comes to an end in December 1987, just before the leaders of the United States and the Soviet Union sign the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.⁶⁾