The Americans

After only four episodes of the new FX spy show, The Americans, I am hooked. And that's not easy to do. 

The premise is a wee bit complicated. 

Elizabeth and Phillip Jennings (played by Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys) are KGB sleeper agents living in the US in the Regan era. They never met before their arranged marriage and they don't know anything about one another's lives in Russia before they met. 

They both love the children they have had together and struggle with their situation. They try to keep their cover, raise their kids, run their travel agency and do all of their assignments to their KGB bosses liking, which is really hard to do. 

They have marital problems of course - but it's more like what happens to our kids if we get arrested or killed, are we safer if we keep this up or defect, or will our nosy neighbor the FBI agent stumble on a body next time he breaks into our garage. Oh, and they also have to deal with the fact they both sleep with other people routinely for the job and sometimes not even for the job. 

This show is fresh, fast paced and rather awesome. I am so glad FX has already renewed it for a second season. 

The Americans is on Wednesdays on FX at 10 pm. 

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Speaking of TV shows with spy elements. The two part episode of Castle that ended last night (Monday, Feb 25th) was excellent. You can watch both parts on ABC.com.