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Here is the number of Golden Globes that The Americans, possibly the most critically acclaimed drama series of the 2010s, has been nominated for across its six seasons, which ran from 2012 through 2018: five.
To be clear: That is not very many! Four of those nominations are for the series’ two estimable leads, Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys (who in 2018 finally won an Emmy for his work), and they’ve all come in the last two years, for the show’s last two seasons. The show only just got nominated for Best Drama Series for the first time this year, for its sixth and final season.
And wildly enough, at an awards show that has never awarded a drama series in its sixth season thusly (though it did honor Breaking Bad under very similar circumstances), The Americans won. The series, which couldn’t get arrested at the Golden Globes for ages, won for a season that wrapped up its storylines perfectly, while also casually reflecting the national mood and conversation without once overplaying its hand. (The show, as you are surely tired of people pointing out by now, is about KGB spies living and working in Washington, DC, in the 1980s.)
Anyway, you should watch The Americans, which not only offered a tremendous dissection of a marriage that doubled as a thoughtful take on global geopolitics but also managed to find a way to end its run in a way that both honored its storylines and its characters, which too many final seasons of TV shows have shown us is an all but impossible task.
As I wrote of the final season, back as it approached its final episode in May:
But The Americans has balanced a growing tension around the series’ spycraft — in that Elizabeth is growing more desperate to accomplish her goals and Stan is slowly starting to suspect something might be up with his neighbors — with its ever more acute drill-down into the Jennings marriage. Indeed, as the final season has gone on, it hasn’t done any of the things you’d expect from a final season, like killing off lots of viewers’ favorite characters or showing Philip and Elizabeth on the run from those who know their secret. But it has maintained almost all the emotional devastation you’d expect from a final season, and much of that has to do with its ingenious idea of pitting Philip and Elizabeth against each other.
But we’ve written so much more about the show here at Vox, from a deep dive into the production of one particular episode to a take on the show’s global themes to an article you should only read after you’ve watched the series finale on how it breaks with a long-standing TV tradition. We even did a podcast with Rhys and the series’ showrunners, Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields.
Or just go look at everything we’ve written about the show, including recaps of the final three seasons. You won’t be disappointed!
