The much-lauded and praised American series The Americans (2013-2018) is about a couple of undercover Russian spies that have infiltrated the United States and are now posing as an all-American family. Both the husband “Philip” (real name: Misha) and wife “Elizabeth” (real name: Nadezhda) are “illegals” - that is they have assumed fake identities based on American people who have passed away. They are allegedly working as travel agents when, in reality, they are secretly passing on information to their own Soviet government while both undercover agents are often involved and engaged in active life-threatening operations.
The Jennings' Family
The “Americans” Philip and Elizabeth Jennings own a house and live with their son Henry and their daughter Paige, neither of whom are aware that their parents are undercover spies and both of whom are living typical suburban American lives. None of the children have been given Russian names nor do they have any contact with their extended family; neither has knowledge about their real background nor do they have any familiarity with Soviet life and culture at the beginning of events.
What sounds like the veritable stuff of fiction is indeed, at least partly, based on true events. The inspiration for the series came when a Russian ring of “illegals” had been exposed by the US government. This caused a sensation because all its members had managed to live undetected in the United States for various years and had been successful in establishing and positioning themselves in the midst of American society. They were sleeper agents that had fooled both ordinary citizens as well as the authorities for such a long time.
This news item of 2013 caught creator Joseph Weisberg’s attention, and he decided to put together and create a series inspired by those events. At the time, Russia was not seen as a potential national threat, let alone a possible enemy of the United States, so in the attempt to make it more relevant and plausible, Weisberg decided to shift the action to the height of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union during the 80s.
Little did the creator of the show know that Russia would come to the forefront a few years later with a series of targeted poisoning and assassination attempts of Russian public figures abroad. When Mitt Romney stated that Russia posed a potential threat to the United States, the Republican presidential candidate of 2012 was unfairly ridiculed for his stance by Obama and the Democrats; they all claimed that Senator Romney was out of touch with current geopolitical events and reality. In reality, Mitt Romney was more in touch than others cared or were willing to admit.
The promising headlining premise of the series soon develops into a fascinating and insightful study of identity. The show is never boring, and it has various, somewhat stereotypical, action sequences that we have come to love and appreciate from spy movies and thrillers, yet at its core, it is neither James Bond nor Jason Bourne nor Mr. and Mrs. Smith. It is psychologically more complex than that: it deals with the basic but fundamental question of who we are.
To what degree are we defined by our nation, our culture, and traditions, our religious, spiritual, and political beliefs. What influence do our neighbors, friends, social and political environments, and the media have on our psyche? Add to this already complicated mix, the elements and the effects of our self-perception of who we think we are and how we perceive we fit into the world around us. What would happen if the solid framework you established for yourself over the years were to be shattered and to fall apart in an instant with new incoming information?
At the same time, the series is also elaborating on themes of deceit, manipulation, trust, and mistrust alongside further reflections on social networks and isolation. Although few of us are “illegals” and part of a secret spy ring (I assume), many of us can relate to the feelings of confusion regarding one’s identity; refugees and immigrants will have had experimented at least at some points in their lives the queasy feeling of being a stranger in a strange land.
One of the aims of the series is to show us people not only as they are but to provide information behind the reasons and motivations of their actions and behavior and to create bonds of understanding and empathy as a result. Although we may seem worlds apart from each other due to our culture and upbringing and although we may be poles apart on the political and ideological spectrum, there are still many similarities and affinities between us. While the parents have close ties to their homeland, they still need to pretend to be American, and they live the American lifestyle so as not to raise suspicion. In the meantime, their unsuspecting children are growing up with lies about their identity and background.
The Americans aboards these themes in ingenious ways, and it is one of the best series in quite some time. If you have not seen it yet, be aware that I will have to provide a few spoilers along the way, but I will try not to give away major ones. I have also included pictures of the major characters to guide readers not yet acquainted or familiar with the series.
Stan Beeman
Things get complicated when the Russian spy couple finds out that their new neighbor works as a Counter-Intelligence officer for the FBI. It may not seem plausible, but it certainly racks up the tension on whether Stan Beeman, a bright and astute FBI agent, would be able to see through their guise and find out and discover who they really are. To circumspect suspicion, the Jenning's family decides to become close friends with the Beeman family, Stan, his wife Sandra, and their teenage son Matthew. This complicates things further because Henry develops a friendship with Stan whom he sees as the paternal figure he did not have with his own father often absent, Paige has a crush and a romantic relationship with Stan’s son Matthew, while lonely and secluded Philip traces a reluctant but relatively solid bond of friendship with Stan.
The stage is set with various intrigues and complications to ensue. In terms of operations, there are various - and one might add too many - missions that the couple engage in throughout the series. Some of their work is joint, where they pretend to be a married couple in another town or city with disguises and under different names, and there are other assignments that they do solo, some of which are abroad.
Some assignments are very dangerous and high stakes involving lethal and contagious viruses (yes, I could not help shuddering as I was watching those episodes during our devastating Covid-19 pandemic), while other missions are about nuclear weapons and defense systems; the undercover agents find methods and manners to gain access to the top-secret and highly classified information and then share the details with the Center, the cradle, brain and main command of the KGB and Soviet covert operations.
Martha Hanson with "Clark"
On the other hand, there are other comparatively minor lower stake missions in which the agents need to pretend to be someone else to get their hands on relevant and vital information and, at least, for the most part, they are not hesitant to use sex and physical intimacy to get to the people that have access to the necessary information or documents. The most memorable one is when Philip disguised and known as Clark continuously woos the lonely and emotionally fragile Martha Hanson, a secretary in the FBI. Using ruses, manipulation, and an abundance of sexual intimacy, Philip as Clark somehow and against her better judgment gets Martha to sneak in and plant a bugged pen in the FBI director’s office.
The charade and role-playing go in fact so far and to such lengths that Philip aka Clark is even willing to get married to Martha so that he can keep up with the farce and façade. Martha, blinded by love and a gullibility that is both head-scratching and heartbreaking, follows along. Clark claims that they need to keep their relationship and marriage a secret due to the fact that he has an allegedly important government position with the United States that would be otherwise compromised.
During the marriage ceremony, his Soviet directing officer is asked to become a witness, while Comrade Elizabeth, his real and pretend wife is asked to take on a role as his sister. It is all part of an absolute and elaborate sham that poor Martha, at least initially, falls for since she is head over heels in love with (whom she believes to be) Clark.
Using physical intimacy to “work” their contacts is not taboo to these Russian agents, and for the most part, there seems to be little friction between that aspect of their jobs. At the onset and years in, the Jennings’ marriage is a hoax, and their family is a shoo-in. That becomes somewhat shaken up when Phil and Elizabeth develop some sort of affection or “real” feelings for and between each other, up to the degree that they end up getting “officially” married for a second time around, in an abandoned warehouse and by another undercover agent, a practicing but rogue Russian Orthodox priest.
These undercover agents are constantly fluctuating between acting and pretending, between being their adopted American versions of a fixed and established family unit complete with children as well as other improvised and rehearsed personifications of fictitious characters, roles, and disguises that they take on, such as Philip’s Clark and the various personas of Elizabeth; their only respite exists when they are alone and intimate with each other, most often in the bedroom. But even there and then, they are often not at liberty to freely discuss their missions with each other and they tend to withhold information, which blocks them from having genuine conversations and from showing true feelings to each other.
Pretense and artifice are part and parcel of their daily make-up. Identity can be fragile for everyone, but much more so when you are almost always pretending to be somebody you are not, and it is even more complicated when your life depends on it as undercover spies from a foreign country or as an agent working for your own government. The former, the Jennings couple, don various disguises and identities (the disguises, especially the ones of Philip are so mesmerizing that I was wondering whether it was him or simply a similar-looking actor), whereas the identities, alongside different names and background details, are head-spinning. It must be incredibly stressful to keep the roles, personalities, and experiences straight and apart from each other. The moment they step out of the house, they are performing, but most of the time the performance continues at home with their children and their neighbors.
There are layers and layers carefully placed upon each other like a house of cards, and it is only a matter of time that a gust of wind, an unforeseen event, or complication would bring it all down. And there are many such potential moments and pitfalls along the way. The fact that Henry, their son, spends most of his time with their FBI neighbor Stan, that Paige their daughter dates his son, and that she notices odd behavior and absences with her parents is merely the tip of the iceberg of complications to follow.
Yet the biggest hurdles come from the inside, one’s emotions, and they affect every single character in this series. For instance, due to the confidential nature of his work as an FBI officer, Stan cannot share information and details of his work with his wife Sandra. This creates an emotional distance between them, and it creates barriers to communication while blocking access to essential parts of the self.
As a result, Stan becomes more and more a stranger to his own family and this takes its toll on his wife. Sandra ends up going to a personal development/self-help/human potential seminar that is initially known as EST, which is more or less based on the Erhard Seminars Training first established in the 70s. It is, at least in my understanding, a program that delves into the past to gain insight about oneself and to clear blockage and traumas that interfere with one’s day to day functioning, and by extension, one’s pursuit of happiness.
This is done with the aim and purpose of personal growth and of reaching a more authentic and genuine understanding of one’s core self. To do so, one must also release feelings of anger and guilt and come to terms with them to move forward in a more fruitful direction and with a clearer purpose in one’s life. In terms of identity, you are confronted to see the difference between different roles that you assume, play, and adopt and the person that you genuinely are deep inside.
These seminars serve as a continuous background metaphor of the series, and they play an important and vital role in the lives of (and around) Stan and Philip. For instance, the seminars become a catalyst to the eventual break-up and divorce of Stan and represent an estrangement and a source of conflict within Philip’s marriage. Stan himself is not innocent as he is “working” a beautiful Russian government official Nina whom he tries to “turn” and whom he (inadvertently?) falls in love with. In essence, what Stan ends up doing is similar to the way the Soviet illegals operate. And, in fact, Stan cheats on his wife and, to make matters worse, with a Russian agent, hence destroying his all-American family.
This is part of the brilliance of this series as no side is spared. What Stan does is not that much different from what Philip and Elizabeth do and he also engages in pretense and artifice although for different reasons and with different motives. These characters are all fallible, and they are all trying to do what they think is in their best interest, or rather in the best interest of their respective nations and governments. But, all in all, and all things considered, both Americans and Russians are not that different from each other. There are rhyme and reason to their actions, and they all believe that they are doing good.
Stan sees it as part of his job but also as a patriotic duty, while the illegals have engaged in it for global social justice and for the maintenance and propagation of their preferred political system of communism. All of them love their respective countries. This raises the question of how far you are willing to go for your country. Are there and should there be principles that go beyond the love and duty for one’s own nation?
Put differently, if your nation asks you to kill others, as a targeted assassination or as a soldier during the war, would it be justified? Is it acceptable to kill occasional innocent people simply because they were unlucky enough to be at the wrong place at the wrong time? Is it acceptable to pretend to be in love with someone only to gain access to relevant information that would help and benefit one’s nation? Is it ethically sound to gain possession of biochemical weapons as a means of proactive self-defense, that is, in the case the other nation should decide to use them in an attack?
In a brilliant scene, a Soviet diplomat is confronted and accused of being involved in and facilitating espionage at an American biochemical facility; an undercover agent had attempted to smuggle a sample of a highly toxic virus produced in the United States. The retort of the Soviet diplomat was why was the American government involved with lethal and illegal biological weapons in the first place?
Yet to return to our main characters, Philip is taken along by Stan to one of those EST seminars, and although he has a shield and firewall that protects him from emotions, some of those messages end up seeping through, and this experience touches and changes him, not unlike his daughter who falls for organized religion by joining a religious youth group. Elizabeth, more for worse than better, is the “tougher” one of the two, and she views the whole self-help organization as a capitalist money-grabbing scheme, something she is not entirely wrong about. But it is during those seminars and sessions when Philip, or rather Misha, gets to awaken and share parts of his true essence, by carefully trying not to give away or reveal his cover-up, of course.
Ironically, the American agent Stan is immune and fortified against these types of changes, and, unlike his ex-wife Sandra, he is only partially affected by those messages of the seminar. What touches and changes Stan is his brief, tender but doomed relationship with Nina, the enigmatic Soviet woman who in some ways opens his eyes and his heart to love. And he is given a chance to choose love over duty, but after some thought and reflection, he chooses the latter.
To blur boundaries between feelings and nationalities, Stan’s only friends are Russian. He is not aware of this, but his best friend is Philip, a Russian spy; Stan plays racquetball with him, drinks beer, and has dinner with him and his family. Stan even confides in him more than he did to his ex-wife Sandra, albeit in indirect ways and manners without essentially comprising operations and investigations of the FBI. Little does he know that he is being friends with the enemy of the state, the very same people he is on the lookout for.
Oleg Burov
The other Russian friend is Oleg Burov, an official Russian diplomat, who is also an agent but much less covert and somewhat shielded and protected by his diplomatic position. At different points, Oleg puts his own life at risk by providing Stan with classified information about his government; Oleg does so out of principle because his personal beliefs and principles are at odds with his own nation’s operations.
Although they have a delicate cat and mouse relationship, their friendship is rather heart-breaking. They cannot be friends in the traditional sense, but each respects the other and the principles that they stand for. Plus, they have a passion in common: both are in love with Nina. And if it were not for their nations, duties, and politics, they would have made excellent and lifelong friends. Instead, although both mean well, they end up harming each other through the proxy of their own governments, nations, and ideologies that are at odds with each other.
On the other hand, Philip cannot be his friend either and it is only a ticking time bomb. We anticipate that it will not work out for them and that, sooner or later, one of them, if not both, will end up getting hurt, not only emotionally but also physically. Add to that, the ultimate irony that the person Stan later falls in love with, an energetic and engaging American woman might just be another “illegal” herself, another undercover Russian agent that could have been sent to spy on the FBI agent from the inside.
No one is who they are or who they claim to be; each is hiding and playing a persona to others and themselves and each has their own deep secrets. We know that, sooner or later, it will all unravel. The marriage of Philip and Elizabeth will be tested, the truth will have to come out, endangering and significantly altering the relationship they have with their children; both have been living under a lie and pretense for all their lives, especially when it comes to their parents and their real intentions and motivations in life. Finally, we the viewers are tested and would have to pick a side, and it is a complicated choice to make.
Despite all the atrocities that happen on both sides of the fence, we realize that we are all very similar in different ways. That we are all human; we need love, friendship, and purpose in our lives, and that ignoring or repressing feelings does not mean nor signify that we do not have any. It just means that we tend to fool and blindfold ourselves, and it does not matter whether we are Americans or Russians, whether we live and root and fight for the capitalist dream of freedom and individuality, or we lean towards and embrace communism with its purported socialistic dreams and aspirations.
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