[a fool in paradise]

Still, I could see a practical reason to have the main characters be Russians in the US. If you tried to reverse that, with American sleeper agents in Russia, nobody would want to watch it.

A program about the coordination between the Reagan Administration, The Vatican, and persons in Poland would make for more interesting fare. And you'd be watching these people under an oppressive dictatorship working covertly to cast off the chains of Communism, ultimately bringing down the Evil Empire. Russia may be drab, but there is something in such a proposed extended ongoing series. Motivational even.

[Boogieman]

Well, I think you’re missing the point. They’re not aiming for people who want to watch a serious spy thriller, they are aiming for people who want a soap opera with a little bit of genre laid on top of it, like Mad Men, Walking Dead, etc. That’s what people want to watch, not John Le Carre type stuff.