The ending of The Americans was a botch. The writers could have instead been true to both the subject matter and the story. In one real spy case from the era, the Soviet spy (the father) defected for the sake of his patriotic and fully American son — who had won an Air Force academy appointment. Remarkably, it was the FBI background check on the son that led to discovery of the father as a Soviet spy and his eventual defection.
yeah and since there are real life examples this would have been far more plausible/believable
“In one real spy case from the era, the Soviet spy (the father) defected for the sake of his patriotic and fully American son ...”
That was really, really, really what I wanted to have happen in that show. I wanted the husband to defect and drag the wife kicking and screaming, which you know she would have been.
But it was a GREAT show, really well done how they kept you sympathetic to pretty much everyone, and yet still showed how evil Communism is.
Hubby and I screwed up, fell behind watching it, and then changed TV providers, losing a whole season as the Tech took our DVR away. So dumb!
Then we just kind of forgot, but didn’t really.
This year when the pandemic broke out, we were like, we’ve got to finish The Americans! For a while I was just praying I wouldn’t die of covid before we finished it.
I do have to re-watch that last episode.