TOMATOMETER
Critic Consensus: The Americans' series finale offers viewers closure and uncertainty with an outcome that's as devastating as it is full of potential.
Episode Info
Cast
as Philip Jennings
as Elizabeth Jennings
as Paige Jennings
as Henry Jennings
as Stan Beeman
as Arkady
as Nina
as Chris Amador
as Sandra Beeman
as Martha Hanson
as Agent Frank Gaad
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Critic reviews for START
Rather than physical death or even incarceration, the principal characters of FX's The Americans were left dying on the inside at the close of Wednesday night's series finale.
In perfectly ironic fashion, Philip and Elizabeth are now effectively immigrants in their own land. The place they once called home has now become unfamiliar. It doesn't represent a fresh start, but it's the closest thing to a new beginning.
A thoroughly satisfying ending to six seasons of espionage, marital struggle, and ideology. The last episode...stayed true to the tone of the entire series, with waves of heavy emotion and lots of secret nighttime crawls...
It's always simmered and stewed in the emotional strain of its premise without ever actually exploding. Its slowness wasn't preparatory; it was the point.
Thanks to everything working around [Paige], the series itself will also stand the test of time.
The plot of The Americans constantly evades climax -- the finale shuns action-packed shoot-outs and stereotypical spy scenes for close-up shots of its major characters in various, internalised states of shock and trauma.
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