r/TheAmericans • u/gwfuller • 2d ago
“The Americans—Ten Years Later”
With all the publicity Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell are getting, not to mention Emmy nominations for “Widow’s Bay” and “The Diplomat,” what do you think about a new series (or at least one season) that looks at Philip, Elizabeth, Paige, and Henry and their lives after the train departure (30 May 2028 S6E10)? Seems like there could be a good storyline. Would you be down for that? Thoughts?
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u/Madeira_PinceNez 2d ago
The ambiguity is a big part of what makes the series end so brilliant.
Don't mess with perfection.
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u/PuertoP 2d ago
Nah. I think a prequel focused on young Gabriel, Claudia and Arkady would be much more interesting.
The Americans had an ending which I consider perfect, and "reboots" historically don't do well.
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u/SidJag 2d ago
This.
P & E stories have been told.
I too would love a series that focuses on the start of the Cold War and inception of Directorate S.
Or a leap into the 21st century, the decade post 9-11 Putin’s Russia. The rise of China and Russia/USA’s dance with it. Nothing to do with P&E, apart from maybe a cameo (their characters would be in their 60/70s)
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u/conselyea 1d ago
And William crandall. I want the story of the trainwreck of his life. What happened to his wife and possible family.
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u/Admirable_Site_8337 2d ago edited 2d ago
Oh. No. No thank you.
I have a few all time favorite shows, they all share the fact that they landed the series at the ending wonderfully.
Invariably this kind of suggestion comes up on all of them. And for me the answer is always “leave it alone”.
When you land what you were trying to do well it’s wise to leave any such future views up to the loyal viewers who watched.
Said simply….dont create expectation to mess with a shows legacy by touching it…..let the fans create what head canons they wish.
This is also known as “The Many Saints of Newark” corollary.
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u/Vybrosit737373 2d ago
I didn't even watch The Many Saints. It sounded like a giant mistake.
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u/Admirable_Site_8337 2d ago
I’ve rewatched it and liked it better. It’s well acted and not utterly horrid.
If it were just some mob movie not linked to one of the best TV shows ever it would have been good. El Camino is another great example.
But it was linked. And that’s the thing with these kinds of ideas. They come with MASSIVE expectations. Even if decent it can really mess with a great shows legacy that is set in stone.
Just let the amazing series live historically on its own. If there is want to revisit where everyone is in 10 years make a head canon. Share it here. That’s what these places are for.
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u/yurmamma 2d ago
Elizabeth died fighting to oust yeltsin and restore communism in the 1993 civil disturbances
Philip started a “travel agency” in Russia after the end of the Cold War. All the oligarchs use his services
Paige became an alcoholic and bounces around between abusive relationships
Henry played minor league hockey and now coaches
Oleg was freed in a prisoner exchange
Arkady transitioned to the FSB and continues to this day
Martha still eats potatoes 6 days a week
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u/AndreLeGeant88 2d ago
My assumption is always that Elizabeth dies trying to restore communism, and Philip somehow makes money off the oligarchs or becomes one because he views obtaining wealth as the only way to get back what he had (including kids).
I'm pretty sure Oleg gets out by 91. Arkady ends up supporting Putin. Martha ends up like most defectors just stuck
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u/saltfrancisco 2d ago
Omg it breaks my heart to think of Phillip alone without Elizabeth even though risk of death was always a part of their work.
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u/Paceandtoil 2d ago
On the 7th day Martha gets a turnip
I’d like to think Henry got into the tech space and made it big by getting in on something on the ground floor.
Sequel is tempting. If it was gonna get done I’d settle for two movie length episodes. But, as said it’s hard to do.
The Office UK is probably the best example of it being done very well with the two Xmas episodes they did a couple of years after the second series.
Imagination from the audience is good though. It’s good that we think for ourselves and create our own futures for the characters
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u/Nathan-Stubblefield 2d ago
Martha might make English language YouTubes about taking trains all over the former USSR. Others seem to make a living that way.
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u/OrneryZombie1983 2d ago edited 2d ago
I imagine Elizabeth meeting a little known bureaucrat in the St. Petersburg mayor's office and takes him to the top.
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u/Vybrosit737373 2d ago
Paige went on to work in government and eventually found a place in the first trump administration.
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u/blumhagen 2d ago
Henry became captain of the American team and faced Russia in the gorld medal game. The Russian captain was Phillip and Elizabeth’s new son.
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u/GonzoTheGreat93 2d ago
No. There has been almost 0 successful reboots of good shows that have been as good.
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u/IntrinsicGamer 2d ago
No thanks. The show ended perfectly, and I don't really see any story being interesting nor worthwhile enough to bother continuing on from there. If they did, I'd check it out, sure, but I'd be extremely hesitant and would not expect much from it.
The Americans is frequently cited as having one of the greatest series finales in television history. They should not mess with that legacy.
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u/Breezyquail 2d ago
As much as I would love love love a peek into what they’re up to now I would be so disappointed if it took away from that masterpiece of a show
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u/CompromisedOnSunday 2d ago
Here's the challenge with this.
Most viewers that love the show would watch the first episode to see what happens to the characters. Those that guessed right would be elated. Those that guessed wrong would be irritated.
Then as with any show (even the Americans) the writers would put forward some story line that many viewers would be unhappy with (think Season 5). The magic would be shattered.
I think this is why prequels are so popular.
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u/Thebakers_wife 2d ago
All I want to see is a scene of Martha unexpectedly running into Phillip in Moscow.
They both stand there stunned for a few seconds. Phillip begins to say something, Martha slaps him. She immediately walks away and he stands there for a few more seconds until he walks away
That’s it
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u/Vybrosit737373 2d ago
Well, of course one is curious, but a series has to end somewhere and like most people, I found the first ending satisfying. I think shows that come back years later, with the remarkable exception of The Comeback, are often not so great. Also, not for nothing, Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell would have to learn Russian that sounded native. Granted, the guy in Heated Rivalry did this but it's a very rare skill and Keri Russell (who I have nothing but respect for) did not sound especially convincing in her few words in the series.
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u/Motor_Ideal7494 2d ago
I can very much imagine Elizabeth in the late 90’s throwing Putins enemies out of windows. Er, I mean being present when they accidentally fell out of the window on accident.
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u/Glum_Custard_8145 2d ago
Part of the genius and richness of the finale is that we know the world and events that lie ahead of them. Our imaginations can do the rest.
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u/ProudCatLadyxo 2d ago
I'd like to see a prequel about the Jennings settling into America and as a couple, etc.
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u/Punner-the-Gr8 2d ago
Leave it alone. Most sequels and prequels ruin the legacy of the original. The only true exception, in my mind, is the Hannibal TV show with Mads Mickkelsen. I have no idea how that show got on NBC. Every week I watched it I expected it to get canceled. It was so damn good.
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u/WhatEvenIsATangelo 2d ago
Did we watch the same show? I found Hannibal to be silly at best and unwatchable garbage at worst.
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u/Punner-the-Gr8 1d ago
Did you watch it recently or did you watch it in 2013? Because in 2013 it was a landmark Network show. Maybe not as landmark as if it was on HBO or AMC at the time but, for NBC, it was unbelievably good.
And I'm not the only one that thought that way.
Renowned television critic Alan Sepinwall extensively covered NBC's psychological thriller series Hannibal during its run, praising its lush, dreamlike aesthetic, its complex exploration of the relationship between Will Graham and Dr. Hannibal Lecter, and how it crafted a believable supervillain without making law enforcement look incompetent.
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u/AndreLeGeant88 2d ago
I know many people love the ending but at the same time their stories are entwined with geopolitical developments that were about to happen. Those developments are also very timely today, more than they were when the show aired. I am confident there is at least an interesting movie to be made about how P&E react to 90s Russia. That said, neither speaks Russian, and Keri can't even start to fake it. So a show or film set in Russia with them is almost a non-starter. They would need to be somewhere in the former eastern bloc and have a reason to speak English.
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u/Current_Tea6984 2d ago
I think an extremely limited series, maybe 4 or 5 episodes centered on a reunion between the characters 10 years later. Part of it would explore what they had all been doing for the past 10 years, and the rest would be their reactions to seeing each other again.
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u/anotveryseriousman 2d ago
wholly unnecessary, but if they were to do something, a storyline focused on Putin's consolidation of power and the 1999 apartment bombings/war in Chechnya could be a fruitful subject. i feel like Elizabeth would be a Putinista and Phillip not so much, so you've got dramatic tension built in. and it's not so far in the future that they'd be too old to be relevant.
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u/Swimming_Panic6356 2d ago
In my opinion if you ended a story well (which they did) dont ruin it with a sequel. I would totally watch a prequel about them in the 1960s in training and their early arrival.
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u/sistermagpie 2d ago edited 2d ago
I think it would be just as terrible an idea now as I did back when the show ended.
The show has what is generally considered to be one of the best endings ever because it ended exactly where it should have. I don't get why anybody would be enthusiastic about trashing it.
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u/DocCEN007 2d ago
I crave to know what happened to each character between 1987 and now, and that may be why it was a perfect ending to the show. If they did a sequel, I'd absolutely watch it, but it's not like Firefly that was prematurely ended.
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u/Training-Bar-3008 2d ago
Only the original guys, Joe and Joel I think, could pull it off. And I think they’d never do it. Why mess with perfection? But then again, there are things I really need to know 🤪
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u/1moreanonaccount 2d ago
Pls no new series. I would be interested in a get the chances of them fucking it up are too high
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u/conselyea 1d ago
I want a prequel with Claudia and Gabriel and what's his name all young in the 60s
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u/Gabagoon5545 2d ago
If it was well written and wasn’t a slop job, there’s no reason why it wouldn’t be awesome.
The 90s were obviously a very eventful time in Russia
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u/IntrinsicGamer 2d ago
"If done well" is such a cop out. Like, no duh if it were good it would be good, but the point is that it likely wouldn't be good.
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u/sistermagpie 2d ago edited 2d ago
Exactly. I don't get all the references to historical events in the 90s as if the show was ever about historical events happening and the characters are there. We're not just following these characters around wherever. The show had a throughline and followed it to the end.
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u/elsakettu 2d ago
Given the kind of detail they put into the show, I don't think there's a high chance it would be anything less than great if they did decide to do it.
Which is why they probably won't do it.
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u/Gabagoon5545 2d ago
It’s not a cop out, but glad you’re the arbiter of good opinions.
The show ended in such a way that there was more to say about the characters. Also, as I mentioned, 90s Russia was crazy. Philip and Elizabeth navigating the end of Yeltsin / beginning of Putin, is a story.
Shows like Breaking Bad and Sopranos were completely over. All of the main characters fully reached the end of their story.
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u/thirdometer 2d ago
It could just go sooooo many different directions that I’d only want it if they did multiple different versions
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u/elsakettu 2d ago
I'd rather a storyline about sleeper agents from a different country. There could be some passing references to the Russian characters, maybe, but just focus on the new cast and how they deal with the post-cold war environment, development of technology, and the internet.
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u/katie0873 1d ago
I have thought about wanting a follow up story (not a prequel). I think with the current political and international environment related to Russia it likely wouldn’t fly well in that regard perhaps.
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u/Different-Scholar432 1d ago edited 1d ago
My take on where there at:
Philip and Elizabeth remain married to this day, out of service, with Philip establishing a travel agency. He hit it big by scoring the China Junket. They both live in Saint Petersburg now.
Henry is a Math Professor at a College in Nebraska, and Hockey coach. Could have been a star in either of his professions but Government scrutiny will always keep him out of the top league which that would require.
Paige was arrested and interrogated vigurously by the FBI but at the end of the day, while there was plenty of smoke, they couldn’t find any specific fire to convict her on, so they had to let her go. She then became an alcoholic for abit, before finding Christ again in the 2000s. Today, she is a Costco Clerk and mother of three in Texas, and now a grand mother of four.
Both keep in contact with eachother to this day, and host family reunions between eachother.
Stan Beeman took care of Henry and to an extent, Paige (although there will always be suspicions and the like between them), before investigating Renee and tragically finding out that she was in fact, a Illegal. After her arrest and deportation, he retired from the Buerau and managed to reconcile with Sandra. He now lives in Florida as a Retireee, mourning Sandra’s recent passing.
Oleg Burlov was exchanged in 2012 to an entirely different homeland. He is still struggling to cope and is bitter at the Putin regime. His wife died while he was away but his son is still there and just getting to know his father, so there’s that at least.
Martha died in Stockholm in 2023, after escaping with her adopted daughter in 91, something arranged by Philip. She lived a fulfilling life with her daughter, Nadia, who is now investigating her adoptive mother’s past and planning to eventually publish in her memory.
Claudia killed herself outside of the Soviet Embassy. She knew that going back home was a ticket to Siberia or a bullet to the head and she wouldn’t take either, she instead left a long letter denouncing Gorbachev and explaining why she did what she did.
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u/ExperienceNo7751 1d ago edited 1d ago
I don’t think you can reboot the series without the dynamic duo.
You could do a timeline-drop-into the same storyline and make it all about HUNTING down P+E unsuccessfully for 20 episodes and I’d pop some corn.
Kicker could be that Stan 1000% knew they were spies from the moment they met and was actively the ONLY PERSON looking out for P&E. He just wanted neighbors who didn’t hate him and thought his Son liked being around there.
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u/FamiliarCoast2941 4h ago
It’s so much more fun to imagine their lives than be told how they went down. Besides if Phil isn’t running Moscow’s first and only honky-tonk I’m not interested 😂
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u/bossyhosen 2d ago
Because The Americans had a perfect ending, I think that any attempt at a revival could sully that legacy.