Over the weekend, newspaper readers and political show viewers got a cryptic surprise when an ad campaign showcased a startling image of the Washington Monument cloaked in a Russian flag.
Deadline said in the ads, the image came with a banner that read "The Russians Are Here," along with several US buildings in the background. The ads were published in major newspapers like The New York Times, The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, which included a link that points to a For Your Consideration website for FX’s “The Americans,” which stars real-and-real-life couple Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys. Russell and Rhys were shown in character, toting guns while being surrounded by critic quotes. When the “FYC” icon is clicked, a new page pops up with the show’s cast member roster, suggesting they are Emmy Awards-worthy.
In the TV ad version, the ad ran for 15 seconds on CBS’s “Face the Nation” today, which includes a montage of popular Washington DC locations, ending with the Capitol Building flying the Soviet flag and carrying the same message: “The Russians are here.” The US national anthem is also played in the background, but is sung in Russian.
The Hollywood Reporter said this is not the first time “The Americans” toyed with the idea of a Russian takeover. Michael O’Connell wrote that since the show’s launch in 2013, it has released ads in newspapers and the show’s online homepage with headlines and messages pointing to it. The last time “The Americans” pitched the idea was in March this year, just in time for the show’s fifth season.
Meanwhile, showrunners Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields confirmed over the weekend that the sixth and final season of “The Americans” will only consist of ten episodes only. At an ATX Television Festival panel for the series, Weisberg said Saturday, "There are a lot of pieces hanging out there, a lot of stories … but also a lot of threads of who these people are and sort of how their lives are going to end up. We've got 10 episodes … to pull that altogether, and we think it's going to be, there's going to be a lot happening both in the story world and the emotional world. It's (going to be) action-packed and emotion-packed.
