DVD/TV Series Review: The Americans: Season 5

 

+++Warning, this contains spoilers from prior seasons, but no major season 5 spoilers+++

The fifth season of The Americans, which is the second to last season, served to both tie up or advance older storylines, and set up the storylines going into the final season. Phillip and Elizabeth (Matthew Rhys and Kerri Russell) are dealing with the fallout of Paige telling Pastor Tim their true identities, and are trying to keep him from ratting them out while debating how to deal with him without hurting Paige. Oleg (Costa Ronin) is back in Moscow, still grieving Nina's death, but trying to move on in his new job investigating food chain corruption. Paige (Holly Taylor) is getting more and more entrenched in her parent's spy life and having a hard time adjusting, while Henry (Keidrich Sellati) is still in the dark hoping to go to a prestigious boarding school. 

As in past seasons, there are a couple of big themes that run throughout the season. The main one involves an agriculture program that threatens the Soviet Union's food supply, and the second is a continuation of the prior season's biological warfare story arc, and the threat of weaponizing Lassa fever. Toward the end of the season, Phillip's mission involving Kimmy (Julia Garner) picks up again, and he is again put in a very uncomfortable position trying to keep Kimmy on the hook. 

The DVD set is what I would describe as a MOD plus set. The A/V transfer is mediocre, at best, and it only has a few extras. Those are a handful of deleted scenes, a gag reel, and the TNT First Look for the new season. The extras are not nearly as extensive as the season one blu-ray release got, and the DVD video transfer is nowhere near the season one blu-ray transfer quality. So, the only big reason to get the DVD set versus just streaming the show is to keep a collection complete.

The show continues to be well-written and very well-acted. There is still a lot of violence and sexual content, so it is definitely not a family-friendly show. The series definitely seems to be setting up Stan to figure things out, but the big question is going to be how will he do so. There are some good new additions to the cast, including Peter Jacobson (who was a series regular in the middle seasons of the series House) as a new member of the FBI team and Laurie Holden as a new love interest for Stan, brought back Allison Wright for a small side story, and included the great recurring characters of Gabriel and Claudia, played by Frank Langella and Margo Martindale. If you liked the prior seasons, then this one is definitely worth watching.