"The Americans" is not getting the attention it deserves despite the great reviews.
Still, FX does not seemed worried by it and continues to bring good TV product. In its third season, the show up the ante by exploring controversial plots.
As you have seen from earlier "The Americans" season 3 episodes, Philip (Matthew Rhys) has been spending some time with a high school teen and it is more than just making friendship. This is because for his new mission Philip Jennings has to flirt with 15-year-old Kimberly (Julia Garner) in order to get the intelligence-information the Center needs. Elizabeth (Keri Russell) is all for it while it doesn't sit well for Philip. Still, he has to do it for the love of the country.
This plot has somehow garnered split reactions from the followers of the FX spy series. Some think it is too immoral while others think it is an interesting story to touch on.
In the last episode, the thing that Philip fears almost happened. Good thing he had a quick thinking and used the current situation of her daughter Paige (Holly Taylor) to find an excuse not to sleep with her. But then, he just delayed it. As per the show's creators, there is still a possibility that Philip might touch the teenager.
Showrunners Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg sat down with Variety for an interview and one particular "The Americans" season 3 episode guide they shared is about the relationship between Philip and Kimberly. In their words, it seems what people saw in the last episode is just the tip of the iceberg.
"We had a whole iteration scripted through episode six, and because we hadn't shot yet were able to go back and re-break," Fields said.
"We thought about who she was, what her level of romantic experience was, her relationship with her parents, sexual experience, what was driving her, all of that. And then of course look at it from Philip's point of view as well, and what would make him uncomfortable. That's part of the interesting challenge of the story. It only works to the extent it makes the characters uncomfortable."
In terms of the reception of the current storyline in "The Americans" season 3, Weisberg think they got the audience right where the show wanted them.
"Sometimes stories work the way we want and sometimes they don't. I think what we're seeing from the audience response so far is we're actually getting what we wanted in terms of the choices we made about her age, the actress, what she looks like and everything like that. The intention was for it to be a hard to stomach story. We're happy with how it's working out. We're sorry that we want the audience to feel deeply uncomfortable but that's the only way the story works."
