Maybe The Americans is quietly a technophile love letter to the 1980s

The Emmy-nominated showrunners of The Americans, Joel Fields (L) and Joe Weisberg (R), sat down with Ars at ATX Television Fest 2017. One of ’em is a regular reader who enjoys our iOS and macOS reviews (but will revert to a flip phone when the show isn’t in production). (video link)

Warning: This post contains mild spoilers from the first five seasons of The Americans.

AUSTIN, Texas—On its surface, FX’s The Americans is a sleeper-cell spy drama set in DC during the Cold War. But fans will quickly tell you the show’s more about relationships and the difficulties of family and marriage; the show’s creators echo this sentiment, too.

“If you really look at the show honestly, the picture it paints of marriage is that there’s a lot of ups, a lot of downs, and it’s not an easy road,” showrunner Joe Weisberg says to fellow showrunner Joel Fields. The duo met up with Ars during this summer’s ATX Television Festival, and this author’s recent wedding comes up pre-interview. “He’s right at the beginning; he just got married. I don’t know if I want to lay out for him what’s really ahead.”