A remake of a Cold War thriller?

THE television espionage drama, The Americans, produced by FX, the cable television network, has returned to US screens for its fifth season this week, and you can bet that many Washingtonians are planning to stay home on Tuesdays when the new episodes are aired.

The FX channel keeps renewing The Americans despite the fact that the ratings for the television show have been falling steadily since the first season. The reason that we can expect a few more seasons of the show goes beyond the obvious - that The Americans has enjoyed universal critical acclaim and has received numerous awards.

The Americans, which takes place in the 1980s, revolves around the lives and secret work of Elizabeth (Keri Russell) and Philip Jennings (Matthew Rhys), two Soviet KGB officers who are posing as an American married couple in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC. It has become a "must see" not only for viewers in Washington but in other zip codes where members of the educated and wealthy elites reside. After all, they have a lot of money to spend. (Hence the spiffy commercials for luxury cars that interrupt the show.)