The FX scripted engine is at it again. This time the news is in regards to their Cold War-era spy drama The Americans from Joseph Weisberg. If you are drawing a blank in regards to that guy, all you know to know is he is an acolyte of sorts to Justified creator Graham Yost with television credits that include Falling Skies and Damages. Today’s update on the series is that it has been picked up as the Gavin O’Connor-directed pilot apparently went very well.
For those unfamiliar with the program, it is about two Soviet spies who set up a faux family at the beginning of the Reagan administration. The Americans will deal with their exceedingly complex at home life and the allure of the American dream. Stars of the show include Keri Russell (Bedtime Stories,) Matthew Rhys (Brothers and Sisters,) and Noah Emmerich (The Walking Dead.)
It sounds like a unique enough concept to get us fairly excited. FX plans to pair the show with Justified in early 2013 similar to what we see with Sons of Anarchy and American Horror Story, so do not expected them to go 1, 2 on Tuesday nights. This is more likely a Tuesday, Thursday situation if I had to guess.
This pickup was largely expected which means FX now has four high-level, scripted dramas setup for the 2012-13 season and they are not content with stopping there. The cable channel has plans for a foreign series convert called The Bridge (a crime drama form the team behind Cold Case) and a Dr. Dre-produced music/crime drama that was just announced. On top of that, yesterday it was revealed that film director Robert Zemeckis signed a big television deal with Fox TV for a cable series that is presumably going to land on FX.