The Americans Creators Talk Season Five, Tease Martha’s Possible Return

For one of the best shows on television, The Americans is also notorious for its deliberate pacing. Some may even call it a “slow-burn,” and that’s a term the show’s creators Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg have decided to embrace. “We used to think that was a back-handed compliment, or possibly even an insult,” Weisberg said of the phrase in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.

Now, though, the creators have “come to embrace the slow burn—such a slow burn that it may not even be burning at all. We’re just telling a story as it unfolds,” Weisberg continued. “For us, the penultimate season is just another season of telling a story of this family and the people around them. It’s not ramped up. It’s not hyped up. It’s not building the tension—but it will be a great season.”

The creators also teased the possible return of Martha, who flew to the Soviet Union in the middle of the show’s fourth season. Weisberg explained that Martha was “off the grid,” but then added, “But what’s your grid?” The interviewer responded by explaining, “The grid is the cast of the show.” This led Fields to offer this cryptic sentence: “We did not say that.” Alison Wright has done outstanding work on the show, so her return would certainly be a welcome one.

Of course, the creators were careful not to spoil the forthcoming fifth season of The Americans, which is expected to run for a total of six seasons. The pair did tease an ongoing plot for Elizabeth and Philip involving planes, and a potential love interest for poor, lonely Stan. The fifth season of The Americans will hit FX in March.