10 Reasons The Americans Is The Best TV Show You've Never Seen
6. The Supporting Cast
The Americans may be Philip and Elizabeth's (and to a lesser extent, Paige's) story first and foremost, but there are tons of great supporting characters as well. They could fill up a list of their own, but we'll narrow it down to a few here.
Stan Beeman is, many ways, the central character aside from the Jennings. An FBI agent and Philip and Elizabeth's neighbor, he befriends the two unknowing of their true nature. While he could have simply been a foil for them, Stan is a well-developed and deeply flawed character in his own right. He makes some terrible mistakes of his own, some of which aren't much better than what Philip and Elizabeth do.
Nina Sergeevna (Annet Mahendru) and Oleg Burov (Costa Ronin) are two of the best characters as well. Both employees of the KGB, each are fully-realized characters with interesting storylines of their own, but they also develop an engaging relationship with each other. However, not to spoil anything, but you might not want to get too attached (to anyone in the show, for that matter).
Other great characters include Martha (Alison Wright), Claudia (Margo Martindale), and Gabriel (Frank Langella), just to name a few, who are each involved in Philip and Elizabeth's lives, for better or for worse.