20 Best TV Shows Of 2018

2. The Americans

It's no easy feat to write a final season, let alone for a show that's been as complex and compelling as The Americans. The show, which is a family drama first, a spy thriller second, pulls it off though by bringing its two moving parts closer together than ever before, without losing sight that it was the former that mattered most.

In its sixth season we once again have the same taut direction, the same unbearable level of tension, the searing intensity. And the stakes are bigger than ever, too, with regards to both the relations between the Soviet Union and the USA as well as the Jennings family. And it's smartly through the lens of the latter that we witness the former play out, with Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys delivering some of their most layered work yet.

That means we get the spy thrills, but we also get the beautiful, melancholic family drama. It's a final season that gives us plenty of moments we've been longing for - a parking garage showdown is the best single TV scene of the year - and lots we'd never even have dreamt of. It manages to be emotional, nail-biting, and surprising until the very end, but at the same time is completely and utterly satisfying too. Not enough people watched it, but The Americans goes out as one of the greats.