Season 2 of ‘80s Cold War spy thriller The Americans set for February

FX has announced that its acclaimed hit drama The Americans will return for its second season on Wednesday, February 26th, at 10 PM.

The Americans, the most critically-acclaimed new drama of 2013, was recently named by the AFI as one of the Programs of the Year. The series – which is currently in production in New York – also received the most Television Critics Association Awards nominations of any show this year (four) and earned four Critics’ Choice Television Award nominations. The series stars Keri Russell, Matthew Rhys, Noah Emmerich, Holly Taylor, Keidrich Sellati, Annet Mahendru, Alison Wright and Susan Misner. The series premiere of the show back in January stands as FX’s most-watched drama debut ever, drawing 5.1 million viewers.

The Americans is a period drama about the complex marriage of two KGB spies posing as Americans in suburban Washington D.C. shortly after Ronald Reagan is elected President. The arranged marriage of Philip (Matthew Rhys) and Elizabeth Jennings (Keri Russell), who have two children – 14-year-old Paige (Holly Taylor) and 11-year-old Henry (Keidrich Sellati), who know nothing about their parents’ true identity – grows more passionate and genuine by the day, but is constantly tested by the escalation of the Cold War and the intimate, dangerous and darkly funny relationships they must maintain with a network of spies and informants under their control. Their neighbor, FBI Agent Stan Beeman (Emmerich) has already come dangerously close to discovering their secret, but was thwarted by Nina (Mahendru), his KGB mole and paramour. Torn between his wife Sandra (Susan Misner) and his deepening feelings for Nina, Stan is completely unaware that the beautiful Russian is actually a double agent, reporting on him to the KGB. Philip has been more successful handling his mole within the FBI, Martha (Alison Wright), assistant to Stan’s boss, Special Agent Gaad (Richard Thomas). Romancing Martha under the guise of one of his cover identities, an FBI bureaucrat named “Clark,” Philip has secured her unquestioning loyalty…by marrying her. Meanwhile, in the Jennings’ house, Paige has become increasingly suspicious that her parents are hiding something.

Created and executive produced by Joe Weisberg (Falling Skies), a former CIA agent who went on to become an accomplished author, The Americans is produced by Fox Television Studios and FX Productions. Joel Fields and Graham Yost are also executive producers, along with Daniel Sackheim and Amblin Television heads Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank.

The images from The Americans below might just hold you over, until the show’s February 26 premiere.