Far too bloody and one-sided political drama. Still, not bad. The Americans is a good TV drama, with some serious shortcomings.
Firstly, there are way too many murders. 73 people are killed during the show's 75 episodes. I'm not against violence in TV dramas, but the sheer volume of killings was unrealistic. I suspect 73 killings are far more than all the USSR's agents ever killed in the USA since 1917. Also, many of the murders are completely unnecessary. I think the show would have been far better with a body count that was reduced by at least half.
Secondly, I would have appreciated more insight into the political drama that was going on between the US and the USSR. The first few episodes do this well, but the politics are pretty much dropped entirely after the first season.
Thirdly, we know the KGB was nowhere near as pushy with its agents as the show suggests. As former sleeper agent Jack Barsky reveals, the idea that they forced agents to do missions is complete nonsense.
More importantly, the show is hugely biased towards an American political viewpoint. The Americans are always the good guys and the KGB is only given a thin veil to cover their evil. The Soviet perspective is never really given serious consideration, so the show fails to offer the viewer the proper sense of ambiguity. The KGB is far too often painted as a caricature villain (especially in the later seasons). Maybe the KGB was that evil, but for us to invest in the main characters' motivations, they need to be able to believe they're doing the right thing, and I think it's often too far of a stretch, even for the 100% committed Elizabeth. She is, after all, not an idiot. All too often, the motives of Elizabeth and Philip's handlers were far too obviously evil, and the couple simply accepted it. Philip was at least depressed by it, but neither of them really questioned their handlers' motivations in any serious way until the final season. Better writing could have given the KGB more understandable and compelling motivations.
Still, I enjoyed the show. It's a good tense drama with some nice historical background. Personally, I prefer the German series Deutschland '83, which is a spy drama set in the same period, and which has none of the problems of The Americans, but it's a German language subtitled show, so it's a bit more of an acquired taste.