3. “The Americans”
Ending last year, many people tuned in to see how FX's long-running spy drama would end, and the final season, especially the last episode, provided an unpredictable but fitting ending to the character-driven drama about a family trying to stay together as they find their place.
With the fall of the Soviet Union looming, both Elizabeth (Keri Russell) and Philip (Matthew Rhys) are lost with no purpose. One takes this in stride while the other grapples with something to define them. In the last season, “The Americans” finished off doing what it does best -- paralleling the universal issues, such as the crumbling of the USSR, with the personal, as we see Elizabeth and Philip, and the whole family, finding themselves in a strange and changing world.