The Americans might take place in the 1980s at the height of the Cold War, but thanks to the current political climate — election hacking and collusion allegations — it feels more relevant than ever.

Star Noah Emmerich, who plays FBI agent Stan Beeman, told Nerdist he thinks that just makes the story more accessible and modern. “The fact that Russia-U.S. relations right now are tense and strained and combative makes our show seem less of a historical drama and more of a contemporary drama, oddly—like it really could be happening now.”

But just because The Americans takes place in the past doesn’t mean the show has been out of touch this whole time.
“I think [the current headlines] make it certainly more accessible or relevant to the audience in some way,” Emmerich said. “They’re like, ‘Wow, this has been going on for a long time, and here’s one chapter of it—the early chapter from the ’80s, but it’s still relevant now.’ That maybe lends it a layer that makes it more accessible or relevant, but ultimately, I think in some ways it’s kind of irrelevant, weirdly.”

Showrunners Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields said in January that they prefer to keep current events as separate from the show as possible. “We try to stay in a bubble because we don’t want anybody to ever feel the people doing this show were watching current events,” Weisberg said. “You can’t do that with a period show. If it were a current show, then we could let them all in, but in a period show it has to feel totally separate.”

That sentiment rings true for Emmerich as well. “It doesn’t actually impact the character to me, the central heart and meat of the show, because it’s irrelevant, really,” he told Nerdist. “It could be French and English, it could be American and Russian, it could be Chinese and Korea—it doesn’t really matter. It’s about the complexity of us human beings, and how we relate to each other, and our sense of truth, and authenticity and integrity of character, and all those themes that we wrestle with.”

He added, “You know, even if this wasn’t happening right now with the U.S.-Russian relations and the [contemporary nature] of this weird dynamic, I think it speaks to the longevity of humanity in the sense that the characters may change, the plot lines change, but the same thing keeps happening. Human race, civilization, the way human beings interact, is pretty consistent from the beginning of mankind to present. The context changes, the names of the ideology changes, the names of the countries change, but these things are universal. It’s part of being human.”

And as Weisberg reiterated on a TCA panel for the series, the goal of The Americans was to show “how important it is to remember that our enemies are human, and that those cultures we believe are out to get us somehow are comprised of human beings who aren’t that different than we are, whether or not we agree with them,” he said.

Because if you think about it, Stan and Philip (Matthew Rhys) and Elizabeth (Keri Russell) are all doing the same thing—trying to be good patriots. It’s just that they’re fighting for different sides. Whenever you hold your breath and hope the Jennings can complete a mission without getting caught, Emmerich said, “We’re rooting for the bad guys, you know? There are no bad guys in this show, really.”

Are you looking forward to The Americans‘ return on March 7th, 2017? Let us know in the comments below.

Images: FX