"The Americans" started production in New York in December and debuts this Wednesday at 10 p.m.
The thriller, which stars Keri Russel and Matthew Rhys, as embedded Soviet spies in 1981 Washington DC, made an appearance during the TV Critic's Association press tour--and producers were quick to emphasize who viewers should be rooting for.
"It might be a little difficult to believe and get used to, but we want you to root for the KGB," said the show's creator and former CIA agent Weisberg. "They're going to try to get the Soviets to win the Cold War."
Weisberg said there were indeed deep cover agents who infiltrated the United States who influenced this story.
"They played an important part in penetrating the Manhattan Project and getting the plans for the Atom Bomb from the United States. We don't know everything about what they did, but they were always out there."
While in real life they may not have had the perfect accent of the Americans, "They did live among us," and "one was getting very close to someone in the president's cabinet."
History knows they're fighting a losing battle, but the creative team behind the high-profile launch expressed confidence that more than enough time has passed for American audiences to not hold a grudge against the Russians.
As a closing pitch to root for the bad guy protaganists, Weisberg said he wanted viewers to take a hard look at both sides of the Cold War.
"There's no question that repressive socialism failed, but unbridled consumption hasn't exactly led to great satisfaction--and one problem is how we do express that dramatically."
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