How to Watch The Americans in 2020 for the Games Spies Play

Set in the 1980s, The Americans follows a seemingly traditional nuclear family living in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. However, all is not as it seems. That’s because the parents in the family are actually secret Soviet spies in deep cover. So deep, in fact, that their two children have no idea of their real identity. In this article, we’ll show you how to watch The Americans online so you can find out if it all catches up to them.

Watching the show, you’re plunged into a world of intrigue, spycraft and high-stakes tension. The main characters, Elizabeth and Philip Jennings — played by Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys — exist in a constant state of paranoia and uncertainty, as they must juggle their assignments with keeping up appearances, even in front of their own kids.

This task is made no easier when Stan Beeman (played by Noah Emmerich) — an FBI agent working in counterintelligence — suddenly becomes their next-door neighbor. Couple this with an excellent rendition of 1980’s America and you have one hell of a show that continuously keeps you on your toes.

The Americans concluded its six-season run in 2018, so now is the perfect time to check out the show if you haven’t already, as you’ll be able to binge the whole thing without having to wait. On the other hand, if you started watching the show but fell off at some point during its five-year run, there are now plenty of ways for you to catch up.

How to Watch The Americans Online

Although The Americans was created by and originally aired on FX, now that the show is over, there are a host of different streaming platforms that you can watch it on.

First up is Amazon Prime Video, where you can stream all six seasons if you’re a Prime member, or you can purchase it one episode or season at a time, if you aren’t. Each season costs $12.99, whereas a single episode will run you $2.99. If you’re unfamiliar with Amazon’s streaming service, check out our guide on how to watch Amazon Prime Video.

The Americans is also available on iTunes. However, compared to Amazon, this is a more expensive option, as each season is priced at $19.99, and there’s no option for purchasing individual episodes. 

You should also bear in mind that iTunes only offers TV shows in six countries, these being the U.S., Canada, France, the UK, Germany and Australia. To get around this restriction, you can use a VPN to acquire a U.S. IP address.

Moving on, you can also watch the first five seasons of the show on Netflix, but only if you’re located in one of three countries — Germany, Sweden and Switzerland — due to Netflix’s geoblocking. 

That said, you can use a VPN to get around this problem, but the Netflix VPN ban can be difficult to circumvent. Therefore, check out our list of the best VPN for Netflix options so that you can watch the show with, for example, a German IP address.

Next up is Vudu, where you can purchase each season of The Americans for $12.99 or each episode for $1.99. Additionally, the pilot episode is offered free of charge, making Vudu a great option if you’re not entirely sold on the show’s concept. 

Unfortunately, Vudu is only available to residents of the U.S and Mexico, so we recommend getting your hands on a Mexican IP address, if you like this option.

Microsoft also offers the show for sale on demand, with each episode carrying a price tag of $2.99 and each season ranging from $14.99 to $24.99. TV shows are only available from Microsoft in 20 select countries, including the U.S., the UK, Mexico, Canada, New Zealand, Brazil and Japan, as well as most of Western Europe and Scandinavia. 

You’ll need to use a payment method from one of these countries to watch the show, so using a VPN won’t help you in this case.

Finally, people from Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, the UK and the U.S. can purchase The Americans from the Google Play Store. Each season will cost you either $22.99 or $24.99, and an episode costs $2.99. 

To get around the country restrictions, you can have a look at our best VPN for Android picks, which are all capable of fooling the Play Store.

How to Watch The Americans Online for Free

If you’d prefer not to spend your hard-earned money to watch The Americans, there are free options out there for you, as well. Before looking at these options, though, you should prepare yourself accordingly. 

Free streaming sites generally fund their operations through shady pop-up ads that often carry malware, so be sure to first download one of our best pop-up blockers.

You should also make sure you install one of the entries on our list of the best antivirus software, as your devices can easily be preyed upon by cybercriminals and infected with various forms of malware, even after just a single visit.

All that said, we checked out the free streaming sites PutLocker and CouchTuner and found all six seasons of the show available on both. Some of the links are broken, but each site offers several mirrors for every episode, so you’ll easily be able to find one that works.

Since streaming copyrighted content in this way is illegal, we also recommend downloading one of our best VPN options, as depending on where you live, you may face legal consequences for watching The Americans on these sites.

How to Watch The Americans on Kodi

Kodi is another great option for watching The Americans for free. If you’ve never heard of the platform before, you should definitely read our Kodi guide. To summarize, Kodi is an open-source platform where you can install repositories, and we’ve compiled a handy list of the best Kodi repositories for your convenience.

These repos contain several add-ons, some of which are filled with giant television and movie libraries. Finding the right add-on can also be confusing, so our list of the best Kodi add-ons will be very useful if you’re setting up Kodi for the first time.

We checked two popular add-ons for television content — Poseidon and Incursion — and found all six seasons of The Americans available for streaming on both of them. As with our other free streaming options, Kodi is illegal when used for this purpose, so make sure to protect yourself with one of our best VPN for Kodi picks.

The Americans Torrents

Finally, torrenting is always an option when looking for a way to acquire copyrighted content for free. Before you hoist the black flag, though, always remember that torrenting is illegal and, depending on where you live, might result in serious legal consequences. Thus, make sure to only download torrents if you’re protected by one of our best VPNs for torrenting.

As with streaming sites, torrenting can be risky. Hosting sites are riddled with fake torrents and malware, so you should always look for trusted uploaders or torrents with comments that verify their authenticity. For extra protection, make sure you have one of the most secure antivirus software up and running, as well.

Final Thoughts

There’s a staggering number of options for you to watch The Americans, whether you’re willing to pay for it or not. Unfortunately, most of the legal avenues are blocked by region restrictions, so unless you happen to live in one of the countries mentioned above, you’ll want to arm yourself with a VPN to watch the show through less official sources or get around the geoblock.

What do you think of The Americans? Does the show bring you to the edge of your seat as the tension builds and our spies narrowly escape detection time and again? Alternatively, do you find it to be too slow for your tastes and wish there would be some more action to spice things up? Let us know in the comments below. Thank you for reading.