The Americans (2013)

The Americans parents guide

Heads up on strong sex and nudity. That is past what the TV-MA on the box suggests. Beyond that, strong violence and some strong language.

Scare

Mildly scary

A few tense or eerie moments.

Jump scares

None noted

Gore

Light gore

Some blood or injury, briefly.

Violence

Strong violence

Violence is frequent or intense.

Sex and nudity

Strong

Strong means explicit or repeated sex, extended nudity, or sexual assault shown on screen, attempted or completed, even partly off screen. Any one of these is enough.

Language

Moderate

Some strong profanity, a few f-words.

How we rate: an AI reads what is known about each title and tags it 0 to 3; we check the tags against a hand-rated set and correct them by hand when readers tell us. Estimates, not a scene-by-scene review. Spot a mistake? Tell us.

Three questions

Is The Americans scary?

Only a little. The Americans has a few tense moments, nothing that follows you to bed.

How gory is The Americans?

Light gore and strong violence.

What is The Americans rated, and is it OK for kids?

Rated TV-MA, and it earns it: strong sex and nudity, strong violence, and some strong language. Not one for kids.

What is The Americans about?

Set during the Cold War period in the 1980s, The Americans is the story of Elizabeth and Philip Jennings, two Soviet KGB officers posing as an American married couple in the suburbs of Washington D.C. and their neighbor, Stan Beeman, an FBI Counterintelligence agent.

Cast and crew

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The Americans is on our Spies, Drama on Hulu and Crime on Hulu lists.

More like this feeling

Prompts we typed into CouchRot, and the lists that share its tags.

• “a movie that will make me cry”
• “a thriller with a twist, no spoilers”
• “funny but not stupid, under two hours”

Lists with the same feel: Tearjerkers.