Battlestar Galactica (2004): parents' guide

Space battles and gunfights, plus torture, airlock and firing-squad executions, suicide bombings and an on-screen suicide by gunshot. In season 2, a prisoner is revealed to have been tortured and raped repeatedly, and another is nearly raped before rescuers burst in.

Little real profanity beyond mild words like 'hell' and 'damn.' The made-up curse 'frak' is used constantly, exactly where the f-word would go.

Romance in most episodes, from tame to steamy: sex scenes with movement and moaning, revealing negligees, affairs and jokes about masturbation. A Cylon seduces a scientist for military secrets. Common Sense Media reports no nudity or explicit scenes.

Officers drink hard after battles, often getting very drunk, and a couple of characters are clearly alcoholics. Pilots take stimulants to stay awake, and a cancer patient uses a drug that brings on visions.

The premise is genocide and the dread never lets up: torture, sudden deaths of beloved characters, a corpse eaten by rats. The opening miniseries shows a Cylon killing a baby, and it comes out that Starbuck's mother abused her as a child, breaking her fingers.