Slow Horses: parents' guide

Every season has shootings, explosions and killings, some at close range with blood. Far-right racists threaten to behead a young Muslim hostage, later seasons open with a suicide bombing and a mass shooting, and main characters are killed.

Very heavy. Plugged In counted about 25 f-words in the first episode and more than 30 in one Season 6 episode, plus s-words, British insults like 'twat' and 'prick,' and racial slurs from far-right characters.

No sex scenes or nudity are noted. Office affairs come up, a man slides his hand up a woman's skirt, and Lamb's humor is relentlessly crude; one gag involves a car air freshener shaped like male genitals.

Lamb drinks and smokes constantly, even at his desk, and pushes liquor on Catherine, a recovering alcoholic who attends AA meetings. From Season 2, agent Shirley Dander has a cocaine habit and anger problems that run through her storyline. Pub drinking is common.

Tense chases, kidnappings and ambushes, a bloody body in a bathtub, and murders staged to look like suicides or accidents. The dark comedy eases the tension, but the sudden deaths of favorite characters can hit hard.