Star City: parents' guide
Best for ages 16 and up. Rated TV-MA.
A tense Cold War spy drama set inside the Soviet space program, best for older teens and adults, especially fans of For All Mankind. KGB officers hunt for leakers among cosmonauts and engineers as an alternate-history space race plays out. Violence is the main concern: a suspected traitor is tortured and then shot on screen, an interrogation involves boiling water, and crew members die in accidents. Add frequent f-words, sex scenes with partial nudity, constant smoking and drinking, and some drug use. Age 16 reflects the torture and executions.
What's in it
Violence
StrongA cosmonaut is tortured offscreen, heard begging on a recording and seen bloodied, then shot dead in a burst of blood. A prisoner is scalded with boiling water for information, a man is beaten, and cosmonauts die in explosions and equipment failures.
Language
StrongFrequent strong profanity: Plugged In counted six f-words and six s-words in the first episode, with more across the season, plus bitch, ass, bullshit and hell.
Sex and nudity
ModerateAdults are seen having sex, with some skin shown but no genitals, and an affair is overheard through surveillance with explicit sounds and talk. Also making out and marital drama.
Drinking, drugs and smoking
StrongCigarettes and alcohol are everywhere, true to the era. Common Sense Media reports some scenes of explicit drug use, though the drugs aren't named.
Scary or intense scenes
ModerateA suffocating mood of surveillance, paranoia and arrests. Space emergencies include a suit malfunction during a spacewalk, a spacecraft explosion and a landing craft crushed by pressure.
Worth talking about
Characters are torn between loyalty to the state, to their friends and to their own consciences. When is it right to break the rules, and what happens to people in a society where everyone is watched?
On our lists
Similar picks around 16+
Checked October 13th, 2026 against Common Sense Media, Plugged In, Wikipedia, ageratingjuju.com. The age is our judgment, not an official rating, and every family draws its lines differently: read the notes, not just the number. Spotted something we missed? Tell us. How we rate.