Stranger Things: parents' guide

Monsters maul and kill people, and a villain kills teens by snapping their bones and gouging their eyes. Season 4 shows children massacred in a lab; season 5 adds a beheading and heavy gunfire. A creature eats a boy's pet cat, and rats burst apart.

S-words are frequent, at times more than 30 in a single episode, along with b-words, a-words and misuse of God's name. F-words are rare. Bullies use homophobic slurs and a racist taunt, and the middle finger shows up often.

Teens kiss, flirt and date. A teen couple sleeps together in season 1 (kissing and undressing to a bra, then a cutaway), and another wakes up together in underwear in season 3. A married mother nearly has an affair with an older teen.

The sheriff drinks heavily, takes pills and smokes in early seasons. Teens drink, sometimes to excess, and a stoner character often smokes marijuana in season 4, played for laughs. In season 5 the heroes knock out a family with a drugged dessert and a syringe.

Sustained horror with jump scares, possessed characters and a villain who tortures victims with their traumas, then kills them. Children are experimented on; loved characters die. Season 4 hints a teen girl is bulimic and shows a man's suicide attempt; season 5 has suicide talk.