The Penguin: parents' guide

Constant and bloody: point-blank shootings to the head, stabbings and strangling, a man tortured with a garrote wire while tied to a chair, a heart torn from a chest, a household gassed, and a mother and son killed by fire.

Relentless. Plugged In counted nearly 40 f-words and more than 15 s-words in the first episode alone, plus 'bitch,' 'prick,' crude words for genitals and frequent misuse of God's and Jesus' names.

Sex is implied between Oz and his girlfriend, and characters make out. A woman flashes her breast, a man is stripped naked and tied to a chair with nothing explicit shown, and sex workers talk about kink.

The story revolves around making and selling a street drug taken as eye drops, then a more addictive new one. Users and addicts appear, a man with a drinking problem is pushed into drinking and drugs, and drinking is constant.

Sustained menace and cruelty: torture scenes, an elderly mother held captive and tormented, electroshock treatment in Arkham flashbacks, a girl finding her mother hanged, and sudden shocking killings. A flashback of children trapped in a flooding tunnel is haunting.