Mohs Scale Of Violence Hardness / Live-Action TV

The Mohs Scale of Violence Hardness as applied to television shows. Shows are ranked like any other medium with their peak violent moments determining the place. However, due to wildly varying lengths of different series, some things can be easy to overlook; and in the longest cases it is acceptable to rank based on the highest common level.

Level 0

• Bear in the Big Blue House
• Teletubbies
• LazyTown
• Pride and Prejudice (1995)
• Sesame Street ^note  Characters get "boo-boos" and occasionally break/sprain their limbs, but no real violence.

Level 1

• Arrested Development
• The Big Bang Theory
• How I Met Your Mother

Level 2

• iCarly
• Bewitched
• Happy Days ^note  Usually a 1, but some episodes involve characters having near-death experiences.
• Laverne & Shirley ^note  Lots of slapstick, hardly any actual injuries.
• Pushing Daisies

Level 3

• Kamen Rider (following series) ^note  Kamen Rider Den-O, Kamen Rider OOO, Kamen Rider Fourze, Kamen Rider Wizard, Kamen Rider Ghost
• Monk
• The Thick of It ^note  There's frequently graphic descriptions of violence, but the only real violence in the show is a single scene of a character getting punched and getting a big nosebleed as a result. Otherwise, a Level 1.
• Ultra Series (following series) ^note  Ultraman Taro, Ultraman Cosmos, Ultraman Max, Ultraman R/B

Level 4

• Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
• Get Smart ^note  There's a lot of death, but it's all bloodless
• Good Omens ^note A hard 4. While there are several mildly bloody images (such as many of the demons having sores and blisters, rotting zombies with body parts dropping off and the brief sight of a man's bloodied body after being struck by a truck) and some harsh violence, it's not graphic enough to rank higher; it's also offset by the generally light-hearted, darkly comedic tone. Demons get dissolved by holy water and exploded by holy light, but there's no gore. A woman is burnt at the stake and she and several onlookers are blown up via gunpowder, with no gore or graphic detail. Zombies kill people to consume their brains, though one killing is completely offscreen, while another uses a Shadow Discretion Shot. The most intense violence is the onscreen, mildly bloody crucifixion of Jesus, including nails being hammered into his hands with realistically pained reactions, though it's not too graphic.
• Henry Danger ^note  A lot of harsh slapstick with the occasional bloody nose. One episode includes a fatal neck stabbing onscreen, but no blood is shown when it happens
• Kamen Rider (following series) ^note  Kamen Rider V3, Kamen Rider Stronger, Kamen Rider: Skyrider, Kamen Rider BLACKRX, Kamen Rider Kiva, Kamen Rider Decade, Kamen Rider Double, Kamen Rider Drive, Kamen Rider Ex-Aid, Kamen Rider Zi-O, Kamen Rider Saber
• Once Upon a Time
• Poirot^note A few episodes border on 5. All the stories revolve around murders via a variety of methods (shootings, stabbings and poisonings being most common). Murders are occasionally depicted onscreen, but they're usually not gruesome or prolonged, and blood is kept to a minimum where applicable. Dead bodies are largely bloodless or only shown with a little blood, with gorier injuries obscured; occasionally slightly graphic stab or gunshot wounds will be shown briefly. Gory Discretion Shots are utilised for really grisly moments (e.g. in "One, Two, Buckle My Shoe", a woman is beaten to death and her face horrifically disfigured, but the death occurs entirely offscreen and the body is largely hidden from the viewer, with the focus more on the characters' reactions).
• Ultra Series (following series) ^note  Ultraman 80, Ultraman Tiga, Ultraman Dyna, Ultraman Mebius, Ultraman Ginga, Ultraman X, Ultraman Orb, Ultraman Geed, Ultraman Taiga, Ultraman Z, Ultraman Trigger: New Generation Tiga
• Wilkins Coffee ^note  Belongs to advertising, but fits best here. Extreme Bloodless Carnage played for Black Comedy for Wotkins refusing to consume Wilkin's Coffee.

Level 5

• Agent Carter
• Are You Afraid of the Dark? (2019 mini-series) ^note  A good example of a "kid's" show at this level. It reaches this level, mainly due to the bloodied slide and the clown with no eyes in first episode, as well as the on-screen death of Mr. Tophat, where he rapidly ages, and turns into dust, in the third and final episode.
• Arrow ^note  Can sometimes approach as high as 7 at times.
• Blue Mountain State ^note  Comical and mostly non-lethal, but sometimes surprisingly bloody scenes involving broken teeth, grotesque welts from riot beanbags, a manscaping accident, a sliced nipple, a mauled goat, accidental sodomy and more.
• Brooklyn Nine-Nine
• Doctor Who Reboot
• Drinking and Driving Wrecks Lives ^note  Due to "Eyes", which shows a dying woman with blood next to her head, implying brutal head trauma.
• The Flash (2014)
• Kamen Rider (following series) ^note  Kamen Rider, Kamen Rider BLACK, Kamen Rider Agito, Kamen Rider Hibiki, Kamen Rider Kabuto, Kamen Rider Zero-One
• Limitless
• Metal Hurlant Chronicles
• Mr. Meaty
• Orange Is the New Black
• Star Trek ^note  Except for some episodes in the franchise that may place it at 6. Notably, "Conspiracy" actually goes all the way up to 8, due to a surprisingly graphic death and all the Body Horror.
• Ultra Series (following series) ^note  Ultraman, Ultraman Gaia

Level 6

• 24
• Angel
• Cold Case
• Ghost Adventures ^note  Usually not that violent, but due to certain re-enactments shown in some episodes with bloody bodies, it can reach this level.
• Kamen Rider (following series) ^note  Kamen Rider X, Kamen Rider Kuuga, Kamen Rider Ryuki, Kamen Rider 555, Kamen Rider Blade, Kamen Rider Gaim, Kamen Rider Build
• Law & Order ^note Law & Order: Special Victims Unit may be a 7 or 8, given the subject matter.
• Lost
• Lucifer
• NCIS
• NCIS: Los Angeles
• NCIS: New Orleans
• Sherlock
• Sleepy Hollow
• The Twilight Zone (1959) ^note  Due to the episode "Death's Head Revisited", with holocaust imagery and strong implication of sexual assault. Otherwise peaks at a 5, such as the bloodied man in "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street".
• Ultra Series (following series) ^note  Ultraseven, Return of Ultraman, Ultraman Nexus, Ultraseven X

Level 7

• Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. ^note  Mainly Seasons 3-5, with parts of 2. Season 1 and most of 2 are closer to Level 5.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer ^note  People get attacked and killed every episode (occasionally the victims are children), and some deaths can be pretty nasty (eaten alive, dismemberment etc) but they often utilise Gory Discretion Shots. Intact bodies are usually seen with a little blood on them, though occasionally rotting or mummfied corpses and severed limbs are shown; truly mutilated corpses rarely get shown clearly. A few episodes clearly show removed organs such as hearts or brains, though not the actual removing. People often get bruises and cuts from fights, and more rarely broken bones, stab wounds and gun shots. Vampires get staked or decapitated a lot but instantly turn to dust (sometimes briefly turning to skeletons) so it's bloodless. Attempted rape is depicted a handful of times, most notably a scene in Season 6 that's quite prolonged and violent. Some individual episodes (particularly from the later seasons) are closer to an 8, especially a scene in Season 6 where a man is instantly flayed alive with magic; it's brief but graphic.
• The Defenders (2017) ^note  Bloody decapitations, hand chopped off, bloodied bodies with limbs missing, autopsy of a dead bear, dead bodies have acid poured on them (the camera cuts before we see anything truly gruesome)..
• Classic Doctor Who ^note  An interesting case as the length of the show meant it gradually increased in value on the scale. Most of the series was in the 4 range, occasionally going up to 5, but as time progressed it had numerous scenes with increasing violence in the 70's and 80's that got it up to here, such as the Master's hideously and detailed burnt appearance in "The Deadly Assassin" and "The Keeper of Traken" or the scene of Kane's face melting in "Dragonfire" (Which would be an 8 if not for its brevity) or a man falling into an acid bath and pulling his friend down with him, with the former's melting gored body being briefly visible in "Vengeance on Varos". Somehow marketed towards a family audience.
• Firefly ^note  For Mal being repeatedly electrocuted and then having his ear cut off by Niska in episode 10. The rest of the episodes are on level 5.
• The Good Doctor ^note  Mostly due to the closeups during surgery, with more explicit scenes though pushing an 8 or even 9.
• The Glory ^note  Portrayal of severe physical bullying(including the main character being burned with a curling iron), and very realistically depicted burn scars. Mild depictions of and implied sexual assault. The flashback to Son Myeong-on's murder in episode ten is closer to an eight.
• Gotham ^note  Although an infamous Eye Scream scene makes it border on Level 8.
• Halo ^note  Civilians massacred in the first episode including a semi-graphic decapitation and dismemberment. Prisoners with bags on their heads are executed by headshot with blood puffs. More graphic violence against covenant that would rank higher if on humans. Other lesser violence.
• Heroes Reborn
• The Hot Zone ^note  Surgical gore.
• It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
• Jessica Jones (2015) ^note  Though the severed arms and such in the season finale are a clear 9.
• Luke Cage (2016)
• Meth Project ^note  For the quick flashes of rape in "Jessica." Otherwise, mostly a 5, though the bloody imagery in "Deep End" would probably be a 6.
• Peliculas Para No Dormir
• Saturday Night Live ^note  Usually at level 1 or 2, but some skits may rely on comical gore and blood squibs.
• Star Trek: Discovery ^note  Bordering on 8 with some of the more violent episodes.
• Ultra Series (following series) ^note  Ultraman Ace, Ultraman Leo
• The Umbrella Academy
• The Wire

Level 8

• The 100 ^note  Bloody dispatching of wounded victims, bloody torture and execution of bound victims, gory heart surgery, fairly gory exploding of abdomen, graphic radiation burns.
• 13 Reasons Why ^note  Here due to the extremely graphic and prolonged suicide scene, which was so graphic it was later removed; it depicts a teen girl cutting her wrists in a bath, with copious amounts of blood (the edited scene shows her body in the bloody bath but not her actual death). The series also has several rape scenes, one of which in Season 2 is particularly graphic and violent, leaving the victim bleeding. Characters are also shown getting into fist fights and beating each other bloody (many of these characters are teenagers).
• American Horror Story: Murder House
• The Americans ^note  Characters have their throats slashed and bleed profusely. Executions via gunshot to the head do not spray blood, but blood pools around the corpses after the fact. A corpse has its bones broken so it can be hidden in a suitcase in an extended scene, but no gore or bones are shown. Another corpse is decapitated with a fire axe - mostly off-screen, but the axe is shown stuck in the corpse's half-severed, bloody neck as a character struggles to remove it. A female character is overpowered by a male character and raped - it is not explicit but she is seen struggling and in pain.
• And Then There Were None (2015)^note Ranks at 8 due to the aftermath of Rogers' death (he's lying in a pool of blood with an axe embedded in his back, with some blood-covered viscera visible), the flashback to the brutal, homophobic murder of an innocent young man (there's a close up of his severely bruised and bloodied face as his killer kicks him, causing him to cough up blood), the apparent aftermath of Wargrave's shooting death (with bloody chunks visible on the wall) and the suicide of Wargrave (he shoots himself in the head, with blood spraying the wall and a brief sight of the bullet hole). The rest of the violence ranks more at a hard 6 or 7; the majority of the murders are committed offscreen though the aftermaths can be a bit gruesome, especially the sight of Macarthur's bloody face and the bloodied weapon after he was bludgeoned. Marston's poisoning is prolonged, painful and sees him coughing up lots of blood, while Lombard being shot repeatedly is bloody but less gruesome in presentation than some of the other deaths.
• Apple Tree Yard ^note  Ranks here due to the final minutes of the first episode, where a woman is struck across the face twice and raped - it's brief and focuses mostly on the victim's face. She has visible bruises and later describes some of her other injuries in detail. Other than that it's a hard 4 or 5. A man gets beaten to death and the description of his injuries during the trial are graphic, but the death itself occurs completely offscreen. A group of people discuss a gang-rape, though they don't go into graphic detail. A man holds a knife to another man's throat, though he's making a point as opposed to genuinely threatening him. A man is said to have broken another man's jaw.
• Barry
• Battlestar Galactica (2003) ^note  Moderate medical gore in a couple of episodes. Violence peaks at level 7.
• Biggie Bear ^note  For the rape scene in "Biggie Bear meets a friend."
• The Blacklist
• Black Summer
• Criminal Minds ^note Every single horrible act possible is up for grabs, with every other Villain of the Week being some sort of utterly depraved Serial Killer or Serial Rapist. It goes to the point where an UnSub has to go out of their way to be as viscerally heinous as possible and surpass the series' extremely high heinous standard to even qualify for the Complete Monster trope. However, whenever something absolutely horrible happens, it's thankfully simply a Take Our Word for It moment. It would easily be a hard 10 if the worst atrocities the UnSubs do are shown perfectly on-screen.
• Cursed (2020) ^note  Generally a hard 7, though a few moments bump it up to 8. There are several semi-gory decapitations and limb-severings; Episode 10 especially has a very graphic and bloody decapitation. People get stabbed or slashed with swords and shot with arrows, resulting in blood splattering or pooling. A man gets stabbed through the face with a tree branch, causing bloody wounds, though it's brief. A demon bear's head is graphically crushed by a rock, resulting in lots of blood and a glimpse of brain. A woman pulls an entire sword from inside a man's body as he screams in pain (magic is involved); the sword is drenched in blood and there are a few chunks of flesh attached. We see charred corpses from people being burned alive though not the burnings themselves, and the corpses are usually shown at a distance.
• Daredevil (2015) ^note  Graphic blood spurting from stabbings and throat cuttings. Chunky headshots. Head smashed with a car door (gory discretion shot keeps this from being a 9). Brutal torture via power drill and sharp objects stuck under fingernails. It's a hard 8, and some scenes in Season 2 may qualify for a 9.
• Dark (2017) ^note  Dead children with their eyes burnt out. Full grown man nearly beats kid to death with a rock.
• Dexter ^note  Very bloody crime scenes. Would be a 10 if Dexter's killings were shown onscreen.
• Dominion
• Heroes ^note  Mainly due to Claire's self-mutilation scenes, otherwise a Level 7.
• Kamen Rider Amazon ^note  Frequent dismemberment and decapitation.
• Killing Eve ^note  Many explicit deaths, often involving throat slashings. If Gorn occurs, it's always off-screen.
• The Last Kingdom ^note  Bloody stabbings, dismemberment and decapitation. Some deaths border on 9.
• The Last of Us (2023) ^note  A semi-graphic decapitation. A few shootings just graphic enough for this level (mainly of clickers but also The surgeon in the final episode). The most graphic scene is when we briefly see mutilated bodies in David's cannibal storeroom, which borders on 9. Otherwise a fairly hard 7 for brutal and realistic but seldom graphic and never gory violence, and moderately bloody images.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power ^note  Graphic blood spurting from stabbings, throat cuttings, arrow wounds, Orcs torturing and whipping enslaved civilians, Sauron graphically breaking a guy's hand, though there is no blood, fairly gory exposition of people being bit and eaten by a warg, graphic solar burns on the Orcs, a species which is Weakened by the Light.
• Maniac (2018)
• Mindhunter ^note  Mostly here for the first episode where a man blows his own head off with a shotgun; it's shown from a distance though still quite bloody and some small chunks are visible. The show is all about serial killers and murderers; their crimes aren't depicted onscreen but they're talked about in graphic detail and include some pretty horrible things (torture, rape, mutilation, necrophilia). The victims are almost always innocent civilians and some are children. Crime scene photos of murder victims are occasionally shown and they're sometimes bloody and/or semi-graphic. The BTK killer has disturbing drawings of people being killed or tortured. The title sequence shows close-ups of obviously dead, sometimes visibly-decayed corpses, though only in quick flashes.
• Mortal Kombat: Legacy ^note  Sometimes it borders on 9.
• Mr. Robot ^note  Though the season 3 finale probably qualifies as at least a 9.
• Narcos ^note  People, sometimes innocent, are graphically shot in every episode. A cartel member is torn in half by two motorcycles. Frequent but brief depiction of actual crime scene photos with real dead bodies, sometimes with blood. Barely offscreen brutal sexual violence. A very hard 8.
• Sacred Games ^note  Very brutal testicular assault in first episode.
• Shadow and Bone^note Bordering on 9 at times, though it's not quite graphic enough to reach that level. Common violence includes moderately graphic headshots with blood spatter, bloody but not prolonged stabbings and slashings with knives, bloody gunshot wounds, and people left bruised and bloody from brutal beatings. A man is sliced in half with magic in defence of the protagonist; we see the graphic aftermath, including intestines visible. There are a few decapitations, including a mass decapitation via magic which isn't too graphic due to the dark lighting and distance, and a more graphic scene of a supernatural creature being magically beheaded. Moderately burnt corpses are seen in the aftermath of burnings, but the deaths occur offscreen. A man's hand is magically sliced off, with a graphic look at the stump. An innocent young woman dies from a slashed throat; it's not too graphic but it's very bloody and prolonged. References to rape (such as one of the main characters being enslaved by a brothel and another recurring character revealing the king forces himself on her), but none of it is shown onscreen or discussed in detail.
• The Shield ^note  Vile oral rape scene is shown, as well as a man's face being pressed against a burning hot stove.
• Sweet Tooth ^note A soft 8 due to the briefly shown but gory aftermaths of vivisections performed on animals and hybrid children; we don't see the vivisections themselves but it can be disturbing. The rest of the violence is generally much lower, ranking at a 5 or 6; on the whole Season 2 is more violent and graphic compared to Season 1, though not by much. Many people get shot or stabbed but it's usually not graphic or lingered on. A man is shot in the chest and there's a prolonged shot of the bloody gunshot wound, with another character's hands getting covered in blood. We see many bloody bodies - including those of teenagers - following a battle in Season 2. A teen girl dies slowly and painfully from serious wounds; we briefly see a bloody wound in her side and there's blood trickling from her mouth. A villainous character is brutally beaten and strangled, leaving his face bloodied.
• The Terror
• Too Old to Die Young ^note  Messy gunshots, an Asian guy whose little finger gets cut off by Hideo Kojima wielding a katana and Martin getting tortured onscreen and beheaded offscreen in Episode 8.
• Tribes Of Europa ^note  A good man gets castrated by a cruel woman in the first episode.
• Walking with Dinosaurs
• Westworld ^note  Hosts at the Park are constantly raped by the guests, though it's offscreen. flesh impact bullet holes, blood squibs and semi-head explosions. While robots, the hosts are sentient, and they start murdering humans later into the series regardless.
• The X-Files

Level 9

• Altered Carbon
• American Gods (2017)
• American Horror Story: Asylum
• American Horror Story: Roanoke
• Band of Brothers
• Better Call Saul ^note  The first 3 seasons each average a 5 for rough kicks and punches, and in season 3, a character getting shot in the shoulder with a small squib of blood, not particularly graphic, but the violence escalates to a higher level each season. This culminates in episodes 3 and 7 of Season 6, both of which contain extremely graphic and sudden headshots.
• Boardwalk Empire ^note  Frequent gunshots to the head that spray blood on the walls and on other characters, with some leaving behind mangled heads shown in graphic detail. Many characters have their throats and faces slowly slashed by knives, with profuse bleeding. Two scenes where characters graphically have their heads obliterated by blunt objects. A character's face is burned by an iron with the skin fusing to the iron and peeling off. A character is burned alive and later seen in the hospital, delirious and dying. In one scene, a dead character's fingers are severed by garrote wire and trickle blood.
• Breaking Bad ^note  For episodes s1e2 (extremely gruesome and gory remains of a corpse melted with acid that have to be cleaned off), s1e3 (same as s1e2), and s4e13 (Gus Fring is shown with half of his face gruesomely flayed as a result of an explosion, complete with raw red meat graphically exposed, a missing eyeball, part of his jaw torn, and his twitching, severed optical nerve exposed). Generally a level 7 otherwise for brutal fights and shootings with some bloodshed.
• Chernobyl ^note  Extremely gory radiation burns, blisters and other hideously detailed injuries caused by the Chernobyl explosion.
• CSI ^note  Graphic autopsies. Brief depiction of the crimes preceding them. Surprisingly, this series is rated TV-14.
• Danger 5 ^note  Mainly the 2nd season. The 1st season sits on range 7-8.
• Death Valley
• The Expanse ^note  Due to some gorily splattered/dissected corpses in Season 3.
• The Fall of the House of Usher (2023)
• Fear Itself ^note  Mainly the "New Year's Day" episode, which features onscreen gory scenes about zombies eating dead bodies. Most of the other episodes are on level 8.
• Gangs of London ^note  Vicious beatdowns and slashings. Repeated graphic, bloody stabbings and shootings; including gory headshots and executions. Gruesome torture. Borderline 10.
• The Good Lord Bird ^note  For an unarmed captive brutally and graphically decapitated, Chase being blown apart by a cannon, and Jake being shot until his guts start to spill. Other violence runs the gamut of 4 to 8.
• Happy!
• Iron Fist (2017) ^note  For the graphically battered in faces in episode 7 of Season 1.
• Kamen Rider Amazons
• Monty Python's Flying Circus ^note  Solely for the infamous “Sam Peckinpah's Salad Days” sketch and its aftermath, a crazed display of carnage only kept from a 10 because it’s just so Bloody Hilarious. The rest of the series averages at a 3-4 for occasionally bloody animated violence and some Bloodless Carnage (also played for laughs).
• Oz ^note  Borderline 10. Rarely gory but deeply disturbing and brutal violence. From repeated shanking, to vile rapes, Eye Scream, suicides and more.
• The Pacific
• Peacemaker (2022) ^note  Gory gibs and headshots.
• Resident Evil (2022) ^note  A man split in half by a spider, a few chainsaw kills and a gory head explosion put it here. Other level 8 violence throughout.
• Rome
• The Sandman (2022) ^note The level of violence varies across episodes but there are enough scenes of strong, gruesome violence to put it at a hard 8, with a few moments pushing it to a 9. This includes people being messily ripped apart by magic (with massive blood spatter and exposed bone), dead bodies with their eyes clearly removed and on one occasion a lingering shot of the removed eyes, a bird being graphically shot (including blood spatter, slight gibbing, and a brief but clear shot of the mangled corpse), people being compelled to mutilate themselves such as peeling skin off their arm or chopping their fingers off, a serial killer sewing together human skin, and a man graphically ripping his face off during a nightmare sequence (this is slightly off-set by the surrealness and darkly comedic tone of the scene).
• Sense8 ^note  For the poor bastard getting his hands cut-off by Silas Kabaka and Janet's (Nomi's estranged mother) caesarean section during the protagonists' birth montage. The gunshots are mostly an 8.
• Silent Witness ^note  Ranks here on account of the highly graphic autopsy scenes which include close-ups of corpses - some more decayed or mutilated than others - and the dissection and examination of the body's innards. The show tends not to linger too much on violent acts themselves, but if Gory Discretion Shots are used the aftermath is still shown in grisly detail.
• The Sopranos ^note  Very graphic killings sometimes followed up with dismembering and disposal of bodies (at least once in a meat grinder). Savage beatings that mangle faces of victims; one is then sodomized offscreen, and another is a pregnant woman. Gory headshots. Rape. Etc.
• Supernatural
• Stranger Things ^note  The possessed people melting season 3 almost pushes it to level 8. Season 4 pushes it all the way to level 9 with childrens' eyes bloodily exploding, head crushing and gory decapitation. Before that it's a very light 7.
• Tales from the Crypt ^note  While the Cryptkeeper's face is fairly unrealistic and silly, the stories themselves feature the already disturbing violence from the comics increased a level as a result of it featuring real people.
• True Detective ^note  A man is executed by gunshot to head in season 1; part of his face graphically blows off after which the gory results are briefly seen. In season 2, the gory results of a castration are briefly but graphically seen on a corpse. In season 4 we see a man with half of his head gorily blown off. Otherwise level 8.
• Twin Peaks (The Return)
• Twisted Metal (2023) ^note  The series generally contains level 8 violence such as brief but bloody decapitations and people getting killed with firearms with mostly CGI blood spurts. What gets it to level 9 is the injury Agent Stone gets, having a hatchet stuck in his jaw, and for the person graphically missing a limb while wailing in agony in a flashback sequence.

Level 10

• 1000 Ways to Die ^note  Repeated over-the-top brutal and gory deaths, which show people of all kinds (both innocent and evil) dying in all sorts of awful ways, including decapitations, hideous mutilations, full-body explosions, dismemberments, eviscerations and much, much more alongside CGI animations with Mortal Kombat-esque X-rays and expert interviewees explaining in clinically graphic detail what caused them to die. Although it's all done for Black Comedy and the fact that most of the victims deserve it, the deaths are still graphic enough to reach this level.
• American Horror Story: Apocalypse
• American Horror Story: Coven
• American Horror Story: Freak Show
• American Horror Story: Hotel
• Ash vs. Evil Dead ^note  Extremely gory, over the top violence.
• Banshee ^note Generally hangs around level 9 violence, but some deaths and fights, such as Hood vs. the MMA fighter, Anna vs. Olek, and Nola vs. Burton get brutal and bloody enough to pass into this level.
• Blood Drive (Series) ^note  Outrageous Gorn throughout.
• The Boys ^note  Generally, people gorily explode, heads are crushed/melted, and bodies sliced in half with guts visible, among other mutilations. While season 1 rests comfortably on level 9; season 2 and especially 3 features violence and gore of a much higher level. Particularly Homelander completely annihilating hundreds of unarmed protesters (albeit in a dream spot), a man's face brutally peeled off by hand, Stormfront's demise, having all of her limbs obliterated and her face mostly burned off, kinky sex with a shrinking supe going hideously wrong, another dragged to paste, heads bashed to pulp, bodies unrecognizably mangled, Kimiko savagely killing several men (In one scene, she murders a group of them with an arsenal of dildos), and higher use of practical gore effects in season 3.
• Fear the Walking Dead ^note  See The Walking Dead.
• Game of Thrones ^note  For Oberyn Martell's sadistic, drawn-out, gruesome death, wherein he gets his eyeballs graphically gouged out before having his entire skull brutally crushed into a bloody pulp with bare hands, with the extremely gory aftermath clearly visible for many seconds. Otherwise a hard 9 for fairly brief but realistic and graphic depictions of extremely sadistic, brutal violence and medieval warfare, with lots of stabbings, decapitations, disembowelments, severed limbs, the occasional flaying and so forth. Sometimes the Gory Discretion Shot is employed during the violence, but we often see the grisly aftermath anyway. Sexual violence is sometimes depicted onscreen, though other times a Rape Discretion Shot is used or the assault is only talked about after the fact.
• Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities ^note  “The Autopsy” singlehandedly gets this anthology series here for multiple, lingering, and hideously graphic scenes of corpse autopsies. The rest are mostly in the 7-8 range, with “The Viewing” being a very hard 8 for a nice little bit of gory face-melting.
• Hannibal ^note  Murdered corpses are often graphically shown dismembered and displayed in various unsettling ways, one of the main characters is a cannibal who is frequently seen preparing and eating human flesh and organs or serving it to other people (albeit disguised as gourmet meals), murders and torture scenes are often bloody and realistic-looking. A particularly grisly scene involves a drugged man cutting bits of his own face off, with there being many other scenes of gory and disturbing violence.
• Masters of Horror ^note  Imprint, Pelts, and Right to Die reach this level. The rest are mostly on the 8-9 range, with the tamest possibly reaching level 7.
• Penny Dreadful ^note  For the extremely gory aftermaths in Season One's first episode and Proteus dismembered by John Clare in the same season's episode 2. The gunshots, sliced throats and Ethan's maulings (including Madame Kali half-beheaded by the former) are on level 9.
• The Punisher (2017) ^note  Despite being at level 9 most of the time, the show features extremely graphic scenes of deeply disturbing and brutal violence that land it here instead, including multiple scenes of incredibly graphic and bloody shootings, some insanely brutal scenes of interrogation showing men tied up and being beaten mercilessly with very bloody results, hideous war casualties, heads graphically shown being brutally bashed-in, brutal stabbings, some scenes of shanking, and some extremely gory and very brutally violent scenes of torture, especially William Rawlins' gruesome torture of Frank Castle in episode 11 and the way Frank kills Rawlins by stabbing him repeatedly, beating him to a bloody pulp and gouging his eyes out in graphic detail.
• Sons of Anarchy ^note  Hideous torture and sexual violence. Excessively brutal and repeated shootings, stabbings, and more with gruesome aftermaths.
• Spartacus: Blood and Sand ^note  Extremely bloody, graphic, over-the-top and often fatal violence occurs frequently; this includes exposed broken bones, guts spilling out, the aftermath of a castration, a man getting his face peeled off with a knife, and a man's face being cut off and his brain falling out of his skull. Sexual violence is also sometimes depicted onscreen.
• Squid Game ^note  For the harvested corpses of the players killed during the games and a brief close-up of an elderly woman's head reduced to pulp. Otherwise, it's a hard 8 (borderline 9) with multiple bloody gunshots, stabbings and beatings being commonplace.
• The Walking Dead ^note  Zombie butchery is the least grotesque thing in this show. Humans are torn apart and cannibalized by both zombies and humans with sloppy practical effects and even nastier aftermaths. Innocents are hacked limb by limb with machete, pulverized to pulp by bat, bludgeoned and bled like cattle, and so much more with almost no gory discretion shots. Same goes for all spinoffs and other media.

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