TV is getting more violent. Much more so. Two decades ago, it would have been tough to even make a list like this. But with the advent of cable and pay channels, there are less and less restrictions about the kind of violence allowed to be broadcast.
All of these are great shows, but it can be hard to watch them through your fingers sometimes as they’re just so incredibly violent. Even after all the years I’ve spent watching horror films and playing violent video games, some scenes in these shows can be too much to handle.
Check out the entire list below, and see if you want to add any picks of your own:
5. The Walking Dead
This past season The Walking Dead kicked things up a notch, and created moments that literally made my jaw drop. Rick ripping the face off a zombie wearing a gas mask is going to haunt my dreams for some time to come, and just because walkers aren’t human, that doesn’t mean violence toward them isn’t brutal.
The hilarious part of all this? The Walking Dead is a TV-14 show. Don’t curse and don’t have sex and you can chop off all the heads and limbs you want I guess. We have a very screwed up priority system in this country when it comes to violence vs. purported vulgarity, and The Walking Dead is an easily mockable example of that.
4. Game of Thrones
I just realized that if I was making a list of the most sexually gratuitous shows out there, that probably four out of the five shows I’m featuring here would be on it. I guess sex and violence just go together like peanut butter and jelly.
Game of Thrones has plenty of the latter however, and has produced some of the most memorable violent scenes in TV history. Take your pick. The assumed main character of the show losing his head? A knight gored by a lance to the throat? A midget cutting a man’s leg off with a battle axe? Game of Thrones has all of it and more.
3. True Blood
Blood isn’t just the window dressing on this show, it’s practically the central premise. In a world where vampires have returned, blood is on the menu from the get go, and is extracted in increasingly gory ways as the show goes on.
But as viewers know, the show opens up to worlds past mere vampires, and when werewolves, shapeshifters, witches, dryads and (sigh) werepanthers come calling, the mayhem gets ratcheted up even more. When vampires die, for instance, they don’t just bleed out onto the floor like us humans. Rather they explode in a pile of gore and sinew that’s enough to make you lose your lunch, and this happens with alarming frequency.
2. Spartacus
If we were measuring blood by the liter, Spartacus would like take the number one spot on this list. Even the opening credits are graphic splashes of blood used to showcase the names of the cast. Spartacus is essential 300 turned into a film, mixed with a bit of Gladiator as the central premise. It’s based on history to a fractional degree, and life was quite brutal back then.
Between gladiator matches and slave rebellions, there have been too many excruciatingly gory scenes to count when it comes to Spartacus. The only reason I’m not giving this the top spot is because the show is SO bloody and violent, it’s practically comical, and by going too over the top it loses some of the brutality that comes with viewing violent acts in the real world. In a lot of ways, the next show on this list is actually be more grotesque because the violence FEELS real. Here it’s more plentiful, but it’s almost cartoonish.
1. Boardwalk Empire
If this was a decade ago, a show like The Sopranos may have made the list, as it was famous for its brutal depictions of mob violence. But today, Boardwalk Empire makes that show look like My Little Pony.
There is literally almost no scene where it doesn’t feel like someone is about to get murdered, and in most cases, that feeling comes true. The body count in this show is just astronomical, whereas The Sopranos would build up a six episode arc just to off one guy. If a half dozen people are dead at the end of an hour of Boardwalk Empire, it’s been a slow day.
The violence simply feels authentic here, and no amount of CGI blood from some of these other shows can unseat it. Boardwalk Empire can be truly unsettling with its kills, and even more so with who the show chooses to kill in any given episode.
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I’m still not sure that any of these current shows would beat “Oz”.
Best show EVER.. and I would assume the most realistic. More than True Blood anyway :)
Um, what about American Horror Story Asylum? Maybe not gruesome and bloody, but violent and mentally malicious. There really is no shortage of blood though. I don’t understand how it is not on this list.
Ok This person needs to get their facts straight if they are going to write an article. There are NO Dryads in True Blood – there are fae (a.k.a. fairies) but no dryads.
Also Vampires have not ‘returned’ to the world in True Blood they have always been there, just not public. It’s shadowing on the LGBT movement, how vampires haven’t been able to be ‘out of the coffin’ until this new fake blood has been made.
Also, the show is called True BLOOD, where’s your first clue that it would be bloody?
This article is foolish.
These are some of the best shows on television. If The Walking Dead haunts your dreams because of some special effects you need help my friend.
Season 2. Marian is the Dryad.
Nope Maryann was a Maenad – followers of Dionysus
A Dryad is a tree nymph
There’s quite a difference.
WOW I feel the need to go further with my comment. As stated before, True BLOOD has BLOOD in then name…so why are you shocked about the gore factor? And The Walking DEAD…did you think it was a sitcom??? Come On, you must have led a seriously sheltered life if you think these shows are frightening. And those clambering for Dexter to be on the list…there is very very little actual blood in Dexter. Aside from the crime scenes that he photos…theres no blood at all. (baring of course the half teas spoon the trickles out of the stab wound when he makes a kill) This list is WEAK!
Reading comprehension is apparently a lost art…
I do believe he did realize it’s called True BLOOD – hence, why it was included on a list of gruesomely violent tv shows. Imagine that: someone included a bloody tv show on a list of bloody tv shows. He’s not surprised that a show named The Walking Dead is gruesome – he is simply relaying to us that in his opinion it is one of the more gruesome offerings on tv. Which it is, as you’ve agreed. You agree that these shows are bloody, but he’s a wimp for compiling them in a list?
No one was saying any of those shows were frightening, but don’t worry: your bravado has convinced us all that you are very tough and brave.
Thank god for the not politically correct True Blood vampires! Sick and tired of the Twilight vampires (and story and everything). I really enjoy the gore details even if I’m not that into gore films in general.
By the way all these shows are on my top 20 list.
Walking dead and Spartacus are often gore for the fun of it… it seems very important for creators to invent new disgusting scenes! On the other hand violence in Game of Thrones and Boardwalk empire is in the story and therefore sometimes even more disturbing.
If The Walking Dead was on Showtime or HBO, it would be number one by far. Go read the comics and educate yourself with the differences that are in the two mediums. There is a lot of cursing, a bit of sex and a LOT and I mean A LOT more gory violence that they just would not be able to get away with on AMC,
American Horror Story should be on here. There is no shortage of death and blood in that show (seasons one AND two), as well as the added psychological terror, and the fact that it touches on some very taboo subjects (ex. school shootings, forced sterilization, suicide, rape, pregnancy due to rape, attempted self abortion with a coat hanger, Nazi scientists).
I feel that all of these things make it qualify as gruesome and violent.
On a different note, the pic you SHOULD have had for the True Blood listing would be Russell Edgington ripping the new’s anchor’s spine out on live TV. That was an epic scene. Lol.
I agree that American Horror Story should be added. The asylum season is a little TOO much for me, even though I’m a big fan of horror (so long as it’s done up right). Dexter is pretty nasty, too. Although one of my favorite shows is Breaking Bad, don’t think it is quite so gruesome.
…..what about Sons of Anarchy?
I guess this list has put my TV viewing habits in perspective. 4 out of the 5 shows on this list are on my top ten list of currently running shows. I guess I like the violence.
No seriously… I posted 3 comments. Took the time to comment on your opinion. How come all my comments disappeared? Not nice, not nice at all! :-(
It was not deliberate – nor was the problem limited solely to your comments. Some sort of glitch has happened with the commenting system and comments disappeared for reasons we don’t understand. We haven’t yet figured out how – or whether it’s possible – to retrieve them. Unfortunately, technology is not without its glitches. Sorry.
Pity… My comments were pretty deep ;-)
I think this happened when someone replied to a previous message. Everything after that disappeared.
Thanks for your reply though.
What about Dexter
Seriously how wimpy is the person who compiled this list?
What about Sons of Anarchy? I mean Jax killed someone with a snow globe for Christ’s sake! Not to mention Opie being pummeled by an iron pipe. Better yet Jax chopping off someone’s hand for fingerprints. I can go on…
Sons of Anarchy showed a girl get burned alive on the first episode this last season how does that not get #1 Sons has the most realistic violence on tv .
What about the show “Superjail?” That show is violent.
Sons of Anarchy has to be on top of this list for many reasons. These are common men who are plain outlaws of today. Not really professionals killers but sloppy killers which is so much badass. Just for a ink on your skin will get you killed. Today’s justice is much tougher especially with modern tech on you at any given time. They kill without hesitate.
I agree… do you remember when they burned the tatoo off one guy’s back? This show IS extremely violent and probably number one on the list.
Um, hello? SUPERNATURAL? Pick an episode. Any episode.
Wahhhhh! The TV is too violent for me wahhhhhhhh!Then turn to Nick Jr. then. I hear Dora is still exploring…