Netflix Obliterated parents guide: How graphic and violent is the series?

The Netflix original action-comedy series Obliterated premiered on Nov. 30, and it’s a return to the raunchy, super-unserious romps of the early 2000s. The series comes from the directors of American Reunion and the Harold & Kumar movies, which tells you everything you need to know about the tone and sense of humor of the show.

If you’re wondering whether younger viewers can be in the room while watching Obliterated, there’s a simple answer: No. Netflix has rated the new series TV-MA for language, nudity, sex, smoking, substances, and violence. All of these things are featured in every episode in extreme excess, making it only suitable for mature audiences.

Based on the premise alone, the series deals heavily with drugs, alcohol, and other substances and violent action sequences. A team of elite assembles to prevent a terrorist attack in Las Vegas. But when they celebrate their win a little too soon, they learn the bomb they stopped was a fake and they’ll have to rally in spite of their inebriated state to save the world for real this time.

Violence and language

Obliterated leaves very little to imagination when it comes to graphic violence. There are frequent and multiple action sequences with gun violence and close-ups on bullets and blood. Fight sequences also often lead to deaths of the team’s enemies, which comes with heightened language with expletives, references to sex, and other terms not for the faint of heart.

The violence ranges from the average shoot-out sequences action viewers have grown accustomed to, though there are instances of violence going further into torture. In a later episode, a male and female character are captured. As they stand with their hands tied above their hands, a villain threatens to insert a stick with retractable spinning blades into his penis. It’s inserted, but the blade device isn’t activated.

Nudity and sex

Jumping off from that note, the series employs a fair amount of graphic nudity. In the first episode, C. Thomas Howell appears fully nude as his character Hagerty. Two additional instances of male full frontal nudity use prosthetics: the instance mentioned in the above paragraph and a stripper who puts whipped cream on his penis. The show also includes male and female rear nudity and female breast nudity. A lot of the nudity in the series is rather gratuitous and doesn’t add much to the plot.

Throughout the eight-episode first season, there are multiple sex scenes between male and female couples. Three scenes feature close ups, though no graphic nudity is shown, while other scenes involving sex do feature some nudity. Later on in the season, a couple has sex outside in the open and are caught by a father and his young son. In the first episode, a man walks in on two men engaging in oral sex in the shower.

The show won’t be for every viewer based on the information provided. Some viewers might be triggered by the gun violence and terrorism, and those who are sensitive to those subjects should watch with caution. The humor, language, nudity, and violence might also put off viewers who weren’t expecting the show to be quite this graphic and raunchy. But if it’s your kind of humor and genre, you will likely have a blast with the action-comedy.

Watch Obliterated only on Netflix.