Senna parents guide: Is the series appropriate for young racing fans?

When it comes to limited series, Netflix has some of the best and most popular around. In 2024, Netflix had some huge hits like Fool Me Once, One Day, Ripley, Baby Reindeer, The Perfect Couple, and so many others. But the streaming service closes out the year with two more limited series released during the Thanksgiving holiday, one of them being Senna.

In the biographical drama miniseries, Gabriel Leone stars as Brazilian Formula One racing legend Ayrton Senna, who rose to fame as a professional racing driver prior to his tragic death in 1994. The six-episode series traces Senna's life and career, proving an inspiring and emotional watch that's full of adrenaline-pumping racing and raw insight into the star's impact.

Here's how Netflix describes the series in the official synopsis:

"Over the course of six episodes, Senna will, for the first time, depict the journey of overcoming obstacles, ups and downs, joys, and sorrows of Ayrton, exploring his personality and personal relationships. The starting point will be the beginning of the three-time Formula 1 champion’s racing career when he moved to England to compete in Formula Ford, all the way to the tragic accident in Imola, Italy, during the San Marino Grand Prix."

However, if you have any younger racing fans in your household who you think might enjoy watching the miniseries, you're probably wondering if Senna has scenes and sequences that are inappropriate for children. Below, we're sharing a closer look at what to expect from the series and explaining the content that contributes to the TV-MA rating — but we're of course keeping it spoiler-free!

Senna rated TV-MA for language, sex, and nudity

As explained on the show's official page on Netflix, Senna has been given a TV-MA rating for language, nudity, sex, and smoking, which designates the series for mature audiences. Netflix doesn't recommend parental guidance, but most younger viewers might not have much to enjoy in the series beyond the racing sequences. Here's more information on the age rating categories.

Sex and nudity

Since the series mostly revolves around racing, there isn't a significant focus on romance, though Ayrton does have a few romances in the series. There are a pair of intimate scenes between a male and female couple in different episodes. One scene features female breast nudity, though much of the nudity is shrouded in shadows and nothing explicit is shown up close in clear light.

In a different intimate scene, a man and a woman are shown dancing close together before returning to their room to have sex. Again, the scene features nudity, this time male rear nudity from Gabriel Leone, which is shown in a wide shot. The scene is short and doesn't linger on the sex for too long. These are the two most prominent instances of sexuality in the series.

Language and violence

The Brazilian series partly features scenes spoken in English, but for the most part, Senna's characters speak in Portuguese. That being said, the dialogue does feature some heightened language that might go over the heads of younger English-speaking children in the room when it's spoken in Portuguese.

As for depictions of violence, there are some scenes that could be potentially triggering to some viewers. The series adapts the crash that killed Ayrton Senna, though the series does so as respectfully as possible. The crash itself isn't shown in graphic detail, neither is his body, but debris from his car is shown flying through the air.

Watch Senna only on Netflix.