There is no full nudity at any point during the series. The closest thing to this is in "Blood on the Tracks"; a man rides a bicycle naked, but his rear and genitalia are concealed by the neighbourhood bushes.

Sex and sexual situations are often implied. We see characters lying in bed together, or making innuendo comments alluding to sex having taken place or about to take place. Phrases such as "knocking boots with someone", "hooking" and "making it" are all used, among others.

Some episodes feature the subjects of rape, child molestation and sexual harassment as plot devices. While nothing explicit is ever shown, the emotional reactions of the characters can be gruelling and uncomfortable. This includes a gang rape in "Rampage", a teenage girl raped by a family employee in "Death Penalty: the Final Appeal", and a man stripping women naked by force in "Mind Hunters", among other things.

There are scenes where characters are groped or felt up by other characters, usually without consent given, including a girl having her buttocks pinched in "Disco Inferno", and a boy ripping open a girl's shirt and groping her breasts as a form of bullying in "Boy Crazy".

Sexual dialogue is included. Examples include "biting the pillow" (to refer to gay sex), "he grabbed my thing", and similar dialogue throughout the series, although it is used sparsely.

Some plots feature transgender characters and gay characters, which leads to a number of jokes made about them by other characters that are often sexual in nature.

Characters in some scenes wear revealing clothing. We see a twelve-year-old girl in nothing but panties and a camisole in "The Sleepover", a cheerleader in a low-cut skirt in "Stand Up and Holler", Scotty in nothing but a pair of boxers at various points throughout the series, prostitutes in tube tops and miniskirts, and other revealing outfits.

In "The Promise", obese college girls are lured into a frat house and raped one by one by the frat boys, all of whom wear pig masks as a form of mockery. One girl is traumatized, seen with her dress torn, revealing cleavage, and her makeup streaked; a gang rape is implied.

A man abuses the situation of immigrant women in "Who's Your Daddy" by forcing them to sleep with him and lick his boots, with the threat that he will fire their husbands who he employs, or have them deported back to a communist country they fled from, where they will be executed. One of the women is traumatized by the experience, and cries.

"The Key" features the plot of a 1970's key party where wife-swapping takes place.

We see a madame keeping underage Ukrainian illegals in a brothel; one of these girls claims to have been forced to service ten men a night, a traumatic experience that left her mentally scarred. She mentions that they spit on her and climed all over her, "tearing me apart".

It is discovered that a pedophile owned a website called Boys In Bloom (for child pornography). A furious parent later shoots the pedophile to death in retaliation.

Some graphic talk of pregnancy and abortions, including a woman mentioning that she had her fetus aborted using a "bicycle spoke" in a shoddy back-alley setup during the 1960's.

A man says (about mentally challenged people in "Wishing")"everything they lose up here *points to head* they get back down here *points to crotch* with interest." We learn of accusations that the boy being spoken of was accused of jumping a girl in a music room at school.

"Ravaged" and "A Dollar A Dream" both feature points at which a character has to sleep with a man for favours such as exemption from paying a legal fee and getting a needed job back at a raunchy bar. In both instances, the women are visibly upset by this.

Women in a mental asylum during the 1950's arrange to have an orderly strip naked so that they can sketch him for art class. A woman remarks, of the stuffy hospital wardens, "the nude black man pushed them over the edge". One woman says "holy Moses" after seeing the man's crotch area.

There are dead bodies seen onscreen; nothing particularly graphic or gory, though some have bruises, burns, markings left on their skin, or are sometimes only skeletons due to years of decomposition.

We see Lily's two mutilated pet cats that she rescued from a shelter throughout the earlier seasons; one cat is missing an eye, and another is missing a leg. A.D.A. Kite refers to the cat as "Tripod".

"Sanctuary" features a woman, an old flame of Scotty's, who was killed by disembowelment after ingesting drugs that a dealer wanted to sell. The disembowelment is never shown onscreen, and is only talked about by other characters. Still, probably one of the most graphic deaths in the series.

Will Jeffries is shot at; his lung collapses. Lilly is shot at in her shoulder. Lt. Stillman is shot in the chest. In all three instances, the characters survive. Blood is seen.

References made to POW camps, genocide, executions of dissidents in communist Cambodia, and war crimes.

Some racial violence, including a black woman being gang-raped and suffocated to death, a black youth being lynched in front of a crying white father and daughter made to watch, references to the real-life murder of Emmett Till, and two little girls being shot at for being friends when one is white and the other is black.

Some of the cold cases are the result of hate crimes, including gay bashing. We see a gay law student kicked and beaten to death in the street at one point.

Murder victims die in various ways (mostly off-screen), including being dropped/thrown from bridges, ingesting potassium cyanide, being strangled, being beaten with objects, being stabbed, being shot at, and other various methods. The show features the actual killings sparsely and does not glorify them, although sometimes the killers are portrayed with little to no remorse.

Cases of psychiatric abuse are featured prominently; we see characters with burns on their heads and severe brain damage due to electrode convulsive therapy, and a woman with a swollen eye after a lobotomy.

We see various scenes of domestic abuse, including a man being beaten to death with a fire poker by his abusive wife, a woman being hit in the eye by an abusive husband and having one of her daughters murdered in front of her, and a boy being punched by his father for dating a Puerto Rican girl.

Some off-screen scenes of animal cruelty, including a rottweiler being used for dog fights in "Ravaged", a dog beaten and bloodied in "Frank's Best", a cat said to have been drowned by a mentally-disturbed girl in "The Sleepover", and live racehorses being shot at with machine guns at a country club in "Time to Crime".

There are multiple scenes of shootings. In "Time to Crime", a little girl is shot in the chest and killed. In "Rampage", a shopping mall is shot up by two disturbed teen boys, who make jokes about the dying people. A man is shot in the stomach and bleeds out. A woman trips and falls after being shot; her body is later seen. Blood is seen. An elderly man is shot and killed. A fry cook is shot and killed; his body is seen.

Multiple threats of violence are made, including a woman threatening a man that his penis may be cut off in "Who's Your Daddy", a man threatening that a little girl may be killed in "Fireflies", and a character threatening to put another character "out of his misery" in "Wishing".

Scenes of bullying; a mentally challenged man in "Wishing" is called a pansy retard and kicked and beaten; a boy is punched in the eye after starting a fight in "Fireflies", a boy is pushed off his bike by a goth kid in "Offender", and similar incidents.

A man in "Blackout" mentions unabashedly that he wished to see "scarab beetles feasting on her (his wife's) intestines." Scotty and Will are visibly creeped out.

Uses of "bitch", "hell/what the hell", "damn", "god/oh my god", "skank", "pervert", "retard", "faggot", "spook", "whore", "cesspool" (directed at a prostitute), "slut", "fatty", "son of a bitch", "ass", "scum", "stupid", "coloured", "critter-lover", "crap", "pig", "nerd", "freak", "pansy", "fag", "geek", "queer", "fugly", "bimbo", "loser", and similar expletives/name-calling.

Many minor characters/guest characters have drug, alcohol and gambling problems, and can be seen smoking cigarettes.

We see drug and alcohol paraphernalia, including a beer mirror, alcohol advertised in bars using neon signs, hookahs, a bong, crack vials, baggies of marijuana, crack pipes, forged prescription bottles, and similar things.

The main character's mother is an alcoholic and later dies from implied liver failure in Season 4. Her sister is a drug addict who is found on heroin and with her drug dealer's baby in Season 7.

Verbal references are made to alcohol, drugs and smoking, with street names including "smack", "pot", "blow", "crack", "hillbilly heroin", "meth", and similar phrases.

A character has his beer roofied.

A school called Ranning Union High School is dubbed "R U High" by students.

We see the use of Gamma-Hydroxybutyrate (Liquid X, the "date-rape drug") used in "Stand Up and Holler"; a boy is rumoured to have made some in the school science lab; girls later drink it in their beers to get high after a pep rally; one girl is forced to ingest a large amount of it in a hazing ritual, and she overdoses and dies.

"Disco Inferno", "Greed", "The Good Death" and some other episodes feature use of cocaine. "Disco Inferno" in particular features a room known as "The White Room" where disco dancers go to snort coke.

We see large amounts of wine drank in "Blackout", particularly from Diane Gilbert, who is often shown with a glass of red wine.

We see an underage girl girl drugged and date-raped by a grown man in "Roller Girl"; another man chews out the rapist for attacking a minor. The girl is seen lying on the floor and slurring her words.

We see a man injected with a high level of morphine as a mercy killing in "The Good Death"; vials and needles are seen.

We see a mother addicted to cocaine in "8:03 AM". She is seen high in a drug den; her daughter is visibly upset; crack vials are seen on the kitchen table. The daughter later tries the drugs herself and a friend rescues her.

We see a boy forced to hold drugs for his own teacher in "True Calling".

A boy's drink is laced with potassium cyanide in "Blank Generation."

The dark thematic content may frighten some viewers.

Traumatic situations including child abuse, murder, death, sexual violence, hate crime, loud shouting and police interrogation may frighten some viewers.

Some scenes are quite emotional, including scenes of death and confession, which may upset viewers.

Some episodes feature eerie soundtrack, coupled with settings such as abandoned schools, houses, dark warehouses, forests and inner-city streets. This may frighten younger viewers.

There are multiple scenes of characters in peril that may upset some viewers.

Sensitive subjects include immigration, gay bashing, racial violence, child abuse, abortion, police brutality, domestic violence, psychiatric abuse, mental illnesses, addictions, and religious conflict. This may upset or offend some viewers.