Parents guide

Sometimes non-sexual nudity can appear in the aftermath of some killings. Slightly more frequent in season 4.

In season 7, there is a brief scene of sex, it's not graphic at all and cuts before anything gets serious. But some crime scenes do contain nudity.

A woman removes her blouse to analyze her gunshot wound and catches Masuka staring at her breasts. She says: "Jesus! They're just tits Masuka!"

An episode mentions rape. It is said that one of the killers has been found guilty of rape in his past.

Mild breast scenes.

Season 7 has multiple scenes in a strip club.

Sex scene showing female breast, female takes mens hand and caress her breast.

Debra laying nude barely covering herself with sheet.

Couple scenes where Female take tops off showing bare breasts.

Many Females are stripped down to only panties exposing breasts at a party.

Despite this show's reputation, most violence occurs just off-screen and we only see the bloody aftermaths of violence. Which can at times be gruesome, but still ultimately most violence happens out-of-frame. We usually only see the before, then after, of violent acts in this show.

A lot of death occurs offscreen, but usually moderately bloody aftermaths are shown.

There are loads of murder and death scenes throughout almost every episode, but they are not drawn out and overly extensive.

In season one, the antagonist often leaves bloodless bodies for the police to find. These bodies contain stuff like meat, bones and organs and may disturb some viewers.

TV-MA violence type: blood and gore.

Some bloody violence and bloody images.

The theme of serial killing plus the aftermath of acts of violence which feature many mutilated bodies are disturbing.

The series also contains scenes of implied killings, and some viewers may find it disturbing that the protagonist attempts to seek justice through repeated murders, to a point of experiencing pleasure at his victims sufferings and even teaching the 'trade' to a friend.

Apart from the narrative, there are some scenes of stabbings and gore.

There are 996 uses of "fuck" and variations of it throughout the 8 season run. (About 10-30 times per episode, any given episode.)

Casual use of strong profanity ("fuck" and "shit") throughout. Infrequent uses of more graphic words ("cunt" or "cock").

Casual profanity used throughout, sometimes few and other times more.

Some characters swear more than others, often times this becomes a character trait of recurring characters.

Very infrequent uses of slurs, such as homophonic or racial slurs.

"Fuck" and other curse words fly freely, including weak to moderate curse words such as "shit", "tits", "damn", "bastard", "bitch", etc.

Lots of language throughout the show.

Most swearing come in the later seasons.

There are some topics of the show that have to do with narcotics.

Characters drink alcohol occasionally.

Dexters Sister smokes cigarettes in a few episodes

There are a few scenes of brief marijuana smoking, as well as some brief cocaine use. A character also abuses her Xanax prescription.

In one instance in season 2 a woman roofies herself.

Moderate/Severe for neurodivergent viewers.

For older teens/adults.

In Season 6, Dexter and the forensics team investigate a serial killer who believes that he has been chosen by God to rid the world of sinners.