Top 10 TV Shows You Shouldn't Watch with Your Parents

Some things are better viewed without parental supervision. Welcome to WatchMojo.com, and today we’re counting down our picks for the top 10 TV shows you shouldn’t watch with your parents.

For this list, we’re looking at those TV programs that might make family viewing a little uncomfortable. These shows are filled to the brim with sex, violence, drug use, or just questionable life choices. We know our parents weren’t angels, but we’re also not trying to watch characters on TV dry hump with them in the room.

Yeah, this definitely isn’t family-friendly viewing. Although the show is a well-scripted and well-acted look into the grim realities of prison life, it’s also teeming with profanity, racial violence, and horrible sexual assaults. It’s not exactly the type of thing you hunker down to watch for a marathon viewing session with your folks. Unless you’re cool with your parents like that. In which case, have fun.

There’s a time and a place to get into some steamy sex scenes on TV, and sitting next to your parents generally isn’t one of them. This show focuses on the lives and loves of a close-knit group of lesbians in West Hollywood. While the passionate love scenes are some of the most…titillating elements of the show, it’s a little embarrassing to have to sit through with your folks.

If you and your parents thought this was going to be “The X-Files 2.0” because you saw David Duchovny on TV, oh how wrong you were. The word “fornication” is right there in the title. Sure, he’s a debauched writer who drinks a lot and has sex even more; that’s what makes the show exciting. But it’s a little gross when your dad gets super into it.

When you’re dad’s a deadbeat alcoholic, you’re probably going to get into some less than savory activities. And when you’re an unsupervised teen, or just a horny adult, a lot of those activities involve sex. Unfortunately for family viewers of the show, a lot of that sex happens onscreen, shamelessly. What’s even better is you can almost guarantee that you’re going to see someone getting busy almost every episode.

The American version of this show was cancelled due to its sexual content. That should’ve been the first warning. While the series acknowledged that many teens do actually go all the way – a lot – it’s not something most parents like to think about. Especially not while they’re sitting right next to their teenager, who may or may not be into that life. You can almost feel the disapproval radiating in your direction.

While there may not be sex, there’s definitely nudity, usually accompanied by some ridiculous stunt that threatens to damage various body parts. It’s like someone gave a TV show to those kids your parents don’t want you hanging out with. And now, through the magic of television, those delinquents are in your home, anyway. The amount of cringe in the show is enough for your parents to get mad at you based on principle alone.

The entire premise of the show centers on a high school gym teacher who becomes a male prostitute to make ends meet. He also happens to be remarkably endowed, hence the title. There are plenty of sex scenes, since that’s his job, in addition to full-on nudity and other less-than-righteous deeds. Why this would seem like awesome viewing for parental quality time is beyond us.

You’d think that a show about vampires and werewolves and other mythical creatures wouldn’t be that awkward to watch with your folks. But the opening sequence with half-naked women and highly suggestive dancing should’ve been clue number one. Number two should’ve been every episode ever. It’s a show that regularly features bare-naked butt cracks, boobs, and a bunch of other great stuff. But it’s not so great when your parents are watching your every move.

This show, in general, doesn’t seem to like the characters who are parents, so it’s easy to see why actual parents wouldn’t get a kick out of it in real life. Given the adult themes, the suggestive and sometimes offensive content, in addition to its tendency to test the limits of what’s acceptable on TV, this show isn’t for the morally severe. But who knows? Your parents may surprise you.

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.
- “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” (2005-)
- “Drawn Together” (2004-07)
- “Secret Diary of a Call Girl” (2007-11)
- “American Horror Story” (2011-)

There’s more sex in this show than you can shake an iron throne at. It also has more viciously brutal murders than you’d probably care to visually experience with your immediate relatives. While the show is addictive to watch, oftentimes for the sex and violence, it might be too much for the folks. But it’s not like you got here through Immaculate Conception. They know what’s up.

Do you agree with our list? What show would you never watch with your parents? For more entertaining Top 10s published every day, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.