An American anthology police detective series utilizing multiple timelines in which investigations seem to unearth personal and professional secrets of those involved, both within or outside the law.
Interpretively; the entire season focuses on a collective of politically privileged, caucasian men, orchestrating a three decade long sprawling cover up for dozens of abductions, rapes, torture, possible sacrifically motivated murder and serial killing of socially vulnerable children and women. A routine "chain of command" system, from the state governor down, is instituted for serveral generations; making it an untouchable family tree.
In chapter 3, Marty forces his way inside his ex-lover's house, physically assaults and threatens her date, screaming and pointing incapacitating spray at his face while she shouts at him to stop and leave.
SPOILERS!!!!!!!
it is alluded to multiple times in the first season that children were repeatedly abused physically and sexually. There is also a lot of talk of priests abusing children, and even a video tape that depicts a young girl (younger than 10) being held down while a grown adult walks towards her. We don't see anything after that, but Marty and Steve's reactions make it pretty clear what happened.
Also, Marty hits his daughter across the face in one of the episodes and name calls her.
A father is tortured/murdered by an adult son. The same man also has a questionably consentual incestuous dynamic with uis intellectually impaired female direct relative. It appears to have been a lifelong familial abuse cycle for her, going back as far as her grandfather.
Multiple women are brutalized, but I wouldn't say it's for spectacle. Each body is heavily related to the plot and pushes it forward and is never disrespectful.
The very first scene... A heard of elk jump to their death but it does not show them dying.
The first time you see Rose, she is cutting open a wolf and it's very graphic.
In the last couple episodes, dogs are threatened with physical abuse and murdered. In S1:E8 @ 0:04:45 - 0:05:05 a (cast iron?) object is thrown at a German Shepherd, possibly injuring it causing it to make a distressed yelp in fear. In the final episode S1:E8 @ 0:28:15 a dog is verbally abused on an off until 0:29:15. When it gets loose, it makes a terrible cry in pain (S1:E8 @ 0:29:25 off camera). At S1:E2 @0:29:48 the camera pans past the bloodied body of the animal for about 4 seconds; the body is shown at a distance/partially obscured again 0:32:57
A dog is repeatedly shown in distress, barking and whining, and characters threaten to kick it and it is eventually killed with the dead body partially shown afterwards.
The last episode of season one (form & void) is pretty messed up & graphic. There are several shots that imply animal abuse. Dogs and cats. Very graphic. If you have to watch it skip minutes 28-37
No sexual assault happens onscreen, but it's mentioned a lot. A videotape of a young girl being assaulted is shown to characters in episodes 7 and 8. We only see the beginning of the tape, where there's a creepy implied situation but nothing has happened to the girl yet. There's no audio.
Navarro and her lover have a seen where they are having sex and he tries to stop twice and she doesn’t. It’s not discussed in the show as a rape but it can be triggering for viewers.
Several victims are found to have drugs in their system, and one abuse survivor describes the feeling of being drugged, but it's not shown or simulated onscreen (excluding characters who use drugs voluntarily)
Multiple times throughout the show, it is referenced that pedophiles and "pretty boys" tend to get raped in prison. Also, Marty beats up two young men for statutory rape of his daughter ((she doesn't believe it was rape but he does)). Also there's a lot of talk of CSA.
Not technically squashed, but a man is VERY graphically shot in the head around 17 minutes, and another man gets blown up less than a minute later. The exploded head is shown in several shots over the next two minutes or so. You're clear once Rust says, "After we confirmed the two deaths..."
Several characters are unlawfully beaten by police officers throughout season 1. Rust at one point describes a nasty cartel torture method, but it isn't shown.
Reference in chapter 3 of someone being castrated with a razor in jail, description in chapter 4 of a similar (lengthier explanation) torture and murder method used by a drug cartel involving cutting.
One of the main character’s 2 year old daughter died in a car accident before the events of the series. This is not shown, just referred to multiple times.
The main mystery revolves around a cult that abducts, SAs, tortures, and murders children. It’s mostly not shown, except in a couple episodes. In S1E7, a main character watches a video... (TW: CSA) In the video, you see a little girl crying, begging (no sound) and being led to a platform, where she is sprawled with legs open, and a robed man walking towards her. The camera then switches to the main character and you just see him reacting in horror before he turns it off. In S1E8 you see the main character carry out the body of a deceased child and a living child who has been tortured.
In another episode, a main character explains why he left his job as a detective. (TW: Horrific infant death). He is called to a crime scene where an addict microwaved their infant to dry him off. Not shown but you can kinda see the aftermath, although not in focus. (/TW)
The show represents an insidious form of copaganda; while police brutality and misconduct are frequently depicted, the antagonists' crimes are so heinous that the detectives' methods are seemingly justified. See S1E3:
"Do you wonder ever if you're a bad man?"
"No. I don't wonder, Marty. World needs bad men. We keep the other bad men from the door."
Mental illness is implied in two characters. The focus character has features of some altered personality disorders. A female character very obviously has a form of unspecified intellectual disability, potentially autistim and congenital disorders, which aids in her groomed exploitation and complete social isolation.
other comment is not true, the killer does not have d.i.d., he does put on different accents and is mentally ill, but is not implied to have d.i.d. at all
Rust is very obviously mentally ill and commits a lot of violent acts but most of them are 'justified' (in the context of the pro-cop narrative) by his job. The main villain is mentally ill and seemingly also seemingly disabled.
An inmate slits his wrists in his cell off-screen. you see the aftermath. A detective also tells a woman who murdered her children that she should kill herself in jail.
Detective Navarro's sister Julia suffers from an unnamed/undiagnosed mental illness, with symptoms including delusions, paranoia, and erratic behavior. Their mother is said to have had the same issues.
Rust has some hallucinations and loses time, but he understands that he's doing it, and there's no attempt to make the viewer question what is real or not.
Tom Purcell, (the father of the missing children) is revealed to be gay when Roland finds a pamphlet about "curing" homosexuality in Tom's nightstand.
he is murdered at the end of the same episode but, we don't actually find out he was killed until the next, when his body is discovered
Near the beginning of the episode, there are a few short sexual scenes (no nudity) between a character and what's later described as "at least a half-sister"
While this is rather subjective, I'd say yes. It had a lot of hope at the end but the main characters talk about how they couldn't catch all the bad guys and that the governor who is tied to all the crimes is still governor and also how one of the main characters wished he had died.
Episode 1: A tongue is found (when the delivery man drops his phone) and there are closeups of it when the detectives look into it.
There is a flashback scene from Navarro as a soldier and there is a woman with half of her head missing.