What You Need to Know About The Society Parents Guide
The Society is a Netflix original series that premiered in 2019. It follows a group of teenagers who find themselves trapped on their island town with no adults around. The show deals with mature themes, and if you are a parent trying to figure out whether it is appropriate for your teenager, the Parents Guide is the place to start. I have spent more time than I care to admit going through parental guidance content for shows like this, and there are some things that aren't obvious from the surface-level ratings. The show carries a TV-14 rating from the TV Parental Guidelines system in the United States. That rating means the content may be unsuitable for children under 14, but it doesn't give you the full picture. The Society Parents Guide breaks down the specific content categories so you can make an informed decision rather than relying on the rating alone. The main content areas to consider are violence, sexual content, language, and substance use. The show depicts violence that ranges from psychological manipulation and threats to actual physical altercations. There are scenes involving deaths that occur throughout the series as the teens try to establish order. It isn't graphic in the way a horror show might be, but it isn't gentle either.
Sexual content is present. There are scenes involving nudity and sexual situations. Some of these scenes are more suggestive than explicit, while others go further. The language includes frequent use of strong profanity throughout the series. Drug and alcohol use also appears, though it isn't the central focus of the show. Here is something most people miss when they look at the rating. The show's real problem area isn't the violence or the sexual content. It is the psychological manipulation and the power dynamics between the characters. The teenagers form factions, debate governance, and engage in what amounts to political warfare. A lot of the tension comes from characters lying to, gaslighting, and emotionally abusing each other. If you are evaluating this for a younger viewer, those themes can be more impactful than the more surface-level content categories. I ran into a specific situation where a parent asked me about this show after seeing the TV-14 rating and assuming it was fine for their 13-year-old. The child watched the first episode and came away confused and anxious because of the themes around trust and authority breaking down. The parent had not realized how much of the show focused on those psychological elements. We ended up watching the first episode together and discussing what was happening, which helped. But that is work for the parent to do, not something the rating itself communicates.
If you want the most detailed breakdown, you can find the full content details on IMDb's Parents Guide section or on Common Sense Media. These sources list every instance of the content categories with timestamps if you want to preview specific scenes. My advice is to watch the first episode yourself before letting a child start it. The pacing is slow enough that you can gauge the tone within the first 20 minutes. One counter-intuitive point about this show: despite the mature content, the dialogue is generally well-written and the characters are complex. Some parents have found that watching it with their teenager led to productive conversations about group dynamics, leadership, and ethics. That doesn't mean every family should watch it together, but it is worth considering that the content has substantive material behind it rather than being shallow exploitation. The main limitation of the Parents Guide approach is that it is a static document. It tells you what is in the show but not how it is handled. Two shows can have the same rating and very different tones. The Society is more political thriller than teen drama in practice, even though it uses a high school setting. That tonal difference matters a lot when you are deciding if it fits your family's standards.
If the psychological content concerns you, there are other teen mystery shows with lighter tones. However, those tend to lack the depth that makes this particular show interesting. The trade-off is pretty straightforward: more mature themes come with more substantive storytelling. You have to decide which matters more for your household.
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