Top Ten Darkest and Most Mature Kids Shows

One of the best examples of Legend of Korra's disturbing storytelling and imagery is the episode Korra Alone. This is one of the most depressing, disturbing, and dark episodes of the show, and that's considering all of the material that the show has had before. Korra is constantly stalked by a spirit of herself, which actually causes physical harm to her. And yet, as she runs away from her life, not even caring that she's the Avatar, it follows her, and the hallucinations get so bad that she finds herself getting dragged down into a large pool of mercury, the same poison that led her to this terrible state. And yet, even after she got the poison out, even when she think's she's got a hold of herself, it takes her more than half of the season to make a full recovery.

Long story short: PTSD can really screw someone's life up. Korra went from my least favorite character, to my most sympathized and favorite character. It's not often that the main character is my favorite, but ...more

I know there are a ton of shows on this list that say "death" a lot and have inappropriate jokes or whatever. However, what makes LOK so mature is how they handle death. It's not something you can joke about all the time. In the Avatar franchise, its treated like a real thing, something that is tragic and can scar someone for life. All the deaths are taken seriously. Korra had PTSD for three years or more. We really get to see her immense struggle. It's not how many times you say death, it's how you handle it. Oh and one word. Bloodbending.

Quite a violent show, has many dark themes such as genocide. Bryan, the show co-creator, said that he was surprised of all the this that they got away with. Also had quite a few deaths and two deaths were onscreen. Although I still think that Avatar: The Last Airbender is better. Nick had no idea of what to do with the older viewers, so they (stupidly) took it off of nick and posted it online. And this show is T.V. -Y7

Have you seen a kids show where the main protagonist is tortured with deadly poison, then suffers from PTSD for THREE YEARS, and is taken it seriously? NO! Except for this show. It was taken very seriously. Don't assume a show is mature just because they say death all the time or have adult jokes.

This show is incredibly bizarre and has some dark, wacky humor. But in contrast, this is what makes the show great.

Awesome show though

Am I the only one who hates this show? Because everyone I know likes it!

This show talks about teen pregnancies and sexualities.

Too whiny and dramatic

Well this show got high.

Although Korra is much more mature, Avatar did deal with death the same way, and there were MANY heavy topics.

Korra is dark but so as this! All the airbenders died and the villain ozai killing everyone and there's a bloodbender!

This show has more plot than humor (but it still has a lot of humor) and usually, the plot has to do with something disturbing with Steven like aging faster than a fly.

This is dark Steven thinks his mother is dead and the finall episode is very dark!

No, not the go version. I don't know what Teen Titans was trying to do. There are episodes like Haunted, Birthmark, and Aftershock, which are amazing but also quite dark. On the other hand, there are episodes like Bunny Raven, Employee of the Month, and Fractured which are just silly, weird ones. But this T.V. show, is great, any way you slice it.

There's this one moment in Birthmark where Slade tortures Raven about her destiny, shreds her clothes, and tosses her unconscious body off a rooftop.

Teen Titans is the BEST (Not GO! ). It handles Darkness in a good way and is Mature.

This show was my go-to item on Disney! It tackle mature issues like bullying and school violence

Despite how great Invader Zim is, they used the overdose scale in dark and horrifying humor in the episode "Dark Harvest" where Zim steals organs to become more human-like. To take an extra step, he replaces the organs of his classmates with random objects that disfigure them.

This is so disturbing! Zim steals organs and eats them in a future dib dies and dibs sister eats a piece of him!

It was dark, but the darkest episode was Dark Harvest, when Zim and Gir were collecting organs.

"Inferior human organs! "

Okay so this show is not as mature as The Legend of Korra and it doesn't contain deaths, but it does contains innuendos, lore, mystery, some drama, and depressing scenes (heck some scenes are not even meant to be depressing but they are). Episodes like Sunspot and the Great Red Spot, Jet 2, Tiny Blue Dot, Beep Has the Blues, Visit to Mom's Office, Solar System Bake Off, and Kid Kart Derby have at least one of the things that I mentioned above. Keep in mind that this show is for little kids.

I'm so in love with marcy and my lacrimal ducts know that very well

One guy gets his neck snapped and 5 guys are turned into decapitated corpses in the span of about 45 seconds.

There was so much death for a kids show. AT least 800 on screen deaths.

This is much darker than the Legend of Kora, especially season 4-6.

It is a much more adult-like show than anything else that aired on nickelodeon at the time

This is so dark villians die sometimes graphicly one time Mordecai killed Rigby and skips killed Rigby and everyone dies in a story and musclemans skin is off! And pops dies for good in the finale! Fullhouse should be on this list Danny's car dies there's a lot of sad moments but thanksgiving is very dark there dj Stephanie and michiiles mom is dead and they all get very sad!

Fact: Regular Show was originally meant to be on Adult Swim, but they had to move it because there wasn't enough space on the schedule.

That explains a lot.

This show is so funny! It originally was going to be on Adult Swim, which is why it's so mature compared to CN's other shows. Also, why is it on #13? It should be higher!

This show shouldn't even be for kids.

Remember this show when you were a Kid from the 1990's? (If you are some 10 or younger then you won't know this show so I recomend you see it. Best Batman T.V. ever.) Great memories. Gets Dark and Mature at times but still Awesome.

This is below Angela Anaconda. You heard that right.

This should be on the top ten, how are more kid friendly shows above this? This show has blood and monsters getting their eyes pulled out and body parts chopped off, and I have not seen that in any other of the shows on this list. The intro is enough proof, Buttercup kicks Him in the mouth and blood and teeth fly out. And the girls die at one point, but they get revived, same with The Rowdyruff Boys. A character in the show actually died from exploding and it was emotional. This show has deaths for people who don't think it has deaths, but the deaths are disturbing. Also, this show has episodes like Tough Love and Speed Demon that scared many people and horrified them, luckily, I was one of the few not to be horrified. Also, there is an episode where a magician that dies in an iron maiden comes to life as a zombie and tries to kill the girls, but then one of the girls throw him back to the iron maiden, doesn't that sound dark? How are shows like Dexter's Lab and Rugrats above this? ...more

Punching, Bruises, and monsters get their eyes pulled out and stuff like that. Weirdos.

This is so dark gore violence! Plankton tries to kill himself SpongeBob has a gory splinter Squidward is depressed and SpongeBob opens his heart in dying for pie Gary gets neglected and leaves and nasty patty is the darkest they thought they killed a health inspector and they bury him!

This show isn't that dark on the surface, but if you dig deep, there are many adult jokes and dark moments like Mr. Krabs fighting the dead or burying an inspector with Spongebob AND PASSING THE TEST. In contrast though, this show is just meant to be for kids and is not truly a dark show.

Spongebob is just weird animation. Like many 90s & 21st Century cartoons.

SpongeBob is not a mature show and it's not that dark.

This is so dark!

The pigeon man episode is very dark and kids get bullied by jerks scary legends Phill said he will die in one episode and he had a funeral! And don't forget mr whyns dark backstory!

I saw this show as a Kid and still Like it.
Grim is the Best character.

This is very creepy but is thier any gore?

I remember this show. I wish I hadn't.