10 Most Gruesome TV Shows Of All Time
5. The Punisher
We're trying to stick to basic cable here, but it's hard to leave a show in which the lead character shoves his thumbs through a character's eyes to kill him off the list. Jon Bernthal was cast pitch-perfect as Frank Castle, the unforgiving, vengeful anti-hero on Netflix's Marvel Universe show. Bullets fly, a man's face is shredded against a broken mirror and we're treated to it in a very visceral way.
Bernthal's pathos, combined with sidekick Ebon Moss-Barach's Micro, even had us rooting for the villains getting their just deserts. Apart from the expected level of gore, the well-choreographed hand-to-hand combat scenes ensured audiences felt even the mildest of bone fracture.
Marvel has since announced it's left behind the Netflix game - at least for now - but it had one hell of a bloody run.
It was the Frank Castle comic fans deserved, a far cry from Thomas Jane's lame PG-13 attempt years earlier.