Beckett | 2021 | TV-MA | – 2.6.6

Why is “Beckett” rated TV-MA? The TV Parental Guidelines Monitoring Board rating indicates that “this program is specifically designed to be viewed by adults and therefore may be unsuitable for children under 17.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a man and a woman kissing while in bed, a fatal car crash with bloody wounds shown, several gunshot wounds with bloody wounds shown, a few fight scenes, the kidnapping of a child, and at least 14 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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An American (John David Washington) visiting Greece is the target of a fascist conspiracy after he has a tragic auto accident. While injured, he must struggle to reach the U.S. Embassy to avoid being killed and to recover a kidnapped boy. Also with Panos Koronis, Boyd Holbrook, Vicky Krieps and Alicia Vikander. Directed by Ferdinando Cito Filomarino. Many lines of dialogue are spoken in Greek without subtitles or translation. [Running Time: 1:50]

Beckett SEX/NUDITY 2

 – A man and a woman lie under covers in a bed (we see her bare shoulders and part of his side), they kiss for several seconds and the scene ends. A woman caresses a man’s face in a café and later, while he is driving, rubs his chest and pulls a cell phone out of his pocket as he squirms.
► A woman says a man and another woman had a sexual affair (no details are disclosed).
► A shirtless man lies in a hospital bed (we see his bare chest, shoulders and arms). A line drawing of a woman wearing a string bikini on a truck window and the woman is pulling one of the bottom strings out to the side (a little cleavage is shown).

Beckett VIOLENCE/GORE 6

 – A man enters a shop, hides in a back room, and an official storms in with police officers and they chase a man outside where people are shouting at a rally: we hear automatic gunfire off-screen and the first man runs through a mall and into a cellar where he is confronted by the official with a gun, the official says that a political candidate at the rally was shot dead and that it does not matter if the man’s son was kidnapped or even killed, and the first man grabs a metal rod and hits the official in the body several times, chokes him with it across the throat and beats him below the frame in the head twice (we see the official lying on the floor, possibly dead, with blood on his cheek). A man falls asleep while driving at night, plunges off an embankment and the car flips several times breaking the windshield and we hear squealing tires and a crash as the car hits an abandoned house leaving a large hole in a brick wall and crumbled bricks on the ground; the dazed driver hangs upside down in his seat and sees a frightened-looking boy hurried away by a woman, he frees himself from his seatbelt and finds his passenger lying dead with her face in a pool of blood (her face is bruised and bloody).
► A wounded man with a broken arm hides inside a truck cab and is awakened by three hunters who bring him to a house, one hunter cleans and bandages his wound and the man tells him about an officer having shot him, when they hear loud knocking at the door and we see a police officer and a woman shouting at the hunter for several seconds; the officer punches the hunter in the face several times, knocking him down and bloodying his face, the wounded man jumps out a first-floor window, groans, runs away and he gets a ride to a train station, sits on a train and a police officer sits next to him, slaps him on the chest, and threatens to taser him; the officer twists the man’s arm and the two men scuffle, the wounded man pulls the train’s emergency brake, and they continue to fight with kicking and punching until the officer shoots himself in the foot, yells in pain (we see some blood) and the other man escapes. A wounded man hides in the trunk of a car and we then see him in the back seat, trembling, hyperventilating and frightened; he gets out of the car to avoid a police roadblock and climbs over a roadside railing, down a hill, and into an urban area where he takes a train to the U.S. Embassy, but is attacked in the train station with a knife by a police officer that slashes at him and cuts his hand; with a bleeding hand, the wounded man escapes across the tracks, where two men help him walk to the embassy.
► A woman shoots at a man several times, hitting him once in the arm, where we see a spot of blood and he runs away, grunting and gasping; a police officer joins the woman and calls out that they will not harm him, the two people wave handguns and shoot at the first man (he is not struck), the man runs to a cliff and climbs part way down into a steep canyon, jumps onto a tree branch, and stumbles farther down a slope where he hides behind rocks. A man breaks the driver’s side window of a car and shoots a man inside the car in the hand (we see some blood flow), he chokes a woman in the driver’s seat and pulls her through the broken window by the neck, they fall to the pavement, she shoots him in the side and he yells in pain (we see some blood flow); he then shoots her in the thigh, she screams and he knocks her unconscious as the other man drives away with the first man stumbling after him; he climbs a railing, jumps several floors down and lands on the hood of the car cracking the windshield, the driver falls out, the first man slides off the hood and after a short struggle, he knocks out the driver.
► A man says that he is taking an injured man to an honest police officer for help, but stops the car and aims a taser at the injured man; the injured man grabs it and tasers the first man, escaping and stumbling through streets as the car crashes into the back of a truck, folding up the hood and smashing in the front end loudly (we see some smoke and the driver is unconscious).
► A man walks through a crowd that is smashing store windows, digging up road pavement with hammers, breaking parked car windows, and setting small fires as police bang nightsticks on riot shields and toss smoke grenades; a man steals a gas mask from another man, a third man is seen lying dead with blood around his head and on his chest, and a police officer beats a prone man with a nightstick in the background.
► A man with a cast on his arm sits on the floor of an abandoned house staring at bloodstains. A man is seen in a hospital room where he awakens, groaning and with a broken arm in a cast and we later see him wearing a sling. A man takes a tablet from a prescription bottle and swallows it then pours several more tablets into his hand (perhaps considering suicide). A bandaged man limps into a town, where we see a lot of Greek graffiti and a woman and two people argue in the street.
► We hear a child’s voice shouting from a car trunk and hear fists pounding. We see several posters of a missing boy and hear the boy is the son of a political candidate. A man tells a police officer that he saw a boy that he heard had been kidnapped. We hear that a boy was kidnapped by a fascist group. A man tells an embassy representative several times that police officers are trying to kill him.
► A man is taken to see a woman’s body and her face is bluish, with red bruises and cuts around the eyes and mouth; he enters a washroom, stumbles, sobs, and sits on the floor, mumbling indistinctly.

Beckett LANGUAGE 6

 – About 14 F-words and its derivatives, 9 scatological terms, 1 anatomical term, 5 mild obscenities, name-calling (sleazy, confused American, fascist, sweetheart, tragedy boy), exclamations (I swear, wow), 1 religious profanity (GD), 6 religious exclamations (e.g. Oh My God, Jesus [F-word deleted] Christ, God Only Knows). | profanity glossary |

Beckett SUBSTANCE USE

 – A man swallows an unknown tablet. A man pours liquor into two glasses and drinks one of them and another man refuses to drink because it would interfere with medications that we do not see. A man smokes a cigarette and another man smokes a pipe in a cafe.

Beckett DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Greek politics, fascism, protest demonstrations, assassinations, dangers of international travel, crime, kidnapping, murder, relationships, death, loss, grief, regrets, fear, searching for help, trust, safety.

Beckett MESSAGE

 – International travel can be dangerous for Americans because of political tensions.