Am I wrong or were the movies and the first season not as violent?
I will be honest, I either close my eyes or FD thru the fight scenes. If I notice that not too much damage has occurred, I will rewind and watch from the start of the scene.
As I get older, the more sensitive I am to violence. But the cartoony nature of the fight scenes don’t help when consequences land. Sam gets PTSD but Dmitri or the kid who was thrown into a window don’t? Miguel’s plea to keep the tournament going doesn’t sound compelling enough to me to convince a board. Similarly, if the folks at State Farm was shown the video of the very same participants fighting at school, they would drop their sponsorship pronto.
But I kinda wave it all away as a more 80s homage, the type I never enjoyed. When the show is not cartoonishly violent, I very much enjoy its humour and empathy. The show really should get credit by trying to give its characters a moment of humanity, even for people like Kyler and Yasmine.