These TV Episodes Made People Physically Sick...

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At least we can change the channel! Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most notorious episodes of television that made viewers feel ill. There will be some major spoilers to follow, so a spoiler warning is in effect!

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00:00 probably full of poop. So you're gonna have to let some of that out so you can work in
00:04 there.
00:05 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most notorious episodes
00:08 of television that made viewers feel ill. There will be some major spoilers to follow,
00:13 so a spoiler warning is in effect.
00:15 I'm just gonna tell you right now, this is gonna be difficult to hear, Mr. Dumb.
00:22 Number 10. Baggage, The Americans
00:23 Yusuf, as long as you let me do what I do, it's gonna be okay. Okay? I'll be back
00:30 in ten minutes.
00:32 A widely beloved espionage thriller, The Americans follows two Soviet spies who pose as a married
00:37 couple in the DC area. Naturally, their line of work brings them into some tense situations,
00:42 like stuffing a corpse into a suitcase. In the notorious Baggage, Elizabeth and Philip
00:46 dispose of Annalise by breaking her bones and folding her limp body into a suitcase.
00:52 I have a lot of files to move. I'm really sorry, I could use some help.
00:57 No problem, I'll be right there.
00:58 The scene caused an intense reaction in some viewers, including Olivia Armstrong of Decider,
01:03 who claimed that she physically recoiled and looked away. Meanwhile, Observer called it
01:07 the "grossest scene of 2015," and Uproxx argued, "It was one of the most brutal,
01:11 hard-to-watch scenes in TV history."
01:13 And if that wasn't gross enough, may we suggest Philip pulling Elizabeth's tooth without anesthesia?
01:20 9. Open Wide O Earth - Chernobyl
01:28 The organs and soft tissue begin to decompose. The arteries and veins spill open like sieves.
01:35 Given the content of Chernobyl, we knew we would be watching some pretty gross stuff,
01:39 but we didn't know just how shocking and effective it would actually be.
01:42 Open Wide O Earth is a depressing hour of television as multiple people involved with
01:46 the meltdown die horrific and graphic deaths.
01:55 The most eye-popping of all is that of Vassily Ignatenko, whose rotting body is briefly shown.
02:00 The makeup work is extraordinary, but the sight is enough to cause a physical reaction
02:03 in some viewers. Also of note is the morose ending in which the dead are buried in concrete.
02:08 This scene is so evocative that it caused one Reddit user to have a mild panic attack.
02:16 8. GLaDOS - The Leftovers
02:30 For many, GLaDOS represents a turning point in The Leftovers. Whether for good or bad,
02:34 serving as the show's fifth episode, it sees the eponymous character being graphically
02:38 stoned to death by a group of assailants. The camera never cuts away from the action,
02:47 and the sound design makes the scene all the more sickening. This death scene caused a
02:51 very intense reaction in some viewers, including Melissa Merz of Entertainment Weekly, who
02:55 stopped watching the show altogether. She called the sequence "unnecessarily aggressive"
02:59 and argued that its prolonged length was "overkill." Many agree, stating that it's far too violent
03:04 and realistic.
03:07 7. Tomé Wan - Hannibal
03:12 It's amazing that a show like Hannibal aired on NBC. Not only does it punch above its weight
03:28 class in terms of quality, but it features some truly horrendous acts of violence that
03:32 should never be shown on primetime TV. Hannibal features enough grotesque imagery to have
03:36 even the most horror-hardened viewers reaching for the puke bucket.
03:42 As for the most revolting hour, we'll go with season two's Tomé Wan. One Reddit user states,
03:47 "I felt physically ill while watching it." And it's easy to see why. In the climax of
03:51 the episode, Mason Verger cuts off pieces of his own face and feeds the strips to some
03:55 dogs. But it gets even worse, as he then slices off his own nose and eats it.
03:59 "Taste is housed in parts of the mind that precede pity. Pity has no place at the table."
04:05 "I'm full of myself."
04:06 6. Payback - The Boys
04:09 "Go on, son. Have a bump."
04:13 There's no getting around it. The Boys is here to provoke. Not only does it subvert
04:16 the superhero genre with sick winks to the audience, but it features some of the most
04:19 outlandish visuals ever put to the TV medium. The third season opens in grand fashion with
04:24 Payback, in which Termite does something we didn't think we'd ever see. Not just on
04:30 TV, but, like, ever. We definitely can't go into detail, but it results in the grisly
04:34 death of Termite's partner, who's resorted to a stringy mess of goo. While darkly comedic,
04:39 the visual is certainly enough to elicit a few gags and dry heaves.
04:43 "Fuller Bureau. You gonna let them leave?"
04:47 "Cuff the soldiers."
04:49 5. The Day Will Come When You Won't Be - The Walking Dead
04:52 "Amy. Mamie. My Amy."
05:00 Even by The Walking Dead standards, Glenn's death is gross. Too gross for some. Fans who
05:04 stuck with The Walking Dead through six seasons saw some gnarly stuff, but nothing like this.
05:09 The camera never shies away from the violence, and the makeup work is both stomach-churning
05:13 and excruciating.
05:14 "I need you to know me."
05:18 The internet was immediately ablaze with condemnations, with many critics calling out the needless
05:22 and sensationalized violence. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the scene was edited to be less graphic on
05:28 the original Fox UK broadcast. Furthermore, Andrew Lincoln has since criticized the scene,
05:32 telling the New York Times, "It diminishes what we're trying to make. It's not a sort
05:36 of B-movie gore-fest."
05:37 "Buddy, you still there? I just don't know. It seems like you're trying to speak."
05:45 4. High-Light - Jackass
05:47 "Hi, sweetie. I'm gonna inseminate you artificially."
05:52 While it left behind an unquestionable legacy, Jackass has faced its fair share of controversies.
05:57 It features everything from the dangerous to the disgusting, and the cow scene definitely
06:00 belongs in the latter category.
06:02 "What do you mean, let it out? You mean scrape it out? Like, lift your arm up, and
06:05 it'll come out. Scrape it out. Gotta be clean."
06:09 Featured in the second episode of season two, this bit sees Johnny Knoxville getting up
06:13 close and personal with a cow and putting his hand where the sun don't shine. The entire
06:17 sequence is quite disturbing, especially when Knoxville withdraws his brown glove and slaps
06:21 Jeff Tremaine in the face. While this is an everyday job for those in the field, it still
06:28 makes for nasty TV.
06:30 3. Bad Meat - Dahmer - Monster, The Jeffrey Dahmer Story
06:34 "So what did y'all find in me? Huh? What did you find in me?"
06:40 While an enormous success for Netflix, Dahmer drew criticism from many viewers both for
06:43 its on-screen violence and its insensitive depiction of real murders. The show opens
06:47 in media res with Dahmer already living in his infamous Milwaukee apartment. Dahmer is
06:52 arrested after failing to kill Tracey Edwards, and the cops make a number of startling discoveries
06:56 inside his home.
06:57 "Goddamn. These are real. We're out of the bathroom."
07:03 This includes a human head in the fridge, bags of various organs, and a vat filled with
07:07 dissolving body parts. The visuals are unthinkably horrendous, and they're made even worse by
07:12 the fact that this actually happened. Before Monster, we'd never seen Dahmer's crimes
07:16 depicted in such vivid and realistic detail.
07:18 "The entire building's a crime scene. There's toxic chemicals in here that could
07:22 be a hazard."
07:23 "Wait. How many did you find?"
07:30 2. A Fair World - Squid Game
07:37 Just when you thought Squid Game couldn't get any gorier, they introduce this wild side
07:41 plot that certainly isn't for viewing by the faint of heart. When players in the game
07:44 are eliminated, their bodies are wrapped up in boxes and taken away by the guards.
07:48 "They were all shot for the sake of the game. There wasn't much to get from them."
07:52 In episode 5 of the series, it's revealed that a rebellious group of these guards have
07:56 been utilizing Yoo Sung-joo, one of the contestants that happens to be a doctor, to harvest the
08:00 organs of the fallen players. These scenes do not shy away from showing the procedure.
08:04 We're getting lightheaded just thinking about it.
08:06 "I'm out of my mind."
08:09 "Out of your mind? You even wiped the bodies clean with your own hands."
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08:28 1. The Heirs of the Dragon - House of the Dragon
08:37 The anticipated prequel of Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon, followed in its predecessors'
08:42 footsteps in regards to difficult visuals. During the filming of A Golden Crown, Emilia
08:46 Clarke nearly vomited while eating the prop heart.
08:48 "She has to eat a whole heart."
08:49 "Hope that wasn't my horse."
08:52 "She's doing well."
08:55 Well it was the fans' turn to puke when it came to Heirs of the Dragon. The pilot features
08:58 an extraordinarily graphic birth scene in which Baelin is cut from Queen Amma. Social
09:03 media was ablaze with discussion and debate regarding the scene's merits, and countless
09:06 articles were published by mainstream outlets. Some praised the scene's realism and themes,
09:11 while others called it "gratuitous" and "sickening." One thing is for sure, it definitely doesn't
09:15 sugarcoat the birth process.
09:16 "You can save the child."
09:17 "We must either act now or leave it with the gods."
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09:31 [music]