Shows like Daredevil and Game of Thrones have fundamentally changed the game in regards to the type of hard-hitting content that we can now witness on cable or streaming TV, and they have in many ways paved the way for an R-rated series like John Wick to make a seamless transition.
We probably wouldn’t see John Wick on a traditional broadcast network, but HBO, AMC, or a streaming service like Netflix all seem like fair game.
John Wick is as violent as contemporary action franchises get, but it still arguably doesn’t even come close to the carnage that we can now regularly see on television.
While there was certainly a time when hardcore, R-rated violence was hard to find on the small screen, that era has passed.