I don't think it really needs to be rated R, necessarily. The thing is... I wish that the way the story is told wouldn't have to be dependant on the rating. If its PG-13 its because it is, if its R-rated, its because it is. A similarity to this could be compared to Logan, a movie that is very much R-rated, but you wouldn't need much to change it to PG-13. I don't think the rating is really important in this, as the definition of R-rated is usually if it has more cursed words, blood, drugs/alcohol and sexuality/nudity more than usual. Its as if they had like five F-bombs throughout the course of an episode, but like no blood, nudity or drugs throughout the rest of the episode would still be R-rated (I don't know how the ratings exactly work). It doesn't really matter for how a story is, or should be perceived. The ratings are just to make sure the audience knows what they will be seeing, and prepare them if there's some people that are more susceptible to this. It doesn't really damage the story, so I really don't care what rating it has, as long as strings weren't pulled just to get that rating, in which case (unless its totally under the intention of the creators of the story, since the beginning), sounds like an unnecessary effort, but that's just me.
