[smelendez]

I would say just the opposite.

Think about all the serial killer and urban crime movies in the ‘80s and ‘90s, or the film noir of the postwar period.

TV is more complicated, but cop shows like the early seasons of Law and Order and all of SVU, NYPD, and then later The Wire and The Shield were pretty gritty.

Video games have always been a mix of squeaky clean Mario and Zelda and gory content: Think Doom, Mortal Kombat, Grand Theft Auto, Postal, etc.