A Tone Shift that seeks to make a work of fiction "more adult". Usually, this is practically interpreted as "add more Sex Is Cool, profanity, heavy violence, and controversial content". This trope usually means that a show will attempt to shift towards seriousness, cynicism and grit. In theory, archetypes which we are usually accustomed to acting in a more noble setting will have to act in one where they must think and act grimly in order to make progress, thus forcing re-examination of the tropes involved and making a different sort of character. In practice, though, writers often are too lazy to make use of what most of those words mean, and ending up randomly "spicing up" a work with gratuitous gore, cursing, and sex. See Not a Deconstruction.