One of my sons thinks it is worth watching. Honestly, I don't think so. YMMV.

You hit on what my wife and I were just talking about. Shock value. The gore. It does nothing for me. I have never been either offended or entertained by gore. I don't like horror movies. I don't mean I don't approve. I mean they are boring to me.

I think the shock value is part of the appeal to this show as well as the novelty of eastern culture that Americans seem to have. I get it. The eastern world's culture is foreign to westerners (Asian cultures specifically) and I think that's a huge factor in this show's success.

I have a fascination with history more than current culture so this type of appeal is largely lost on me because so much of western culture as affected these cultures today. And mostly in bad ways, not the positives of western culture. My opinion of course. I admire many things about eastern culture. But not all.