This ain’t good TV

Sunday evening TV is its own worst enemy lately. I started watching ‘Game of Thrones’ and ‘The Killing’.  Both had enthusiastic critical responses.  I was not familiar with the source material of either, so I was wide open.

So it’s been six or so episodes for each and I’m evaluating.  I’ve got to say that ‘Game of Thrones’ is just ‘blech’. I don’t like the direction, don’t like the acting and really hate the characters.  This week they killed a man by pouring molten gold over his head while his sister looked on.  Another man died in a trial by combat scenario by falling to his death through a hole in the floor, which was built for precisely that purpose.  I’m not seeing a lot of character development, or subtlety and I don’t care what happens in this universe.  It’s overblown, turgid and vicious and pointless.  And it’s been renewed for another year.

‘The Killing’ is completely different.  Seattle is rainy and at least here, they care if someone dies.  The main characters are troubled people.  The lack of affect, the lack of any apparent empathy for anyone else is just – it’s the same as watching atoms bounce around in a matrix.  These people are horrible to each other, consistently and relentlessly.  The only real affection I’ve seen is the lead detective’s mother’s affection for her daughter and grandson.  Even her fiance is having a hissy fit because she hasn’t shown up in sunny California. So he’s freezing her out and she’s not reacting.  It’s like watching zombies.

When people are not being zombies, they’re feeling sorry for themselves, epically. The lead detective’s son is just a mope and she says nothing to him, not even when he does something really awful.

Right now, they’re spending a lot of time on the red herring and talking about terrorism and social justice.  It’s not going anywhere except to show people at their worst.  I know who I think is the culprit, and I want to find out who is the murderer, but I’m going to have a hard time watching this for another 4 weeks.