I was on the road somewhere, bored in a hotel room, when I found a Law & Order marathon. The episode started with a view of a playground. Small kids play on the equipment as parents watch from the side. Suddenly, the unmistakeable sound of a gun can be heard and a child, no older than 5, falls to the grass. More shots, more children fall as the screaming starts. People start to run, the scene goes black and the Law & Order theme music comes on.
I shut the TV off. That was it. I realized that so much of my entertainment involved seeing the worst things people can do to each other. Sure, its all pretend and no one is actually hurt, but after seeing so much of what is considered quality TV drama, I suddenly saw it as nothing more than a type of porn. Are we learning anything from all this or do we just want to see these things? What is it about human nature that serious crime has dropped over the last few decades but TV shows seem filled ever more depictions of crime?
I can't answer any of these questions for myself. I thought about them because I am a huge Game of Thrones fan. Spoiler alert, last week, on the show, a young woman was raped. It was a very hard thing to watch. As someone pointed out to me on Facebook, any scene of rape SHOULD be difficult to watch and if you did feel disgust afterwards that probably means you still have some humanity beating inside you no matter how much of a cynic you think you are.
A lot of people, fans and friends, have said they are done with the show. My first impulse was to defend a show Im a fan of. But then I thought about turning off that Law & Order episode in that hotel room all those years ago. I get it. People feel what they feel and no amount of debate is going to change that.
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