I didn’t really understand what it meant to need Jesus until I saw the HBO television series “Game of Thrones.” The show is a medieval-themed orgy of violence and degradation, with a plot held together by sadism and gratuitous nudity. Rape, torture and murder get repeated from episode to episode like the tune on a depraved music box. The “Game of Thrones” world turns on the desires of whoever is strongest in any given situation. Characters fall into one of two groups: ruthless or victimized. Virtues such as empathy, generosity and forgiveness are invariably weaknesses to be exploited. By the time I reached the third incest plot, even this born-and-raised atheist was praying for a savior.

“Game of Thrones” is not alone. Though it offers one of the more egregious examples, many of America’s most acclaimed television dramas feature amoral protagonists struggling for power by any means. From “The Sopranos” to “Breaking Bad” to “Sons of Anarchy” to “Scandal,” episodes tend to center on acts of calculated violence. In these shows, family is the only thing worth caring about besides power, but loved ones spend most of their time being potential hostages or getting brutalized to incite revenge. In “Scandal,” for example, the president’s teenage son is mentioned on the show much more often now that he’s been murdered. “True Detective” offered a whole philosophy of nihilism, with mangled bodies to match. And let’s not get started on “American Horror Story” or “The Walking Dead.”

Adam Kotsko examines this phenomenon in his book “Why We Love Sociopaths,” in which he suggests that our fixation on such megalomaniacal protagonists is “an attempt to escape from the inescapably social nature of human experience.” In a world where a small class of people actually can do whatever they want, it’s thrilling to imagine sublime power at one’s fingertips, such as command over dragons or a spy network, even though the real-life analogues (out-of-control cops, shady politicians, banksters) aren’t very popular. Kotsko uses the example of cutting in line: We don’t like people who cut, but it’s nice to imagine being the kind of person who can’t be bothered and never has to back down. To spend an evening bingeing on one of these shows is to step away from moral constraints such as the sanctity of life and plunge into the war of all against all.