{alltv} 'Durham County' too dark for us

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Everyone understands the concept of a guilty pleasure.

In TV, it relates to shows that you wouldn't necessarily recommend to others, but which always can be counted upon to kill 30 or 60 minutes in the privacy of your own home.

For us, a perfect example would be reruns of That '70s Show.

Much more rare, however, is the opposite of a guilty pleasure.

We don't even have a catchy name for it - please, e-mail a suggestion if you have one - but we're talking about shows that we know are good and would recommend on a critical basis, yet we're reluctant to watch ourselves.

This is a way of inching up to our complex relationship with the Canadian series Durham County, which begins its third and final season Monday, Oct. 25 on HBO Canada.

In terms of the acting and the production and the execution, Durham County has much to offer, no question. Lead actor Hugh Dillon in particular deserves kudos for giving Detective Mike Sweeney an icy exterior that nonetheless does not smother the character's warmth and fear.

But we have to be honest and admit that Durham County always has been too dark for us personally.

That does not mean we need a magic horse to save everyone in the end, or that we have an overriding aversion to dark story-telling. In fact, we quite enjoy it a lot of the time.

But Durham County just creeps us out a little too much, probably because its version of darkness largely focuses on depravity. The series examines and exposes the depths to which unstable human beings can sink, and while it does what it sets out to do, it's an uncomfortable viewing experience for yours truly.

Maybe we're just wimpy. Wouldn't be the first time we've heard it. But to help explain our thinking, we recall a conversation we had with well-known Canadian actor Patrick McKenna - who played Harold on The Red Green Show - a few years back.

McKenna said he had been offered some very dark parts through the years, probably because he has a nice-guy face that could set up a great twist if there were evil in his character's heart. But McKenna's observation was that a lot of shows these days go super-dark merely because they can, and darkness does not automatically equate to excellence or value.

Sometimes it feels as if Durham County goes super-dark merely because it can. And having the main characters repeatedly in such peril can be exhausting, even in a six-episode season.

The third season brings a new character, cop and ex-soldier Ivan Sujic, played by Scottish actor Michael Nardone. Just a side thought: With everything Mike Sweeney went through in the first two seasons of Durham County, by the time he gets to his third conversation with the creepy Ivan, why doesn't Mike's "spidey sense" start tingling?

Anyway, the new season of Durham County again forces us to separate our reactions. As a critic, we respond one way. As a viewer, we respond another way.

Durham County is the opposite of a guilty pleasure. We just wish we knew what to call it.