By Dean Robbins

‘Game of Thrones’ has a taste for torture

Season two of “Game of Thrones” is in full swing (Sunday, 8 p.m., HBO), with five kings battling to claim the Iron Throne in fantastical Westeros. The series remains compelling and confusing, as a huge cast of characters jostle for survival in a realm of knights, savages and dragons. The actors give the antique dialogue the ring of authority, and look striking both in and out of clothing.

Yes, the sex is raw and explicit here. So is the torture — perhaps the sickest ever shown on TV. This week’s episode even combines sex and torture in one scene, when the cruel boy-king Joffrey gets sadistic with a pair of prostitutes sent by his uncle (Peter Dinklage). “Your grace, too much pain would spoil the pleasure!” says one of the unfortunate beauties.

I might say the same thing about “Game of Thrones” – too much pain sometimes spoils the pleasure. How about less torture and more dragons?

‘Girls’

Sunday, 9:30 p.m. (HBO)

Did you watch the premiere of this new dramedy like I told you to? Episode two is even better. This week, 24-year-old Hannah and her three friends are obsessed with love, sex and disease, so….

Hannah (played by writer-director-creator Lena Dunham) often ends her sentences with the word “so.” This is authentic 2012 young-woman-speak, and you’re not going to hear it executed so precisely on any other TV show.

The characters aren’t just comic types. They’re complicated creations, both cruel and tender, appealing and pathetic. Hannah herself is hopelessly awkward with guys but effortlessly funny and perceptive with her female friends.

I sense that we’ll come to like her even as she makes us cringe, so…. CV