>>The Daily Beast has decided to pimp TLOK
>>as a replacement for Game of Thrones in your daily viewing schedule.
>
>I know virtually nothing about Game of Thrones, but what little
>I've picked up through cultural osmosis leads me to think that's not a
>good thing.
>
>--G.

I've not watched Game of Thrones but have read the first 4 of the novels. The good guys (or even the characters you find yourself identifying with) don't usually end up winning in the end. Those you identify with often end up in bad situations with little hope Betrayals and monstrous behavior is often the path to power and success. Sometimes it can be confusing who the good guys and the bad guys are. Though righteous behavior often goes unrewarded or results in woe, villainy sometimes leads to downfall of the villains.

It is less depressing than Steve Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen, at least. Though there are many shades of gray to Game of Thrones, good and evil are a bit more sharply defined in it, characters are a bit easier to identify with, villains do sometimes pay for their crimes, and sometimes good does win, at least now and then.