Game of Thrones: Another Example of "No One Can Be Happy"

So I want to start this off by saying that I am a fan of Game of Thrones. I enjoy the world that they are building, and look forward to watching the new season. That being said it is not a perfect series and I believe that fans should address the problems it has so it can become better.

Game of Thrones is one of many series that "ups the stakes" by killing characters. You never know who is safe from the sword of Damocles. This ads tension, sure, but after establishing that anyone can die at any time(*Spoilers/*like when you straight up behead Sean Bean or crossbow-bolt fuck an entire wedding party*/Spoilers*) you should be able to calm down and try to just tell a story. Instead you introduce characters, characterize them for an episode or maybe two if they are lucky, and kill them as a way of reinforcing the "immanent danger" aura the show portrays. I would think a world in which Ice Liches are raising the dead and marching them towards civilization on one end of the world while on the other side of the world a princess is waging war using dragons and freed slaves would be exciting enough without having to worry about constant betrayal.

Joss Whedon does this a lot as well. In Serenity they kill Wash so as to increase the peril of the climax. In The Avengers movie they kill Coulson to motivate the main characters (This also happens in his agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. series). This eventually stops making me care.

Game of Thrones is a good show. I am glad that they are trying to differentiate themselves from Martin, but at the same time its constant danger has diminishing returns because it makes me stop caring about characters. And when I stop caring about characters I stop watching a show (See Lost). This show is kind of like fried chicken. I loves it but at the same time understand that it is probably pretty bad for me, but at the same time it is so, so good.