Game of Thrones

I know that Game of Thrones is a big deal to a lot of people. And I have to admit that I only read the free Kindle sample, and watched the first episode of the miniseries (which seemed to follow the sample fairly faithfully). After all, there are people who've read all of the GoT books ten times.
But I'm not falling in love with it. Is it because everyone is so sad, and mean? Is it because I feel betrayed that after a promising start with "the white walkers," magic doesn't show up again, and t...