With Season One concluding this evening, I posted my thoughts on Facebook. I'll re-post them here.
okay, here's my problem with the walking dead: for the overwhelming majority of the series, nothing happens. and when nothing happens, the show becomes a character study. and the problem is that they haven't spent nearly enough time making me care about these characters.
there are maybe four characters i care about. i know the writers (well, now, former writers) knew they couldn't spend too much time characterizing them because they didn't know if they'd be renewed for a second season, so that's their main goal next year: give us a reason to care about these people.
there are moments of incredible tension and scenes that are beautifully written and/or shot, but the overall package seemingly falls flat. it's a shame, really, because the show should be so much better than it is.
the characters need something to do. simply surviving isn't enough to make an ongoing drama interesting. with a clear goal in mind, characters would have purpose and (probably) become more interesting.