It's tough for me to turn back (especially after re-reading the third book today, so fucking GOOD), so I'll have to think it over.

Is the crew at least getting off the damn farm yet? And if not, did they at least kill off that horrid actress that plays Andrea?

That is unfortunately, wishful thinking. They're still on the farm and Andrea is still as pervasive but the series isn't nowhere near as gay as it was in the beginning of the season.
No offence to gay people intended.
Personally, I'm just waiting for Lori to roll over and die but I don't see that happening.
There's definitely more drama and dysfunctional people than there were in S1, but it has improved from the onset of S2.

If you really want to know what happens to Shane and Lori and Herschel's children, read the comics. For a while it seemed like they were taking a back seat regarding Shane's descent into madness. Glad they are pushing ahead with that. Can't wait until the prison shows up (it's in the 2nd seasom previews)

Rick will also lose his mind at some point in the story. Really lose it.

So the trailer for this one was so promising but the episode was so underwhelming. I was expecting more than just an hour of fucking drama.

Looks like Frank Darabont leaving Walking Dead crew was the best thing that could happen to that show. Last two episodes, where Darabont was clearly gone, were the best episodes since the season two opening episode.
Did we watch the same episode? lol.

Hmm... I'm not sure? I watched what I believed was the latest one (came out last night). It went as follows:
Drama between Shane and Rick
Drama between Maggie and Lori
Drama between Lori and an emo kid
Drama between Shane and Rick
Drama between Lori and Andrea
Drama between sisters
The whole emo scene
More drama between Andrea et al and between Shane and Rick

The entire script of the episode was entirely based on the fact that these people are dysfunctional and when the zombie apocalypse hit, they lost the last shards of reason they still had left.

So for you there was no difference between S1 and S2 as far as pacing went?

I love how people now see season one as action packed science fiction movie. I remember when season one was aired everybody complained about "fucking drama" and "boredom"

Part one of season 2 was pretty bad except the first and last episode. But now Frank Darabont is outta here, and everything is heading into right direction - balance between slashing zombies and drama.

Drama is the most important thing. You can't make a good tv series about bunch of people smashing zombies heads. Dialogues are still pretty lame though (be they were lame to me in comic book also), but they touch important things. Suicide conversations are important. Crisis of leadership conversations are important.

If you wanted the characters to talk only about "Hey dude i've smashed two zombies with a hammer, totally dude!"

Then it's not the show for you. And it was known since the comic book. It was also about human interactions during apocalypse, not about killing spree.

Problem isn't with the show not being about zombies but with being about some boring ass people. Who the hell cares about Random Herschel Kid trying to kill herself? I was on Andrea's side simply because I wanted her to succeed and get away from that awful storyline.

Remember when Maggie was introduced on a horse swinging a baseball bat into a zombie's head? Bring back that character please. We don't need another woman in the kitchen wondering about her man.

Episode was good overall but jesus whoever thought it was a good idea to have an all female character subplot on this show needs firing.

Andrea had all predispositions to be a nice character. But they screwed this up. First in the moment she shot Daryl. Second, when she became a bitchy version of Shane.

She would've been a reall kick-ass, but now she's just conspiracy blonde.

And Shane's got to go.

Is there a reason for why you're posting like a presumptuous douchebag tonight?
I never considered S1 to be an action packed science fiction and I never wanted it to be about smashing zombies with hammers.

S1 had an interesting plot. It had pacing. Interesting things happened.

S2 - even after the break - has been 80% about drama. Not dialogue. Not character development or interaction. Just drama. No-one has anything interesting to say and half the things don't even make any remote sense. The overwhelming aspect of every episode is about people talking about uninteresting things. This season has no direction. There are underlying sub-plots that keep the story going (i.e. Carl getting shot, looking for Sophia, now this new kid, etc) but these only take up 10-15% of air time. Rest is just nonsense spouted by uninteresting characters.

I disagree with a series needing drama to keep on going. A series needs direction, it needs an interesting plot - something that makes you look forward to the next episode - it needs interesting character development, it needs plot twists that actually make sense, it needs people who ultimately end up pulling their heads out of their asses. Season 1 had all of this. Seasons 2 sports very little in this regard.

Agree with what you say about Shane and Andrea though.

So you consider only 15% of the show to be good, but you're still watching it? :P

I agree that there's no main plot know. I can understand it though. If you were trapped in the middle of zombie apocalypse, you'd also look for a safe place to get your shit together and to try go back to normal life as much as possible.

But it's boring to watch in on a show. I think they will leave the farm after season finale.

Yeah it makes sense to stay on the farm but right now I feel like I'm watching a drama sitcom with terrible writing rather than The Walking Dead.

I guess I'm watching because I'm invested. This series is the only one that I watch and I thoroughly enjoyed season 1. With every episode I'm hoping that it'll get better and as the mid-seasons finale came up I felt it was going in the right direction. I will probably stick with it as long as it stays like this, but if it gets any worse I'll abandon it. And if S1 had been anything like the first half of S2, I'd never even have started watching it.

How are the comics though? Another person earlier in this thread recommended them but it seems to me that it's just a bunch of amputees running around.

I didn't like it much. At first, it's pretty realistic and well written. But all of the sudden, there is a black chick with katana slashing zombies, etc etc. getting more and more ridiculous in later issues.

The dialogues are similar to those from the show. Like "the world's gone to shit so we have to blahblahblah"

Also, it contains many facts that might be used in the tv show. Like the thing with Shane. So if you want to watch tv series only, it may contain some spoilers.