Honestly, other than showcasing a different group of survivors in a different part of the country, I struggle to come up with what are the major themes and issues that they'd tackle differently. The original show and comics covers a LOT of the range of scenarios you'd expect to explore. Wouldn't this just be redundant?
Couple of issues I have with a spin off. One, if done great, it could be more popular than our original show. Second, one of the great things about TWD, is not knowing what is going on elsewhere in the world. By following more people around we immediately know that the world has not completely gone to pot. Takes away some of the unknown dread of a "living in a zombie apocalypse" show. I agree that just following around another group would be just a rehash of what we have already seen.
We don't need another show, we don't need a whole new cast of characters, we don't need an expanded universe setting, in short,
AMC, leave TWD alone.....!
I agree.
For me, part of what makes TWD interesting is that only centred on that group, and we only really know what they know. Most if not all zombie movies will at some point give you the big city an monuments being over run footage. For all Rick etc know they could be out one day and hit a fence, only to find its an Atlanta problem we fenced the state off, move away from the fence.
A spin off takes all the wonder of whats going on and the sense of hope for the character away somewhat.
I'd like to say I wouldn't watch it, but I'm weak an has zombies in, what can you do against them odds?
That problem is easily solved by setting the spin off on the West Coast somewhere, or even the South West, nice and far from Atlanta, that should make it feel nice and far away, far away enough that although we'll know Atlanta wasn't an isolated incident, it's still far out enough that we don't really know what's happening everywhere in between. As it stands, we know that the zombie apocalypse is worldwide, we just don't know how bad it is elsewhere and if there's been any progress made anywhere else in fixing things and restarting society; that would still be the case in a spin off if they kept it localized like in the original. If they kept the spin off localized all we'd know is what's happening in that localized area and not necessarily what's happening in the rest of the US much less the world.
I know it can be done well, its just that sense of being in on the bigger picture. I like the small scale feel of it, with the picture unfolding to us as it does to the group.
Moan as I might, I'll still be watching.