I think it's less that the show could overshadow the comics and more that the show could overtake the comics and they end up in a George R.R. Martin scenario. Right now, the show and comics are separate continuities with the same general approach. But, for example, everyone has been saying "Soooo....when's Negan showing up?" And they've had to temporize on that.
I tend to think that the show has very strong writing, both for plot and characters. I mean, yeah, the characters do stupid stuff at times, but it still ends up "working" within the context of the show. I'd say that the biggest complaint I have with the writing is that the seem to intentionally slow-pedal the pace of the show. So you get episodes that feel like they're all plot, and then episodes that are all character development, and the pace between those two different types of episodes is...jarring, to say the least. The plot-heavy episodes hit HARD and move VERY quickly, but the character driven episodes tend to dive very deep into what makes the characters tick.
All of this stuff, in my opinion, is essential to making a good show...but I think the show tends to forget that it can do the same thing by designing episodes that feature both plot movement and character development. That, however, is just not how the show has operated.
There also tends to be a kind of myopic focus for the half-seasons that run, and frequently this is about sort of pointless things or things that end up feeling like they could've been handled a lot quicker when they finally resolve. Most often, this comes right after some big plot event that shifts the survivors to being on the move for whatever reason. The ones that most stick out to me are:
- The journey to the farm where they look for Sophia only to find out she's dead. That whole journey...really could've been like, 1-2 episodes long at most. Instead, my memory is that it took up an entire half season.
- The journey from the farm to the prison. Another half season spent wandering the roads of the southeastern US with not a lot to show for it.
- The journey from the prison to Terminus. There were a few solid episodes in here, but mostly it felt like filler.
- The journey from Terminus to Alexandria. See above.
These sequences typically allow for introspection and exploration of characters...but they don't do squat for moving the plot along. In the comics, my sense is (I read the compendiums, rather than the single issues) they tend to be dealt with in an issue or two, while the actual time spent IN the various locales where they settle tends to be more drawn out. On the show, it just feels like padding. The one instance where I thought it really worked was with Shane surviving WAY longer on the show than in the comics. I really, really enjoyed that.
I'm hoping that the Alexandria plotline will finally stabilize them after this half season, and the show will shift away from just surviving by walking from one place to the other, and move towards trying to build a true community. But I think we have a long way to go before that happens, and we won't really see the first glimmers of that until the end of this season.
