I don't need an explanation for what the cause of the undead is, but how about some character curiosity? How about
they want to figure it out, and they just can't? Why aren't they curious to turn on the TV, radio, whatever to find out something? Kirkman's adherence to wanting characters (or even the audience) to be in the dark in such an information age just doesn't work. It's the reason most zombie shows/movies start at the point that TWD did, because explaining how things went down takes a lot of thought, and doesn't withstand much scrutiny. Again, it's the problem with shows like Lost. Characters that don't really act like real people (with curiosity or assertiveness), but chess pieces to be moved around for the sake of drama whether it makes sense or not.
To me, it's not about whether or not they're morally good, but whether what they're doing makes sense. A person can be immoral, but still understandable. To me, it's much more about how stupid the characters are. In the face of something terrible, we've got extremely naive characters, and those who are continuing on like nothing's happening.
In that sense, both Travis and Madison have made stupid decisions that probably should have resulted in their death. Travis with his late night drug den excursion, naivety about guns, his approach to a dude eating a dog in his living room, and general shitty parenting. Madison with risky decisions like leaving the safe zone, complying with dangerous torture, approaching a bloody principal after already seeing a couple different zombies, and also very shitty parenting.
Travis hasn't done anything really to make me appreciate the character. Madison at least shows some promise with some adaptive morals and ideas about the dead, but still hasn't done a lot to make me root for her in any fashion.
Chris is terrible. Like I get that teenagers can be obstinate, but his depiction is just so horribly exaggerated, that he isn't really a character, just another walking cliche. Every chance he's had to do something reasonable, he's basically been a bitch. How is this likable?
Alicia is very similar although not quite as annoying. She's also too stereotypical of a teenager, and as such also does not have any depth. She's about as shallow as all of the military characters. The only moment I've been happy about anything she's done is that she put two and two together about her dead boyfriend.
Nick is, well, Nick. I don't think he's done anything to make me care, but has done plenty of angering things.
Daniel seems with it at least, but he's too adversarial and aggressive this early on. He's like Shane already at the barn.
Shit, I'm more interested in the "closer" who's in the cell with him who we got all of a few minutes and lines of dialogue with but the actor was charismatic enough to make the character seem interesting. What's his long-game? Who was he before all of this? How has he gotten here? He's potentially a very interesting character. Let's hope his plan with Nick is to use him as a sacrificial lamb. Otis the shit out of Nick, Closer!
He does seem like an interesting character, but only because we don't really know anything about him. Maybe the actor can carry him, but I'm guessing that as soon as his story is known, he won't be nearly as compelling. And what does that say when your characters with five episodes of development are more boring than he is? When people want the nerdy high school kid to be a part of the cast?
