I like the show but just don’t love it in the way I had imagined I would. Without referring to the comic which I haven’t read, I thought the events of the first couple of episodes should have taken place over maybe 4 episodes, the main character more slowly realising the world has gone to hell.
Spoiler from EW about the tv show diverging from the comics:Shane isn’t being killed off.
Crap!
After seeing the preview for the next episode, I guessed as much. They’re going to get a lot more mileage out of this decision vs what happens in the book.
Whaaaat? Well, I’m done. Only watched the first episode so far and thought it was a bit corny but was hoping it would get better. Guess not 
I started reading the comic after watching the first 4 episodes, and so far I think it is a good adaptation. It has hit all the important elements so far that were in the issues it covered. Most of the changes come from expanding the comics (which are by necessity very concise) to fill the space of a TV episode. Adapting a book has the opposite challenge.
I can see getting impatient with with the pace of the series, because it can’t move as fast as a comic can. I see the Vatos as being a way to introduce early on the fact that there are other groups of survivors, and they can be far more dangerous than zombies. This lesson was learned much later in the book, but it is a central source of conflict and the tv show can’t waste time getting to it.
There are likely to be plenty of changes that are compressions of plot and combinations of characters to make it possible for the TV show to hit important events and themes without taking years to get to them. I’m fine with that so long as it stays true to the kinds of choices the people are forced to make and the ways they are changed by what they experience and find themselves doing.
I’m concerned that Shane is being kept alive to do the more gruesome and morally questionable things that Rick did in the series, to keep Rick from becoming too “unlikable”. It’s much more powerful if the viewer can continue to identify with Rick and consider whether they too would commit monstrous acts for the safety of family and friends. Shane beating up the wife abuser may be the first example since Rick did the same thing in Alexandria.
I don’t really understand why the initial order was for 6 episodes instead of 13. I would like to see them leave Atlanta before the end of the first six, but it doesn’t seem likely if they are still going into town next week.
I’ve been really impressed with the character development within the limits of a large ensemble cast and the scope of the story. Every focus on a character has really revealed them in poignant, thoughtful, dimensional, and gritty ways even when not much has been said. I also really enjoyed how they communicated the misunderstanding twist between the group and the Vatos in cinematographic and human terms, that whole segment was directed, written, and edited beautifully. Absolutely some of the best directiion and story on TV.
That same EW article explained that the show got the green light in May, and the studio was adamant about debuting on Halloween. Thus they only had time to do 6 episodes.