Watching TV's 'The Walking Dead' is frustrating when you've read the books...

WARNING: This article contains **SPOILERS!!!** for the TV Series up to the beginning of Season 4.5, and the Graphic Novels, so proceed with caution!

Ah, 'The Walking Dead', that run-away ratings winner which is going down a storm with TV viewers in the US, UK, and elsewhere.  It's had some great moments so far - some really shocking ones too, which befit the series' depiction of people trying to retain their humanity in a world where civilisation has collapsed due to the perpetual threat of the flesh-eating undead.

For example, do you remember that bit where Dale dies an heroic death, after being rescued from Cannibals, and delivering an epic speech thanking Rick for everything he's done to try to keep the group safe?

Or what about the bit where someone is threatening Rick at gunpoint, someone who used to be a close friend - before Rick's son Carl shoots him through the throat, leading to a truly heart-breaking Father-son moment?

Or Rick's impassioned speech which sums up the themes of the whole series - that it is not the zombies, but the survivors barely clinging to the shreds of human decency who are, in fact, 'the walking dead'.

Or who can forget my favourite Walking Dead scene - where Michonne, after having been imprisoned and subjected to daily beatings and torture, escapes and exacts her revenge on her captor - in a manner which would make the people who made 'Saw' and 'Hostel' run away weeping and possibly heading off to toilet to empty the contents of their stomachs (probably because she doesn't just use her iconic sword, but cutlery and a blow-torch, too...)?

No?

You DON'T Remember those scenes?

Oh yes!  That's right, I forgot.  Those are some of the incredible, hard hitting and unforgettable scenes from the series of Graphic Novels upon which the show is based, that the makers of the TV show decided NOT to include in their programme.  And that's despite the fact they're important and iconic moments in story-lines which have already run (for example, it's Shane who was shot dead by Carl, and the Governor who imprisoned Michonne and upon whom she enacted her revenge), or feature characters killed off before their best story-lines have had the chance to take place (there were many fans of the comic rightly infuriated when Dale was offed without the chance of having the truly epic death the character had in the Books).

Even before Michonne gets to work on him, The Governor in the Books bears little semblance to David Morrissey...

Despite the consistently high ratings and massive fan-base, even amongst regular viewers there are those who have to admit this TV series has had patchy moments - most notably the fairly static second season, mostly based at Hershel's farm.  This hasn't been helped by the studio's (AMC) puzzling decision to repeatedly sack the show-runner and slash the show's budget (because realising the zombie apocalypse and the fall of civilisation can OBVIOUSLY been done on the cheap, right?)  But despite this, viewers have stuck with it, and taken the characters to heart.

I can't help but wonder though: if everyone watching the series had read the Books too, would they be as disappointed at times as I have been?  Now, I appreciate that it is par for the course, and indeed necessary, to make changes from any source material to make something work on TV or film.  I have no problems with introducing entirely new characters, or making changes to existing characters, or even to the story itself - so long as it makes sense and doesn't spoil the essential themes and feel of the source material.  Whilst for the most part 'The Walking Dead' TV series has managed to avoid doing this, there have been omissions like these - or outright changes - which come very, very close to actually undermining what's important.

Original character Daryl (played by Norman Reedus, left) has turned out to be a fan favourite, and  an example of how adding new characters not in the source books can benefit an adaptation for TV or Film.

Take the Prison/Woodbury saga - in the books this is the point where Rick's group truly realise that the zombies are far from the most dangerous things they can encounter in this new world.  The Governor is meant to be a dark reflection, or a warning almost, of what Rick might become - a leader who has completely lost his humanity, and capable of any level of evil.  When Michonne gets her revenge, yes it is horrific (possibly deserved for such an evil character!), but it goes to demonstrate how simply surviving in the apocalypse has damaged some individuals.  Above all, it is a really hard hitting episode, which is in keeping with the themes of the series, and also reinforces that this is a horror story, through and through.  This sequence comes to a tragic climax, and Rick loses his wife and baby (though it's suggested she might not even be his daughter...).  On TV though, despite the portrayal of the Governor being more nuanced (and rightly so), I felt the potential of the storyline was undermined by missing out the torture, or even the moment when the Governor cuts off Ricks hand (within moments of meeting him for the first time!).  I was gob-smacked the first time the 'forces' of Woodbury attacked the Prison because neither the Governor nor any of Rick's crew died - in fact it was utterly anti-climactic!  Thankfully, they brought back the Governor, hooked him up with a new crew (including - yes! - a tank), and culminated the Prison story with a far more gripping and satisfying conclusion (I'm glad they retained the shocking beheading - albeit of a different character - and the Governor's exhortation to "Kill them all!", even if more of Rick's group should have died...).

In the Books the Governor is flat-out evil, and when his group attacks Rick's at the Prison it's major turning point in the Books' storyline; the TV series almost fluffed this key moment.

Of course, it's not to say that at some point they might incorporate Michonne's torture and revenge in a future story line (although I expect they'll REALLY tone it down from the depiction in the Books...), or give Dale's epic death to another character.  I sincerely hope they do.  But I really feel that this series can, and should be, more hard hitting - and by showing restraint when it comes to the Books' more extreme moments, the series producers are robbing the story of some of its potential, and in danger of compromising the themes that are central to it.  Having said that, the Book series does have its flaws (I've not read the last 4-5 books, as at the point I've read to the story has just had what I'd describe as a 'shark jumping' moment which, for me, has almost totally undermined the 'believability' of the Book series), so it is only right that when it is appropriate the TV series makes its own course.  Just so long as it doesn't skip, or waste the potential of, the best story-lines it can draw from...