Dear god, they deviate from the comics in the most disinteresting ways and I've only read the Wikipedia for the comics.
At the end of last season when they showed the prison off in the distance I and many others couldn't wait to see how it would translate on television. The comics are a bit rough up until that point but that is the first major story arc where it's just merciless. The Governor is a
villain.He cuts off Rick's hand (and in the comics we like Rick), he beats Michonne, he rapes her, he beats her again, he rapes her again. It's gruesome. After the zombies being the primary antagonists we've now got this psychopath and his little kingdom and it's bad news. He's got a zombie daughter and he's got this -
The Governor we are given in the TV show isn't a villain. Andrea and Michonne got to read the script so they know from their first meeting onward that something's wrong but for the audience he just doesn't really do anything. They steal that awesome panel from the comics to show the audience he's the villain but it goes nowhere. For episode after episode after episode he's seen acting fairly rational while Rick is getting crazier and harder to sympathize with.
So Michonne escapes, ties up the Governor, cuts off one of his arms, digs one of his eyes out with a spoon, and goes about evening things back up. The Governor survives and leads a full assault on the prison. The assault goes on for multiple issues and it's bedlam. Rick gets shot, Andrea gets shot, Tyresse gets his head cut off by the Governor with Michonne's sword, and while this is going on Lori has the baby. The fight looks lost, they try run, and Lori takes a shotgun blast to the stomach killing her and the child. The woman who fired the shot turns on the Governor
And it's a satisfying conclusion. It works. The group gets completely split up, Rick starts talking to his dead wife on a telephone, and over the next few issues we reassemble the group, lose a couple people, get a couple new people, and so on. We've back in the wilderness for a bit.
What they've done here with the TV show is just miserable. This was first half of Season 2 bad. We had a couple real bright points that demonstrated just how good this show is capable of being but those only served to remind us how terrible everything else is. This was the season finale and it was
loadedwith filler. There was no urgency. Andrea is just going to sit and talk to Milton I guess. Now let's have the Governor gun down 20 armed townspeople. Oh wait, none of them have guns now for some reason. Wait, now there are guns littering the ground. The whole fight at the prison was short and mediocre. So you make it a point to show the audience that one of the trucks parked on spikes and shredded its tires. Why? It doesn't ever matter.
You know what, I'm not going to bitch about any of the small stuff. We ended the season without a conclusion. Michonne and the Governor never have the final showdown nor do Rick and the Governor nor does anyone. There's no resolution. It's the season finale and we've got no resolution. The Governor guns down basically the whole town and drives off with two flunkies. See you next season.