Chris, we don't want them to leave Hershel's without a reason or a plan, but we want the depiction of their plight to speed up to the point where they actually have a reason or a plan. I'm all for character development, but this is ridiculous - it's taking multiple episodes for even the most basic story elements to progress.
My biggest fear is that TWD loses its popularity and gets cancelled in a few seasons...and they're still on Hershel's farm, Sophia is still missing and there are still walkers in the barn. The show simply cannot continue to plod along at this pace, because, as much as we enjoy it, it's not going to be on the air forever and there is a LOT of ground to cover.
Wouldn't it be a terrible shame if the show is on the air, for, say, 5-7 seasons and they only end up covering a small % of what's been depicted in the comic book series? Yeah, we'll know the characters inside out, but we'll never see them put through all of Kirkman's best comic storylines and we'll see a hackneyed, abrupt ending. That would be terrible.
How long before they introduce Cousin Oliver?