Character development is still the show's biggest weakness. And that's not to say they're still awful at character development, it's just to say they're not as awful. (That scene with Carol and Rick in the jail cell last week, was surprisingly emotional, with hardly any words spoken and I wouldn't have thought they could pull that off.) But they've gotten better at pacing and tension. This is slightly spoiler-ish (and thus intentionally vague) if you haven't read the comic or seen the mid-season finale, but there was such a prime example of this failing in tonight's episode. When Michonne is waiting in the dark, awaiting her confrontation, in the comic, that carried weight, it meant something and you wanted her to be there, but in the show, they've failed to establish a good reason for Michonne to sit and wait in the dark like that, but they threw it in anyway, so they could advance the story, not because it advanced a character narrative that you could feel. I hated that they even put her in that spot on the show.