 Originally Posted by Wyldwraith
The third season so far has been incredible as to how they've managed to pack so much detail and nuance into such swiftly paced material. I was very on the fence when it came to the idea of alternating between mainly focusing on Michonne/Andrea Vs. mainly focusing on Rick and Co. at the prison, but its a gamble that seems to be paying off in a big way so far. I just hope that the pacing remains equivalent in both environments, because Woodbury is positively LITTERED with Season 2 Farm-like momentum-slowing potential. For instance, if they were to keep up the Governor's mysterious forays out of Woodbury to do his dirty deeds and then come home and sell his masses his version of events, there would be a great (possible) temptation for writers to want to expand upon (and thus lengthen) the process of Andrea and to a lesser extent Michonne discovering the "True Governor" and acting accordingly.
As much as the drawn out hesitance in the shots of Rick & Lori talking (or rather Lori talking and Rick standing there doing his Spock impersonation) about their relationship has become something of an irritant, if they pace matters too much on the slow side when it comes to pivotal characters discovering what lays beneath the Governor's rice-paper thin facade of gentility it could be a disaster IMHO. Like everyone else I think, I'm hoping it isn't Mid Season 4 before things come to a head between Rick's group and Woodbury.
I keep up to date with the trade paperbacks (six issues of the monthly comic in one book), and while vol.17 is yet to come out (which includes issue 100 of the comics), I'm very much enjoying viewing these two versions of the material side-by-side on parallel lines, if you will. The show does surprise me in many ways - events change entirely, or come at totally different times, or are ascribed to different characters, while the general thrust is in the same direction. Andrea and Michonne were never paired off in the comics to encounter Woodbury first and alone together - so that in itself is a totally new dynamic that the showrunners have put in there, and as a reader of the trade paperbacks, it leaves so many options open. You hit a bunch of the same beats, but not necessarily in the same order or in the same way - and I love that - Shane shooting Otis was never in the comics (heck, Shane was dead in issue #6, and the evolution of the love triangle and the bro-down between Rick & Shane was far more satisfying on the show), Dale wasn't killed on the farm, etc, so big shocks are still afforded.
Naturally I knew that Shane was for the chop, I knew that from day one, but it was the journey there that was satisfying. I always knew that by the end of season two he'd be killed off, but it was what happened in getting there that was interesting (especially as the journey was much longer than in the comics). I'm glad they make many departures from the comics in terms of content, while following the main path generally. I get the best of both worlds. 
In terms of pace, I agree, I've been amazing by how much they've crammed into these three episodes. While the first episode was light on character introspection, you wouldn't expect to have much of that because of the goals that need to be achieved up front - namely, the processes involved in taking the prison and dealing with new-found survivors. But blimey, the sheer speed of the episodes was a great example of writing - everything drove it forward. Excellent stuff.
I have faith in Mazzara - particularly after all the bitching that the front-seven of season two received regarding pace (yeah, it was a bit slow paced, and the search for Sophia was dragged out too much ... perhaps if they'd been able to have her go missing later into the episodes ... I don't know, because 2x07 had to have the reveal of her in the barn as a mid-season finale gut punch). I don't think Mazzara will allow the show to slow down - he's said numerous times that the pace we've so far seen continues througout the season. You do need episodes that focus more on slower moments too, you can't always be going hell-for-leather (it wouldn't be realistic either), and we should remember also that these are parallel lines of plotting - they're happening simultaneously - so when we cut back to the prison in episode four, if we see nothing of Woodbury, then it's happening at the same time ... or perhaps not yet ... but maybe in future episodes if we get 'exclusive episodes' which don't feature one or t'other groups (by which I mean, it expands time across more episodes, but in-world time is shown twice in two locations ... if that makes sense).
The front-seven of season 2 was over a mere seven days, but because it was shown over seven weeks in our time, it dragged much more in the slower pacing department. When watched in quick succession at your own personal pace, it doesn't drag anywhere near as much as it was perceived to. That doesn't excuse the just-a-bit-too-slow pacing of those episodes, but it is interesting how show time versus our time can change perceptions.
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