With 17 million viewers in the United States alone (and that doesn't include those who watch it via more illicit means), The Walking Dead is one of the biggest shows on TV, and at its best you can really understand why. When the show is on top form, it is a ferocious blend of action, horror, violence and gore, all happening to a group of characters that you're invested in and care about. There are times when the fact that it's constantly overlooked by the Emmys is just baffling, the acting is on-point, and the special effects are on another level altogether. However, what stops the show from quite reaching the upper echelons of this television Golden Age, the lofty heights occupied by its former AMC stablemates Breaking Bad and Mad Men, is that while it's generally one of the most entertaining programmes on TV, it is also one of the most frustrating. Few shows manage to shock, excite, scare and then really annoy you within one season; The Walking Dead does it frequently within episodes. The reasons aren't quite enough to stop watching, especially not now we're five seasons in, but they do have a tendency to repeat the same mistakes over and over again, and the show would be so much better than it already is if it would actually start to learn from them.