2. Putting Andrea In Woodbury
Throughout an episode, its much more interesting to watch when you get scenes devoted to different groups of characters rather than the same ones as this mixes action up. In season three we swap between the prison group and Michonne with Andrea as they head towards Woodbury (which provides another change as we see things from the Governor and the citizens point of view). Keeping Andrea there once Michonne decides to leave keeps the ability for viewers to comfortably swap between situations as even if we start learning all of the new Woodbury characters it isnt a jarring change as were meeting them at the same time as Andrea, a character weve known practically from the start. This is all without reaching the fact that they gave her a romantic link to the Governor, allowing us to see him as a more sympathetic villain. Not that this damages the Governors portrayal, he keeps many of the same traits from the books but we buy more into his shtick of peacefully protecting everyone while he see Andrea react to it. The fight between the Governor and Michonne is also intensified by the fact that Andrea goes in to save him and ends up pointing a gun at the woman who saved her out in the wilderness. In the comic series almost all of the interactions with Woodbury involve Rick and naturally the focus stays with him so we get a solid volume or two with Rick, Michonne and Glenn being captured and having to escape. Once they escape, the focus shifts back to the prison as thats where our characters are, so we only learn about what happened to the Governor post-Michonnes attack in a flashback that explains his sudden attack on the prison as we assumed the attack killed him. With the series keeping Andrea there almost the entire time we can continually swap between the prison and Woodbury, allowing for the refreshing changes of scenery and attention mentioned earlier.