The other big thing that would keep people coming back is the same thing that keeps the characters on the show going: hope. Hope that, eventually, things might turn out okay for this lot, despite the insurmountable odds. From the looks of it this season seems to be renewing the stars' faith in a possible cure for the disease which they realised everybody was carrying - which would be no mean feat - as they try and convince the less-than-friendly residents of Terminus to traipse across the country with them from Atlanta to the nation's capital. It's anyone's guess what actually lies in Washington, but right now the MacGuffin doesn't really matter. What matters is that a MacGuffin exists at all. Yes, the show has been getting increasingly bleak in its outlook ever since it started, with the hope of things working out dying off a little with each member of the group which kicks the bucket, and each new non-undead enemy they come up against. But if the show strips away all possible chances of salvation, then what would the point be? It'd just be a bunch of no-hopers spinning their wheels, waiting to die. Which doesn't exactly make for fun primetime viewing. Not that The Walking Dead is necessarily fun most of the time, but it's certainly easier to take all the misery if it seems like there might be light at the end of the tunnel. There's a lot of expectations for season five, but the main one is that there's something for Rick and the gang to chase after. Give the poor buggers something to live for, else the next time they come a cropper of a bunch of walkers, there'd be not point in them fighting back. Which would not only be sad for them, but boring for the viewers. This isn't the existential Nietzsche crisis show. This is the killing zombies and getting to safety show. And if they can't manage that, we'll settle for Jesse Pinkman.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
