I hear you, Syrian, Lori pissed me off in general. It was beyond ridiculous how she encouraged Rick to kill Shane and then chastised him for doing so. I think humans are quick to adapt and, as soon as a modicum of safety is in their hands, they go back to the trivial crap that makes them so flawed. Less pregnancy drama, more zombies! They really messed up with Season 3 but the reason I loved Season 4 is because you got to see how much the group cares about each other. It really explored the depths of their friendship. One of Season 3's greatest moments for me was when Merle and Daryl were together and Merle referred to Glenn as a 'chinaman'. Daryl called him this exact epithet in season 1 or 2 but because time has passed and Merle is a dick, Daryl angrily said 'He's KOREAN!'

Kilroy, the loose explanation in TWD is that the collapse of the government and the military was not only the sudden nature of the outbreak that overwhelmed them all but that the vast majority of the military left their posts to be with their families. I think that's a kind of realistic reaction. It's not that you have a bad idea, it just diminishes the importance of the main plot in which survivors are trying to get to Sears Tower (please don't make me call it Willis Tower) because that's supposed to be the last, strong bastion of humanity in Chicago. I'm also a little iffy on the amount of soldiers and pseudo-soldiers we have so far. Characters with military backgrounds are cool in small doses but it becomes just a smidge banal when half the cast used to be in the army. It also weakens the agency of the non-army characters since, realistically, the army characters should be able to kick their asses or at least have the upper hand along with having more supplies and weapons etc.