There’s a big difference between serious dramatic tension and putting a gun to someone’s head and expecting us to care for no other reason than that there is someone with a gun to his head. Now, these moments are still a source of drama, and “The Walking Dead” has done well in squeezing drama from the immediate threat of violence. On a show about the zombie apocalypse, this is acceptable, but if AMC hopes to continue its monstrously successful run, it should fix the show’s fundamental flaws.

The first issue is getting us to care about these characters even, and especially, when they are not in immediate danger. Daryl is highly likable, but unfortunately he is the exception and not the rule. The only other appealing characters are Shane and Rick during season 2. Both men were certified badasses who played off each other in spectacular fashion. Unfortunately, Shane is dead and Rick is losing his grip on both reality and my devotion as a fan. Without characters we want to return to every week, this show is going to have a problem.

Not to sound sexist, but virtually every female character on this show is problematic. The only reason I include “virtually” is because I don’t totally hate Michonne, but she is the victim of little screen time. When she and any other woman is on screen, they contribute little to the group other than, stereotypically, bickering with each other. The women have more screen time now, and since the start of this season every one of them has had to carry a gun and pull her own weight. But the women on this show are unlikeable and, at best, boring. The blame lies not in their acting, but somewhere between the writers and the source material (which I have yet to look at. If any readers have, please chime in).

The strict racial quota on this show needs to be fixed. T-Dog, who probably had less than a page of lines in his three seasons on the show, is killed off and, miraculously, a new survivor in the form of a prison inmate takes his place as a token black character. He doesn’t last long either and is killed during the initial assault on Woodbury. Tyreese, shuffled from group to group at this point, isn’t much better. Given the acting chops of Chad Coleman, best known to fans of “The Wire” as Cutty, the people running the show should take advantage of the talent they have at their disposal. Even Michonne, who seems to be here for the long haul, is noticeably close-lipped.

Despite all of these flaws, not to mention the many others that plague this show, I still can’t stop watching it. At its worst, “The Walking Dead” is a plodding, poorly written melodrama. But at its best, it is the most thrilling show on television. It’s easy to get caught up with the show’s weaknesses in the middle of a season but the reason we all keep coming back in historic numbers time after time is because this show can make us feel more fearful than anything else we’ve ever seen.

Moments That Make This Show Great

1. “Days Gone Bye”

Many of the shows that dominate today’s awards circuit began with incredible episodes (e.g. “Breaking Bad,” and “Mad Men”) but none have produced a pilot quite as perfect as “The Walking Dead.” There are too many great scenes in this episode to highlight one, but it will suffice to say that this is one of the greatest moments in the history of television.

2. “Breakdown on the Highway”

The first half of the second season is, in most fans’ opinions, the weakest stretch of the show. This is not for lack of a thrilling start. The scene on the highway is a slow burn that starts the moment they enter that jam of cars and, once the RV breaks down, it only gets worse.

3. “It Was Legendary”

Out of all the entries on this list, this one is probably going to be the least well-known. This moment is a personal favorite of mine. The episode opens on Shane, running in slow motion, as Rick recounts to Laurie, for the thousandth time, an old high school story that exemplifies Shane’s sheer force of will. Rick is right. Shane will make it back, and this episode shows just how far he is willing to go to get there.

4. “I Hear Nebraska’s Nice”

The main conflict of the second season was the power struggle between Rick and Shane. This Western-style shootout, which built up from two men feeling each other out with words until violence exploded and just as quickly ended, solidified, at least in the viewer’s mind, that Rick is a man looking to protect his wife and son and “anybody who gets in the way of that’s gonna lose.”