The Walking Dead has the exact opposite problem that Game of Thrones has.
In Game of Thrones, characters I like are routinely dispatched without a moment's thought whereas Dead characters that I can't stand will outlive me. I just cannot stand Rick's wife - the character, the actress, everything. I hope the baby is Chinese.
I thought it was a little slow, but there's a lot of exposition in the first episode of a season, so that's probably to be expected. They had to get from one situation to another and with the flash to the prison peeps at the end, they're there.
Another problem for the slower episodes....you need zombies to fill space and, surprisingly, the zombies are the worst part of a zombie show. (Aside from the parenting.) The zombies kinda need a new wrinkle - walk forward, get hit in head, rinse, repeat. Gimme a little song, a little dance, let's humanize the dehumanized humans. Think Thriller.
Another zombie problem. All the zombies have torn and tattered clothes and yet....not one nip slip. That's just bad writing - unless I see some zombie ASAP, I might be moving on.