What the hell is going on with the Walking Dead?

So I'm reading an article over at io9.com about how much the last episode of The Walking Dead the TV show deviates from the Walking Dead the comic book. It was a good read, full of nerdy hand wringing (the comment section was full of helpful suggestions on how they were screwing everything up). It's been a couple years since I read the first few TPBs so honestly I couldn't remember a lot of specifics on how the show was different.

Then I load back up the front page, look for some new articles and see a report that Frank Darabont has fired the entire writing staff for The Walking Dead. Presumably to hire some of the commenters from the previous article.

Now I'm not ready to hit the panic button just yet but this does seem like some interesting news. Conventional wisdom would say that having a dedicated writing staff could help keep each episode consistant with the last (and the comic), something you know nerds like me care about. However, maybe the 70+ issues of the comic already provides for some consistancy. I can't imagine any freelance writer is going to try and invent the wheel in a single episode. Plus you still have Durabont at the helm.

I know the show seems to have veered away from the comic quite a bit in the last couple episodes but you have to keep in mind that when the season shot they only were given 6 episodes by AMC. That wasn't a huge vote of confidence. In an article on the show in last weeks EW Durabont said that he wanted to make sure that this season didn't end in a typical TV season ending cliffhanger. I assume that decision was made because they wanted to make sure the 6 episodes would stand on their own as a story.

I'm still high on the show, let the nerdier nerds than I complain about the shows direction. I'm just here for the zombies.