Same characters, and you're building it from scratch trying to gauge how quickly or slowly you "get to the point".
The show becomes a hit and you want to keep it running for more seasons, so now you need to slow it down and not catch up to the BB time period too quickly.

It's annoying and too slow, but that's what we get. It's had moments like TWD where you think it's dusky going to make a major advance and go somewhere, and then it doesn't.