Man, that was a killer season two premiere, eh? Carl was also shot in the comic book too and both moments were definitely shocking. The comic was obviously more visceral, but seeing him get shot while petting that deer on the show was pretty shocking to many of us, too. Why? Well, there are a few good reasons for that.
One, you really NEVER see kids get hurt in horror. Even though that taboo has changed a lot in the last five years (gee, thanks Game of Thrones) it is still, and always will be, jarring to see a child get hurt. So to see a main character that’s child get so brutally hurt was a real eye opener (see what I did there) for a lot of Walking Dead fans.
Now, Carl healed up rather quickly on the show and seemingly without any major problems, and season two went on to suck ass. So really, Carl getting shot was just kind of a trick to get us to make it through that shitty season, but we made it, didn’t we? So I guess it worked.