Finally got around to this and have been binging it since Christmas.
First season was perfection. The perfect balance of comedy and pathos. The fact they didn't go for the Hollywood ending in the last episode was refreshing. The cast is spot on and as a woman, it was really nice to see such a friendship between two women. I fucking love Roy Kent.
Season two was good. Talking about mental health and the continuation of the father/son dynamics really grounded the season (in the best way possible). The large cast was actually handled really well in terms of giving the majority of them their own little moments. I will say, Beard After Hours was the weakest episode of the series. I like the character, but I didn't need or want an entire episode that revolved around him.
Season three is where it all started to fall apart, I think. Too many stories involving too many minor characters. The first 2 seasons each felt like a complete story arc that was spread out over a stretch of episodes. Season 3 felt very episodic, if that makes sense. It felt like every episode was its own story without having a larger connection to other episodes. I wonder if part of the problem was the increase in episode length time- it jumped almost 20 minutes per episode. And by season 3, Ted's positivity and metaphors were a bit eye-rolling.
I will also say, season 3 was the only season I wanted to fastforward through parts, and those parts were specifically Nate. Nothing about him (to me) after his villain turn meant anything to me. It felt abrupt and unbelievable (managing West Ham??), and his subsequent return to 'good guy' was just as rubbernecking and uninteresting. Certain stories were stretched too far or were with new characters I didn't care about.
That being said, there were so many wonderful moments. Rebecca was amazing, Roy was fucking wonderful. The story growth of so many characters was believable and heartwarming (sometimes heartwrenching). I know it gets stick for being too saccharine, but it was nice to have something genuine and earnest. And I know there was too much City for people, but honestly, I didn't care. As another poster said, it'd be like refusing to watch a movie because you're a Coke fan and it only advertised Pepsi. It DID surprise me how little we were mentioned, and I wonder what the story behind that was. However, it didn't take away my enjoyment of the show. And we did get to hear YNWA, which brought me to tears. I think 3 seasons was plenty- go out on a relative high instead of milking it for more money.
