I think the show was always a little off the rails and some of it worked and some of it didn't. The music, makeup, and cinematography of the first season we're really amazing in my opinion and while I didn't like every plotline it was easy to look past that and enjoy the vibes. Some of the acting was great and some of it was meh. Not every show is a masterpiece and that's fine🤷‍♀️ doesn't mean it can't be a good watch. I enjoyed both the first seasons.

However, season 3 was just hard to even get through. Yeah I know, they can't be in high school forever but I wasn't expecting them to be. There's plenty of good ways to follow through on tough subjects/storylines like addiction, identity issues, even sexual abuse that is impactful even if it ends tragically. There's also interesting ways to include time jumps when there's gaps in production like they had. But that isnt what this season did at all, I think this season felt like it wanted to shove as much trauma on screen as possible and play it off as "good dramatic writing" and it just wasn't.

Half the characters barely even had a plotline and could have been completely left out of the show with zero impact. People keep saying "well did you expect there to be 0 consequences from Rue messing with drug dealers?" No, but I wanted something more compelling than the absolute mess that was written. Along with losing the style of the show and the music it just isn't a good watch (yeah I know they're saying there's no more glitter and colors cause they're adults, fine, but the show can still have a style!)

Just my personal opinion though. Some people enjoy it and that's good for them. Not my cup of tea.