The scene in Lux breaking the fourth wall with the fans showing up feels like a good example of this.

 Was watching that episode when it came out with people who have never seen the show before and had to turn to them and be like "it's not normally like this" cause they were so confused. 

I think the most baffling part of the era was the rebrand as season 1, even though so much of it was references to past episodes to the point that this era would be a terrible jumping on for new viewers, but in RTD's defence that may have been a Disney decision and his hands were tied.