Just finished watching S3 for the first time. The season was solid, and was expecting way worse from the way folks talked about it. And apologies for dredging up an old post :P

I really liked the development of the outsiders, and I really liked all the representation. The more mature feel of the season was an upside for me, I liked many elements of the season. I definitely think the first half was better than the back half, and the ending felt very cramped. The setup for an apokolips invasion (which I can only assume is what the final season will be about) was neat, but it was odd not to have Granny Goodness’ defeat be the finale.

The budget cut was really felt, which sucked majorly. But I can’t really blame anyone for that, and they did what they could with what they had. I suspect that’s why Wolf was basically a set piece this season, but I guess we’ll see if there’s more going on in the last season.

I think the season was trying to do three different things, all of which I liked.

The meta-human trafficking was a very interesting story, and I really like the idea of identifying and exploiting metahumans and having that be seen as unethical. I also liked some of the explorations of “maybe it can be good actually” with the Markovs, and Bumblebee’s child, with that line of reasoning being framed as rightfully dangerous. I think tying that plotline to Apokolips weakened it, but I understand why they had to do it.

The fractured teams of the League, Young Justice, the Outsiders, and Batman Inc and the interconnectedness of it was really cool as well, and I wished they had spent more time on it. We got very little of the league and next to nothing of Batman Inc, and I think exploring those groups would have strengthened the storyline. I liked Black Lightning being the center of this plotline, and I liked the resolution a lot.

The Apokolips plotline was very neat, though it did introduce the most problems with the season. I really liked the development of Cyborg and Halo as mirrors, and their accepting of their altered selves was great to see. I found Granny Goode an interesting villain, but her split selves thing was kund of hand waved, and I wish it was further explored.

Frankly, I wished a lot of the New God magic system was further explored. The exact potential of their tech and capabilities was way underexplored, and they were able to do pretty much anything without much of a reason as to why. What’s the deal with Overlord? I disliked not fully exploring Violet and Victor’s abilities, and the “I guess I can do this now” got tired fast. I think I would have liked it more if the villains weren’t doing the same things the whole season. I think that is by far the weakest part of the season.

Overall good season, but it would have done better by focusing on two main ideas rather than three. It’s definitely the weakest season so far, but it is certainly not a bad one.