In some ways, I should have ignored the 3rd season. It took a solid series and dragged it into cheesy C class pulp.

The series starts in a good foot. Some decent characters who mostly capture the 80s (although not as well as in Ready Player One). The sets and costumes felt right. Winona Rider was one of the few poor performers in season 1. El was very well played.

The second season shook things up and added more of an edge to the characters. However, modern politics started to creep in, starting with the episode about the sister. This was probably the beginning of the end of the series as it never really recovered. There are some glaring "modern" issues in the series. All mothers were almost saints, fathers either stupid or violent. Dialogue deteriorated into preachiness (especially in the 3rd season). Any male character with initiative was either stupid or violent (and all of them were sidelined, leaving only "emasculated" male characters). Steve was especially sidelined. The authors clearly had very separate ideas about male and female characters that were maintained rigidly. The other major sin was the 3rd season not only reduced characters to one dimension, it also tried to be funny when it clearly wasn't. It was like watching those budget kids movies full of preachiness and phony characters. Some of the dialogue was painful (eg. If you show concern for El, you're oppressing her).

The first 13 episodes (roughly) are really well done. They largely captured the 80s (although Mohawk man and his merry twits were awful and very "out of character" - loosely like Punky Brewster but in adult form). The first half of season 2 also avoided preachiness and modern politics. it had a great balance of action and heart (probably like the Goonies). After that, the show's characters became arroganct, sassy, sexist, preachy and every other sin you can commit (especially the Russians are all villains joke that carried on WAY too long). Some of the newer characters like Maxine were painful. This is a series with solid highs and many lows. They really need to quit while they're ahead.