I definitely felt this season was incredibly cerebral and clever, even compared to previous seasons of AD. It really showed they adjusted to the new format, which led to jokes and stories being intertwined more. This however led to there being clutter and a lack of true story progression.
I had a really hard time keeping up with the story with all the jumping back and forth and its potent script.
I just can't shake the feeling though that they didn't have the resources to film everyone at the same time, so they split everything into a hundred other stories with other characters. It's not bad for the scripts' sake, but the reusing of sets throughout several time-periods and different perspectives, just becomes a bit too much at times.
I actually went in with no expectations, but was pleasantly surprised at the general quality of writing. Pretty dark at times, and characters acting outside of their expected range was pretty unexpectedly fun.