Major issue this season is having (aside from being so long between seasons) is the lack of a antagonist with agency. This is the typical WB type shit where the heroes themselves are the source of all of their own problems and everyone lies to each other to create stupid drama. The butterfly aliens represented an actual existential threat for the characters to unite against. This season is 2/3rds Chris feeling sorry for himself and 1/3 main universe Harcourt being a giant cunt causing all the issues. Its basically the same issue a lot of the mid era Avengers movies had, where they literally created their own problems. Its not fun to watch and it stifles the comedy on top of all of that. Its not helping much that Flag Sr has erratic and inconsistent behavior/motivations, either. Its a lazy form of storytelling when you cannot come up with a good follow up to the original premise. Its worth noting that while the Guardians Movies had similar issues, Gunn was at least smart enough to include good antagonists to drive the story. This season, he forgot that the heroes need an external threat. I mean, unless Eagley is a multidimensional bad guy that caused this all to happen........ but thats just me trying to turd polish this fairly overdone and basic story arc he settled in on.
I do think a lot of the edge lords are overreacting here, but its undeniable that the quality of the show dropped and we are entirely doing a whole season of woe is me, or Sadmaker as my wife called the show. Its still better than shit like Alien Earth and when the big reveal we all know is coming happens watching Gunn piss off literally everyone is going to make for its own entertainment. I mean there is zero way this whole perfect white world idea (interesting on paper, but in current year......) is not going to come off as both triggering to the race baiters and eye rolling to the based when he tries to resolve it. But the amount of filler in what is already a limited premise is just not creating the kind of unique vibe the first season had.