That’s apt. I haven’t watched The Dragon Prince since season 3 release, but I can’t say I disagree.
Care to elaborate though?
You know, it's funny...I only just watched the 3 existing seasons of Dragon Prince 3 months ago, back in December 2021 (and there are 4 more seasons allegedly on their way in the future). And yet...the show is so forgettable and lifeless that I actually had to go back and refresh myself on just what happened in that show, because so little happens IN it.
Towards the end of last year, I started finally getting to Netflix shows I'd been meaning to watch for a while, such as Squid Game; Locke & Key; and Dragon Prince. After having watched them, I think I now despise Netflix original series, because IMO 2 out of the 3 are bad (though Locke & Key was by far the worst) and the last (Squid Game) is only OK.
I say that because my biggest issue with Dragon Prince is that it's a Netflix series, which means taking simple stories and then stretching them out to ludicrous lengths with tons of uninteresting filler, topped off with cliffhangers to get viewers to just keep CONSUMING mindless fluff. Dragon Prince, at its heart, is a road trip show, and yet it takes the characters until the THIRD season to actually GET anywhere. It's decompressed storytelling at its worst, usually driven by Idiot Plot, where the only reason the plot happens is because all the characters are Idiots and don't do the logical thing. For instance, there's a scene early on where the characters run into their deaf aunt and her soldiers while on the run from the show's main villain. These characters KNOW this woman. She is the quintessential Paladin of Justice, and they KNOW they are safe with her AND can trust her. And yet...they lie to her; they DON'T tell her about the villain; and they fake their own kidnapping to continue the road trip.
Writing like that aggravates me. These writers have PROVEN they're better than this.
Thing is, that all could be tolerable if the filler between major plot beats (what few there are) were interesting, but it's just so...bland. Characters are pretty standard achetypes, with little in the way of nuance or depth. Death, apparently, has absolutely no meaning in this universe due to the villains being able to cast Full Revive whenever they want. The show feels like it wants to have light-hearted moments, but it's just not funny (and the pandering to Avatar fans is particularly forced and cringy).
And to top it all off, the show's worldbuilding is absolute ****, which is inconceivable considering this was made by most of the talented people who worked on Avatar (with the untalented ones going to work on Korra). After 3 Seasons, I know just about as much about this world now as I did at the start. Aside from the ONE episode in the Elven Village in Season 3, there's no sense of distinct cultures. I have no sense of the geography of this world or where the characters are in relation to it. This is a world of magic and fantasy, and yet it's as bland and paper-thin as can be.
The show also has some really forced moments of "representation". For instance, I'm conflicted about the deaf aunt character. On the one hand, she's a cool character. I really like the way she takes charge & fights, and I'm a sucker for Paladin-type characters. On the other hand, her being a general in an army while deaf makes absolutely no sense, and the show never makes an attempt to address how a general who can't hear anything and is unable to quickly communicate with her troops would be an effective combat general. She just IS, because Netflix paradoxically only gave the writers 9 episodes a season, and yet demand that almost nothing fucking happens every season. It's not like these writers don't know how to write an awesome disabled character, as they gave us Toph, my favorite characters in the entire Avatar franchise. But they spent time with Toph establishing why she was awesome and why her blindness was an asset, not a handicap. And she was absolutely hilarious.
I find Dragon Prince infuriating. The people making it are better than this, and I can only think that Netflix mandates are why the show is so meh. It's certainly why Locke & Key is as bad as it is after the pilot.