I rewatched the first two seasons before watching this final season. I did that as a necessary refresher, but those two seasons are a treat regardless.
Let me get this out of the way: everything makes sense and that is saying a lot. They went for something extremely ambitious and they pulled it off. Those who pay attention will be rewarded. A great example is watching Katherina killed by her own mother at the lake and remembering Bartosz telling the story of a lady who died in the lake, in season 2(which chronologically happens before most of season 1). That same scene is where Jonas finds the locket, which was Katherina's, given to her from her mother, who was gifted it by Hannah, etc. Everything truly is connected on this show and not in a superficial manner.
Cool, I got that out of the way. I feel this show will be highly overrated because people will feel happy they got those connections. This show allows attentive, observant viewers to pat themselves on the back. In a post-Lost world, a show this convoluted gets extra props for being able to connect the dots and navigate a labyrinth of it's own making.
But, I'm not willing to overlook its deficiencies just because it was complex and I got everything. I don't use this phrase often, because I think it's lazy as fukk, but the introduction of a parallel universe, at the end of season 2, might have been a shark jumping moment. I don't say that because there was too much going on, I'm saying that because the quality of narrative took a nose dive in season 3. Too much of season 3 was repetitive. This person lied to that person who was lying to this person, ad nauseum. Despite not trusting anyone, people kept trusting everyone. Adam/Jonas continued hideously staring at walls in his freshest fits, dropping cryptic one liners. The two episodes before the finale were essentially "Let's tie up anything that could be considered unanswered in nice little montages". The organic buildup and reveals of the previous two seasons were absent from season 3. Adding another dimension (literally/figuratively) to the show, in its final season, meant exposition became the most important aspect. We know we're confusing these nikkas so we better talk our asses off. Season 3 felt very mechanical to me.
That sounds harsh, but I like season 3, and I love the show overall. I got worried around episode 5 that there was no way they could wrap this all up, but they did, despite issues I might have had with execution. I can't overstate what it means to have a cast of characters so large where you care about the majority of them. I've never been someone that needed all the questions answered, but I just had to know the fates of so many characters. I'm not willing to rank this top anything yet, especially since I just finished it an hour ago. But I can say I've never seen a show pull off anything close to this type of undertaking.