What I think TLMOE needs, when it wants to be at it's best

So I've been recently been thinking about the series as a whole, and while I love it, I notice that the parts I like the least about this show, all have the same pattern behind it.

See, what I think TLMOE needs when it wants to be the best it can be, is that it needs to have some overarching plot, to give the characters some purpose, and a goal to work towards, while still telling an individual story with each episode.

Let me explain what I mean by that, by going over the different seasons. Season 1 was fairly standard, the first episodes setting everything about the show up, but it quickly grows stale for me, because there is really nothing driving any sort of plot forward, it's mostly just turns into "Tandy does something dumb, new person shows up, Tandy does more dumb things", which of course can be funny, but not if it's the entire basis of the show.

Then comes season 2, which, I still think, is the strongest season of the show so far. The first half of this season is motivated by Tandy's goal to be accepted by the group, slowly winning them over one by one. And while this of course isn't the main topic of the individual episodes, it's the driving force behind the things Tandy does.

Right after Tandy finally got accepted by the group, the Phil 2 plot started, while it didn't last as long, the plot about Phil 2's appendicitis was really well told, treating the serious event with enough grimness as neccecary, while still throwing in the occasional joke. Right after that followed the brilliant Pitch Black story, and kicking the story of Mike's return into motion.

While the episodes right after weren't really connected into any overarching storyline, they dealt with the aftermath of Phil's death and set up the events of coming episodes, that could begin once Mike showed up.

The last story of the season was Mike's reunion with Tandy, and while it only lasted for a short time, it managed to convey how this affected the group dynamic, telling a few smaller sidestories, as well as telling a very emotional story between Phil and Mike.

In addition to all that, this season set up many of the future plots over multiple episodes, giving the series a feel as if it had a deeper plan for it all (Pat, the drone, etc.). After this fantastic season, we come to season 3.

Now, Season 3 started off very strong, with Pat's arrival, and the groups reaction to it. It also introduced another character that would join the group, if only for a short while. Unfortunately this strong start didn't last very long, as soon after, the group fled, leaving everything connected to Pat behind, being pretty much able to go back to their undisturbed sitcom live from season one.

And this is were the problems begin, at least for me. The following episodes all had smaller storylines (Mellisa's illness, Gail's disappearence, Lewis learning to fly) but instead of being implemented in the background, with the episodes telling individual stories like in season 2, all the episodes played directly into these plotlines, without really having their "own" plots going on. Some people might prefer this method of storytelling, but it led to the episodes this season all becoming very similar in the stories they were telling, without being able to create a bunch of interesting narratives around them, thus making the stories feel more stretched out, since every episode was basically a complete continuation from last week's story.

The midseason return episode focusing on Pamela and her first few years during the Virus outbreak was of course a brilliant story, because it allowed the writers to not be constrained by the serialized format, and just focus on telling an interesting story, same as what happened in Pitch Black.

Right afterwards though, the episodes become stale again however. Yes, Lewis' death happens, but it lacks the impact of Phil 2's death, and isn't exactly treated as a very important event, as things go back to normal very quickly, with Jasper becoming the main plotpoint. Unfortunately, all this really offers is a kid joining the group, the show never really bothers to explore how this affects the dynamic of the group, and continues the way it did before.

Then the six month time skip happened, which, while sort of randomly placed and confusing to some viewers, finally allowed the show to move out of this repetitive state the episodes where in, and focus on finishing the long-standing pregnancy story for Erica. And while the threat felt like a real threat to the group, to me personally, it wasn't really as important, since it was never really build up over the past episodes (apart from one satelite falling to earth), but it did bring a lot more urgency to this season's finale.

And that's where we are right now. I really hope that Season 4 follows the example of season 2, with overaching storylines that are the driving force behind the character's motivations (we already have that covered with their search for a non-radition danger zone), while telling it's own story for every episode, instead of just continuing the stories from the last episode.

Please keep in mind that all of this is just the way I feel, and you guys might feel completely different about this, so I would love to hear what you all think about this!

TL;DR: LMOE needs to have an overarching storyline, while still telling individual stories in each of the episodes.