Yeah I loved it right from the beginning. I saw a review mention this exact thing about not recognizing the tone during the first few episodes. A lot of reviewers didn’t realize it was supposed to be a satire/dark comedy and they treated it as a pure drama.Probably.
Critics acted like it got significantly better and the tone switched midway through S1, but the truth is they just didn't get the tone early and when they finally got it that's when it "clicked"
All I know is this show better get a sticky, especially since since fukking euphoria was stickies all season. This is one of the best shows running.