Let me start off by saying I have no idea what Critical Role is, and I just picked up the show off amazon prime. I love the shows animation and use of blood, but thats about all I have to say positive about the show.
I just finished watching S1, and the show just felt very cluttered. 7 main characters is a lot and it prevents me from actually caring a lot about anyone specific because they have so many backstories to get through. Grog is just the classic big guy archetype and feels like an unneeded character, and Seclan is just off putting and ruins the moment a lot. I know his character is designed to, but it feels like a poor choice regardless. Pike just sorta feels *there* the whole time. She doesn't provide anything crazy important. Her power scaling is also very weird, shes pretty much useless and gone half the season and then shes just OP. Keylothe or however u spell the nature witches name was a cool concept, but I feel like she could have cooler, more competitent, less insecure. There are too many character flaws in the team to address, even with more seasons.
Percy was the only character I really liked, and he felt like a massive missed opportunity. If you watched this show after watching Invincible, you'll see what I mean. Percy could have been a top tier Villain, but instead he was just a victim. He could have been so cool as a character they betrays his team for a need for revenge, being the true enemy of the season. But alas, the coolest part of the show ended with him being saved which is just boring.
Finally, if you've watched dragon prince, you'll understand what I mean when I say the whole kingdom and kings and royalty thing felt off. Uriels speech at the end where he relinquishes his throne has no meaning because they made someone in such a high position of power an irrelevant character. Lady Briarwood was also 100% just a worse slightly more evil version of Claudia from Dragon Prince, a version of Claudia that doesn't hold back in a more gorey animation style would have been amazing, but instead was just more wasted potenial.
Some of my issues stem from the fact that I'm not a D&D person and therefore have issue with the power scaling of magic, but overall the show is a lot of wasted potenial which is just sad.