As a whole, it was excellent. The characters were so well-written; especially Eric and Shawn, as they were the ones that really saw character growth and change throughout.
The comedy was pretty good; not great. We laughed plenty, but a lot of it was your standard sitcom stuff. What really sold it was the serious parts; the very real struggles they went through.
Season 1 was a very strong start; we were impressed. Seasons 2 and 3 were a step down from that; as it seemed like almost every episode was just about chasing girls. But it picked back up from there, and continued strong until the end.
The biggest downside to the series overall was the lack of consistency and continuity. I'm not so much talking about the skipping years even (yes, at at least 2 different times in the show, characters just skip over a year of age/school between seasons). But moreso the dropped plot points that would have helped to hold the world together as a real place. Things such as:
- They buy an outdoors supplies store - For a few episodes, this is important, as a good bit of the show revolved around Alan's unhappiness at his old job. But then, the store is never mentioned for more than a year. Not that every episode needs to be about that, but the fact that his parents are the owners of a business should have made an impact on Cory's world.
- Morgan - She was always a very minor character, with at most 1 episode as being somewhat about her going on her first date. But for years in a row, you completely forget that Cory even has a sister.
- Joshua - Also, after he's born and gets 1 episode later that season, he's completely forgotten about. He shows up in the final episode (having aged a couple years in just a year); when Cory first started talking to him I was like "wait, who is that?" And then I remembered that they actually had another baby.
Anyway, definitely one of the better sitcoms out there.
