Interesting premise, terrible execution (spoilers)
I'll start by saying I didn't hate the show. I actually liked the overall narrative for each season, that being said you can only escalate so much and I'm not sure another season would've worked to well.
That being said I think the writing staff was absolutely atrocious. I don't think there was a single episode that didn't make me rolls my eyes less than 5 times. It's like they had a broad idea for a story (which like I said I actually enjoyed), and then just wrote the first thing that came to mind to progress it. The devil is in the details and that is what makes or breaks fictional work. There's always going to be some things that don't quite add up or make sense. You have to suspend your disbelief some for everything, but I mean come on it's like they didn't even try.
Most of these things I've already seen mentioned on here, but for me this is just a few things that were above and beyond the normal level of stupidity that I can normally look past.
1. Every member of law enforcement who isn't a prominent character is a complete mockery. It's ok for unnamed law enforcement officials to be less than stellar in this kind of show, but my god. Every time you blink police, marshals, and FBI agents are doing the stupidest things imaginable. They're worse than red shirts. They're constantly getting ambushed, letting criminals whose faces are all over the place walk right past them etc. I mean I realize not all cops are great at their jobs, but if they were all that incompetent the country would be in chaos. More so if I were too believe this show I would have to assume that no one (except 5 or so prominent characters) in the FBI has the mental capacity to finish high school, or the field knowledge to traverse the way out their own front doors. More on this later.
2. Then there's the bad guys. Some of these characters are set up as extremely intelligent and methodical people, until they aren't...for no reason than lazy writing.
For example Roderick. He's smart enough to follow through with all these grandiose plans, and somehow manages to still be the well-respected sheriff of his small town. It's a bit much, but I was ok with it. Why/how would the most public member of the following kidnap an FBI agent and allow the vehicle to be identified on camera? Even worse why would he proceed to torture said agent without any kind of mask? Because he was going to be killed right. You would think so, but somehow he is shocked when his location is found and proceeds to just leave him there. Now if this were just some random throwaway character that would be fine, but someone set up to be as smart as he is would have made sure to put a couple of shots into Weston before he just ran away. And that's allowing for him to be there and be exposed in the first place which is already so ridiculous. And then he doesn't even bother to follow up to know that he is out of the hospital and in his own precinct...I mean come on.
How about the hardened mercenaries Lily hires. They seem pretty legit, oh wait they rented a car and just left the gps tracker on it...
And right after that the twins just happen to wander off so far that they aren't around to see/hear their mother get interrogated and shot.
Joe's grand plan at the church. He had it all planned out except for the part where Mike and Ryan just walk right in through an open window.
You're led to believe that Eliza and her soldiers work for the world's most rich and powerful, yet Theo and his untrained and severely unstable help easily kill them at every turn. This I can almost give a pass because you can say she was testing them, but I really don't think those kind of people would have anyone in their employ that incompetent.
3. Characters both good and bad seem to know how to kill people, or not depending on the circumstance, except when they forget? Some characters seem to be great shots, they kill or wound depending on whether or not they want the person alive. But then they seem to forget how to do this when it is convenient for the plot. The same thing goes with stabbings. How is it that you can be so good at killing with one quick strike one second, but the next second you stab someone multiple times and they manage to survive? It gets pretty out of control.
4. Maybe this is a fictional US where the government puts something in the water to make the masses stupid. That's the only thing I can think of that explains how terrible everyone's short term memory seems to be. It seemed like every third episode there was some big showdown where everything goes to *beep* and everyone just forgets who was just in the room with them. People seem to constantly get "ambushed" by someone who was in the same room with them 3 minutes prior. I mean I can see getting tunnel vision, but none of these characters good or bad would have ever been able to survive a week if they had always been so quick to forget the situation. I mean if you're going up against 3 people, *beep* goes down, 2 of them run off and you chase the third, that doesn't mean the other 2 disappeared from existence. Yet characters both good and bad seem to constantly be surprised by this fact. This also goes back to point 3 cause in many of these cases people are miraculously only wounded allowing them to show up "unexpected".
5. This kind of goes back to point 1, but it was getting a little long so I split it up. The writers were smart to have a lot of the series take place with Ryan and co. working alone, but somehow even when they have the full support of multiple agencies they are always the first ones on the scene, and the only ones who ever seem to figure anything out. There are some instances where information is given to them, but all too often important intel is found by one of the main characters. It's not that big of a deal, but it seems like a whole command center full of people (plus who knows how many others in different agencies/locations) would be able to find more information. It's basically like they're just extras, I didn't know they had those in the FBI, how can I apply for that job? Also, how is it that no matter how much manpower you have all the exits are never covered? I mean you put a hospital on lockdown with dozens of men, and yet the people you're looking for just go down into the basement and leave through a door in the grocery store down the street? Nothing about that situation made any sense. There are plenty of other times where a few trees seem to be all you need to evade full swat and task forces.
6. The general public is also oblivious. They constantly like to point out what huge news stories these events are yet a hat, wig, glasses, or bad fake facial hair is all you need to avoid detection when walking around one of the biggest cities in the world. Your face is everywhere, there are police cars everywhere, and you have blood all over you yet you can just walk around the streets and no one notices you escaping. Also, I'm pretty sure if a guy wearing a Poe mask lights a guy on fire he wouldn't just walk away. I mean maybe no one would have the balls to stop him, but I'm pretty sure at least one person would at least see where he went. Similar situations arise often, but this was the most egregious.
There's plenty more this is just what came to mind. With all that being said I still thought the show was ok. I thought the overarching stories were good. It's just too bad that no effort whatsoever was put into the details. For me there was a lot of wasted potential. It's too bad because with more care this could've been a really great show, and probably could've stayed on the air long enough to have a proper ending.