Watched the whole season. (Don't worry, no blatant spoilers.) Much better than I expected.
first episode was the weakest. The background infodump at the start felt like third rate fanfic, telling rather than showing. And even though special effects by definition show rather than tell, the gaudy tour of the world felt were equally shallow, like a transparent attempt to show off all the locations. Which admittedly were kind of amazing, but it was overwhelming, and with too little context. It would have worked better if they gradually revealed all the different places over a couple of episode, incorporating them naturally into a developing story.
Also, Rian is a complete asshole. He maliciously bullies podlings and doesn't even comprehend that it's wrong, and then acts like a spoiled baby when daddy didn't put him in charge. Fuck him. Even though he ends up becoming the most stereotypically protagonisty hero in the season, he has no real character development, and no moment of self-realization. The second character, the book-loving princess, doesn't come across as much better. She's a bit nicer on the surface, but incredibly entitled. Deet is a bit of one dimensional stereotype, but at least I like her. Same with the quasi-joke character, the podling paladin. Some of the supporting characters are great. Mother Augrha is awesome, while the Chamberlain is deliciously hateable, and most of the rest of the Skeksis are strong. Nice trick with the spiders talking. All in all, some really good voice acting.
As I mentioned, the special effects in the first episode are kind of amazing, but they never stop being amazing. Seriously, even if everything else was shit, the way an alien world is visually detailed would still be worth watching, and stealing from. There's just so much going on, and it's so different from the flora and fauna of our world. The whole thing makes me wonder about the budget for each episode, because clearly didn't just blow everything on the 1st episode tour. While they're obviously puppets at times, that's actually a significant part of the charm. They do a good job of differentiating the various Skeksis and even the different gelflings, instead of making them all look alike (which would have been easy to do).
The plot's kind of weak. They just kind of travel about because of plot devices, and then come back, and things just sort of fall into place. The villainous actions are actually more interesting, because they do a good job of building the threat. The Skeksis are what happens when high level monsters rule a world in D&D. The demihumans and their allies are completely outclassed, not just at an individual level, but also by the resources the Skeksis are able draw on. There's literally a point in the series where the Skeksis are all alone and everyone else is ganging up against them, and it's not the Skeksis who are pissing their pants. But... there's also not much character development. They're static archetypes and quirky characters more than fully developed people, and things tend to happen to them rather than things happen because of them.
Thematically, it's an odd mix. It's a really dark story. We're not talking about glorious, heroic war. This is genocide and atrocities, and it's blatantly rubbed in the viewer's face. And we've seen the movie, so we know it's only going to get worse. But it's also clearly high fantasy, with the major characters following a heroic arc, even though some really dark things happen to major characters. And then there's all the snot jokes that make adults wince, but would have 5 year olds crying with laughter.
Altogether, it kind of works. The puppet show you just mentioned? It's absurd, with stage props, a dissonant operatic section, a frenetic motor mouth frustrated with a slow drawl, and more. But it's really fun, as well.
I'm not saying it's deep or revolutionary, it's not. But it's good, an unusual mix, creates a wondrous visual world, and the characters are interesting.
Don't really see the politics. More major female characters than male, but that's about it.