I love this show but I agree that the cutaways are the weakest part of the show. I could tolerate them ok in season 1 but they were much worse in season 2.

I disagree. I found them fun. Silly yes but fun.

I agree.

The cutaways should only be at the very beginning or very ending of an episode. Don't spoil the continuity of the show with needless cutaways.

Disagrees. Love them.

I disagree. They can be cheesy, but for me, the cheese is part of the show's charm. It might also be a cultural mismatch. There are jokes about the immigrant experience in them - the nephew's terrible pronunciation/syntax in Spanish, his blase attitude about his lavish lifestyle, etc.

As for their usefulness, the cutaways served the purpose of progressing the story in various directions. The story would pick up again with another character or days later or at a special occasion after the cutaways (e.g. "Meanwhile, Memo was..."). How would it make sense for those story snippets to happen without the exposition bits in the middle?

I think just the fact that supposedly the main show is all stuff that has happened in the past and is being told to the audience in present day limits the writers. Hopefully they had a full outline of the show when they started writing it like Ted Lasso did, otherwise I predict it will start to fall apart in later seasons.

But for now I really enjoyed the first two seasons and I don’t hate the uncle and nephew in present day specifically-I just am frustrated with how the story structure can be limiting in general.