I think the worst instance of it for me is the song in E3. It's a funny gag on its own but its juxtaposed with a really dramatic sequence and kinda steps on it. I was surprised when I finally saw the original stream that inspired that episode: There was no equivalent Scanlan song or joke in the original dinner-party episode of the stream, that whole sequence post dinner is played as basically straight drama and was surprisingly gripping to see play out despite the shoe string production CR was working with back then. While Scanlan's humor persists through the rest of the season I did feel like it found a better balance after E3 as the real season plot kicked in. Also helps that since I've seen the campaign now I know the fact early Scanlan's a bit of a manchild is only the start of his story and not the single note he's stuck on forever.

It's great. I knew nothing about the source material before watching the show and it is what pulled me in to watching Critical Role. Only issue I had was Scanlan's humor in the show is a little much. I have zero problems with the humor itself, raunchy humor is fine with me, it just felt like it wasn't well balanced and there's a couple dramatic scenes in the first couple episodes that get stepped on by a Scanlan joke. It's a lot more balanced in the source material because those episodes are 3-5+ hours long. Still the series finds its footing and does start to balance out pretty quickly. By the end I found it really great, though I admit I am a sucker for Found Family fantasy stories which is what this is through and through.

Also having seen the show originally without knowing what it was based on I still think the coolest aspect is that, since the source material are a DnD game, it means any time a character- hero or villain- survives or dies in a fight its only because that's what happened in the game. There's no plot armor or hand of the author as a result: if a character gets away from seeming certain death in the show you can go to the stream and see how the players managed to accomplish it within the rules of a game where any character can die. It's a fascinating way to tell a story and there are some really cinematic moments that happen in the original streams completely organically as a result.