Finally finished (I've been traveling a lot and the better half would murder me for not watching it together).

I wouldn't call it unfocused. They had a lot they wanted to cover and they spread it all out, bouncing between stories instead of telling it in a strictly linear time progression. Did a good job tying it all together at the end. I'm still really loving all of the kids' acting in this. Lucas and Mike are good, but Dustin, Eleven, and Will really stood out to me in this season. I wasn't on board with Max at the beginning, and I'm still not sure I'm really loving her character, but she did grow on me as the season went on. Billy, on the other hand, can fuck off and die. So can his dad, who I'm pretty sure is the reason he acts the way he does. Gotta say though, I'm pretty surprised that there wasn't a deeper reason behind his behavior.