Do you think giving more and more characters parental issues added ANYTHING good to their characters?
Season six is theoretically about Adrien coming to terms with how he views his father and Kagami coming to terms with how she views her mother and whatever is going on with Tomoe and Lila. In an episodic show with those plots, it makes sense to have a bunch of episodes about parental conflicts featuring other characters and home situations as they give the show a theme. Parental conflicts aren't just a thing in random episodes. They're the thing we're exploring this seasons. That's a good thing! Miraculous should have been doing this all along!
My only real complaint is that - from the handful of scripts I've read - its doesn't seem like Adrien is getting much focus in these parental conflicts. The show is keeping Ladybug as the one to save the day and talk to people which is not how this should work. The character who is learning the lesson should have a much more active role. This should be Adrien's season, but it doesn't seem like it is.
There's also the lie plot issue. Adrien can't really work through how he sees his father until he knows the full story. Him being in the dark undermines anything he decides about his father. It makes it all feel pointless because he's just going to go through all of this again once the truth is out. That doesn't make the theme itself bad, it's the overall plot that's bad.
And one extremely minor criticism to round us out: it would be nice to have some good parents in the mix, but that's hard to do since we can't akumatize most of the teen characters anymore. One of the many reasons a massive hero team was a questionable choice.
I'll end by pointing to My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic as a show that demonstrates how themes are supposed to work. In that show, every episode sees a character learn a lesson about friendship. The character who learns most of the lessons is the lead, Twilight Sparkle. These friendship lessons all come together in the season three finale - which was originally the show's finale - to give Twilight an upgrade to the Princess of Friendship who protects friendship all over the kingdom. It's quality writing. You establish a theme, let the key character explore that theme through various standalone episodes, and then bring it all home with a finale that captures on the lessons in a way that works even if the audience has missed some of the episodes because the finale doesn't hinge on any single episode. It's about fully realizing the show/season/arc's theme. That's how you make an episodic formula show build to a big climax without actual serialization. A plot without a plot.
Note: you don't need to give an episodic formula show a theme. A show can be amazing without one. But if you want an episodic formula show to have a sudo plot, themes are a great way to do it.
