I also recently binged this, and I think the problem is they tried structuring a dramedy like a sitcom. The sitcom pedigree of the creators had them relying on a lot of their bag of tricks, and as soon as it started getting too serious they would put a laugh in, like Frankie's on-again off-again hearing problem.
It got better as the season went on, but I kept thinking how much better Transparent found comedy as a drama, then this was able to land the drama as a comedy. Plus, the more they tried to expand into the other characters, they kept hitting running time issues that prevented them from exploring them further.