I have very split opinions. Every once in a while I really enjoy what I'm seeing, but I agree that all too often it seems like a parody of itself.
At this point I'm hoping they actually killed Farrells character. There's just too many characters for my tastes, and his character is kind of ridiculously overloaded with issues. Plus it would be a seriously cool thing to do
Wikipedia lists 5 main characters and 21 recurring ones. For about 2 hours of television that's a lot characters to establish, and it shows. Most characters are just caricatures at this point.
I also feel like they started with too many storylines, trying to tell too much about the main characters and about the background right from the start. It leaves everything very shallow.
I hope it's just the start. In any case it seems that the storyline is going to be a lot more complicated this season.
I get the impression that the second season is going to try do something a bit like The Wire too. Open sociopolitical commentary, showing the same story from different angles...
In any case they certainly are not trying to just repeat the first season.