This. And I don't think it's close. Although I will say I thought the 2nd season was pretty well written too.
The only time the series sucked was when seven episodes in a row were them sitting around the farm house performing soliloquies. That was truly bad, but since then certain fans are on edge wanting all action all the time afraid of another horrible stretch like that. I think Season 3 and 4 in general were back to the quality of 1.