I actually thought the first half of season 1 was kind of dull

I get the impression that they're still working out personalities and motivations and everything. I was very glad when Ollie's family finally started to realize that, gee, maybe the guy who had been stuck on an island for five years would be a little different from who he was when he got on the ship for a three hour tour or the idealized version of him that they had been building up in their minds all this time.