
I've fallen behind in my viewing and have been looking forward to catching up. I'm saddened to hear the show has gone off the rails.

Where ever the show involves literature (usually in storylines for the scatterbrained cop who writes) or inventions (involving Murdoch) they do seem to like to make the relevant characters a bit "visionary" and "before their time," but to me it mainly seems done in a light hearted spirit, not to push agendas.
The writers seem to think it's funny and clever (goodness knows why

It's not clever or funny, shows no wit or effort on the part of the writers, and is quite annoying, but IMHO only a minor gripe in what has on the whole been a very well made and entertaining series.
It's not the stories, which I like but can get a bit OTT and silly, but their work depicting the overall background and setting, despite the occasional silly episode, that I think they've done a stand out job on.
I hope they can recover from any mistakes they've made in the latest season.