The series began with a bang, but by the end of the second season, things had begun to fizzle. The show was still good, but it didn't feel as special as it did at its inception. Here's my best guess as to why.
At the beginning of the series, we find our characters in the middle of a huge crisis - their world and most of the people in it are destroyed by evil robots. We experience all the excitement of discovering how life will continue for the survivors, how these people will interact when thrown together, how each of them reacts to the situation, etc. etc. It is fertile ground for interesting stories and revelation of character.
Then things settled down. The survivors had more or less found their new way of life. There were still conflicts between the characters, they still had their personal struggles, but the show lacked the massive conflict it once had. The plight of our characters didn't seem quite as important as before.
So what did the writers do? Between the second and third seasons, the show jumps ahead one year. When we pick up the story again, everything has changed and the characters are in the midst of another major crisis. So we the viewers have all the enjoyment of learning about what happened in the past year, discovering how things work in a new present, and watching once again as the characters we love sort out their future.
Pulling this kind of series retool is a risky move, but in this case it paid off big time.
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