Well I'm now up to episode 9 of Seed Destiny, and I have to say that I'm pleasantly surprised.
I stalled the second series after two episodes way back because I couldn't get into it but it seems that after the "stolen Gundam attack" thing ended after episode 3, the story went into a totally different direction than the one I thought it would. The Co-ordinator terrorists then came into the picture and the result was five to six episodes of carefully planned break down of relations between two sides and the build up to a new war. This is great because probably my biggest gripe with all the previous Gundam instalments is that they would always throw you straight into the conflict and you don't truly understand why the war even started in the first place, but this time they actually showed it all in a clear unambiguous fashion. It wasn't perfect by any means but I did think it was quite well done.
The characters are also better than i thought. As expected, Athrun makes a a great protagonist (I've already said
my thoughts on this before) but I also like the addition of Shin. Unlike many previous Gundam-piloting protagonists, this one isn't a total neutral caught in the conflict. He's very much opinionated and has his own biases, which makes him pretty down to earth. Can be a bit of an arsehole at times but he's still sympathetic.
Hope it continues to be this good.
[EDIT]
Episode 10
Well that was another good episode except for the whole Lacus Clyne public debacle. The fake reveal and her talk with Athrun at the end was nice but I just hope the real one continues to stay as far away from this story as possible...