Despite it being a shorter season, the drama was cranked up to 11 this time around, some of it being wildly out of character in the case of Linda. I don't know how much time has passed in the show since season 2, but in real time it was only 3-4 years. I mention this because suddenly Jack has a 5+ year old son with a character we've never met before, and Linda/Orton's adopted kid looks to be nearly a teenager. There's also a couple missing characters, only one of which is briefly talked about, and others seemed to have been changed just to suit the needs of the plot.
While overall I enjoyed season/series 3 with its bittersweet sendoff, when it was over I soon realized that the entire storyline would've played out almost exactly the same if Jack wasn't involved at all. The same people would've died, and all the characters would've been in the same place. Jack's main contributions was the many tactless things he said and did along the way. Pretty much everything was different and everyone was moving on with their lives that it left Jack no choice but to do the same. That's not necessarily a bad thing per se, but it would've been nice for the main character to have more control over the plot for the finale of his own show.