On the surface, probably not. There are a lot of blink-and-you'll-miss them references splashed liberally throughout. Clearly, they have seen this show, or at least looked up all the movies and picked some characters from each to revive.
But Part 5 is just such a fucking slog with no energy at all after the first arc. I watched the first 6 episodes weekly in 2018, and I thought they were a good time then. Ami was an excellent addition to the series. Everyone played an interesting role in that story. And episode 6 was a filler that I vaguely recall, so it couldn't have been all bad. Nonetheless, I found I didn't want to keep going then, so I put the series on hold.
Holy shit, did I make the right call. The second, third, and fourth arcs are all miserable experiences that don't amount to anything. They're slow. They're big mystery boxes. Worst of all, they sideline half the cast in each. Basically, they're horrible Lupin III movies that would have been stretched over WEEKS. For no reason!
The fun of Lupin III is in how radically different the show can be every time. It's fun. If it has something meaningful to say about the human condition, that is explored in the margins. I should be having fun when I'm watching it. I should not be fucking bored out of my mind, wondering why Fujiko just doesn't show up for 6 episodes in a row or what these new characters are supposed to add.
Maybe they didn't HATE Lupin III, but sure as hell they didn't UNDERSTAND Lupin III as a means for compelling TV. Because of this, their feeble attempts to be meta in the final arc could only fall flat.
