It's commonly conceived as a deconstruction of the mahou shoujo genre. However Madoka Magica merely twists some aspects of the mahou shoujo genre to give them a dark edge, but does not critically point out any potential flaws of the genre to make its audience question the genre's substance.
Starting off with the most obvious aspect, the visuals, Madoka Magica presents us with a lot of dark alleys and conversations without much animations going on. The few battles going on during the show do provide us with some rather good animations, although the many immersion breaking paper cut-outs are rather forgettable in those scenes.
The plot of Madoka Magica really wants to be a strong point for the series, often creating a feeling that "something interesting may happen sometime" to the audience. The problem is that nothing out of the ordinary actually ever happens. Virtually every single part of the show's story is forseeable, to an extend that a lot of people had actually thought up the show's major plot points much earlier before they had come up during the original airing.
For an ending that feels like the author was not exactly sure on what it should be like, while not delivering anything new or exciting, Madoka Magica also does not deserve much credit.
Having spawned dozens of character fan arts, the characters should be the shows strong point, but even here it is lacking substance. Over the course of all 12 episodes, the characters are very hesistant on making decisions and moving on, reducing the show's story to a few stretched out, sometimes very forced key plot elements. Due to this behavior the characters appear very one-dimensional, although the writer's intend on making these characters feel like actual people does shine through occasionally.
Taking all of its flaws in consideration it, I find Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica to be a rather boring show to watch. The action is good and enjoyable, but the characters talking and bitching about the same problems for episodes, and not coming to any interesting conclusions, really wears down on the enjyoment of this anime.
