I thought they did a really nice job of (again) rebooting the show to start from a relatively clean slate plotwise, but with the same characters and dynamics. I absolutely loved Sloane's offhand "Isn't this fun?" comments, for one thing. And Marshall whispering "Sloane's here!"
And it's about time they let Sydney actually off someone.
Funny coincidence...yesterday, we got Seasons 1 and 2 on DVD in the mail.