I watched Bleach years ago on Amazon Prime when i was a kid. Prime only had up to the beginning of the Bounts arc at that time, so I never finished it. I recently found it on Hulu and am watching it all the way through, filler and all. I'm about to begin the final arc and I wanted to share my thoughts.
First, I disagree that things went downhill after the SS arc. For me, the show temporarily jumped the shark after the Grimmjow fight. Everything before that was honestly kinda great. I didn't even realize the Bount arc was filler. It was slow at the start but I really enjoyed it by the end.
The Captain Amagai arc was interesting but it killed the pacing. The Zanpakuto Rebellion arc was really good at first but I kinda hated it by the end because of how cheap the show felt. The second half of the arrancar saga started mid-decent in my opinion, and was great by the end. And the Invading Army arc was so good I wish it was canon.
Personally, the show got really really bad in-between the Grimmjow fight and the actual Ulquiorra fight. Everything else has been incredible. I'm sure if I didn't watch the filler, or watched it afterwards that I would enjoy it a lot more. Although I don't see how I can fully watch the middle filler without breaking continuity, as Uryu has his more advanced Quincy weapon but Ichigo will lose his powers by the end of the Arrancar arc. Either way, I'm excited to finish the series and start the new one. Eventually I may watch the movies.
