I don't remember people wanting elaborate back stories, just less stupid comedy and dumb human villains. Some of the Season 2 episodes of Animated fall in line more or less of what was seen in Beast Wars and that is why they are more enjoyable while the first Season was ridden with the poor human villains and very uninspired and childish writing, comedy and characterisation.

Animated for me still ranks as very poor overall but Season 2 showed that they were moving up and improving from the horrible first season formula and focusing more on what Transformers are about. We will see if the third season finally serves to define Animated as a good series for me but at least I can see an effort for improvement.