That may be the point when the series got darker, but it's not the point where it actually got good.I personally think that the show got serious once the Inquisitor himself turned up (Season 1, Episode 5) and we could see a hologramm of a morally and emotionally broken Luminara Unduli walking to her execution chamber (and her frozen corpse thereafter).
Growing the beard is about quality, not tone.
And that, dear sir, is a matter of subjective, personal opinion only, not a dogma decided by an entitled individual upon others.