Sorry. 
This is the problem that comes from treating a message board conversation akin to a real conversation!
I might just have gotten distracted by the naked ladies. It’s been known to happen.
-Joe
I’m about to start watching them on Netflix for the first time myself, so I can be a newbie along with you I’ve been meaning to do it for a while.
Ok I just watched the premiere and the first episode. The guy with the Napoleon’s-hat hair is annoying, though largely because of his stupid hair. How long does it take to get good, again? I’ve wanted to watch this show for a long time.
About halfway through the first season to become interesting, and beginning of season 2 to get really good. IMO. Hang in there.
Yes, he is. And he just might turn out to be your favorite character. The hair thing is explained as a mark of status among the Centauri. The accent never is explained–the other Centauri don’t talk like Londo. It’s just one of his many attributes.
See Post #12. You can skip a bunch of Season One, but there are some key episodes that set up the rest of the series arcs.
Londo will grow on you. Trust me on that one. Peter Jurakis is the second-best actor (and character) on the show.
But, really, every single episode of Season 1 contains something that foreshadows later events in some way. And there are some stand-alone episodes, like Believers (Season 1, Episode 6, I believe), that merit watching even though they aren’t crucial to the arc.
For those of you who liked A View From the Gallery (Season 5), seriously? I appreciated what JMS was trying to do, but this was supposed to be casual conversation between two blue-collar, supposedly straight guys. Do you really think any conversation they held about the captain would not start with the mention of her being a stone cold fox? They might well then go on to praise her ability as captain, but I don’t think society will have changed enough in 250 years that outrageous beauty won’t be the first thing a couple of guys mention when discussing a woman who has it. Hell, I’m a straight woman, and it would be the first comment I’d make about her! Also, I don’t see a couple of blue-collar guys going all mushy about how much two peopleSheriden and Delenn are in love. I admire the heck out of JMS, but this episode struck me as a white-collar guy trying to write blue-collar characters, and it struck me as both patronising and lame. Also odd, because he wrote Garibaldi and Zack, who were also blue-collar characters, were written just fine.
Which Kosh?
We are ALL Kosh
I don’t know if you’ve seen the movies, but the hotness of that particular Captain becomes a minor plot point in one of the movies, mostly for fanservice and comic relief (yes, at the same time).
Also, Thirdspace has to get at least an honorary mention as far as the movies go, for at least taking a swing at sci-fi horror (Alien it ain’t, but then it didn’t seem to be trying for quite that effect).
And for me, Garibaldi and Londo were my two favorite characters. My theory for why Londo talks like that all the time is just that he makes a point to approach every problem completely and utterly smashed. The man enjoys his drink.
Oh, and you can’t talk about awesome likable characters until Mr. Bester shows up. You’ll LOVE that evil little smug son-of-a-bitch. 
Nah, if I watch the show I’ll watch the whole thing. I may snark at it a bit though 
Funny - your join date says January 2004. I thought you’d always been here.
I’m currently rolling on through Season 4. I could have done without “Atonement” but still enjoying it, and particularly the Londo/G’Kar character arcs. There’s something deeply compelling about a character who knows he has damned himself and is fighting tooth and nail not so much to redeem himself as to save everyone else from the same fate.
Ok, as of this morning I have watched all of the above episodes except for the Quality of Mercy and Chrysalis. I’ll watch one tonight, another tomorrow, and then start the second season.
These episodes were significantly better than the horrible pilot, so thank you all!
And it gets much, much better from here on.
How so? I haven’t seen the movies in question, mind you.
Long story short, there’s a B Plot (well, maybe more of a C Plot) in the movie about this skeezy guy operating a holobrothel (cheap shot at Deep Space Nine? Wouldn’t be the first one B5 did :D), which was raising a lot of ire amongst other people on the station, but which they couldn’t do anything about because he wasn’t violating the terms of his lease on the station. It eventually turns out that…
He was renting out a hologram of Captain Lochley in a dominatrix getup, which was very popular. One of the security guards gets berated for staring at the hologram and protests: “What am I supposed to do? Gouge out my eyes?!”
Go back and watch Believers. It’s not crucial to the arc, but it’s well worth watching on its own.
Let me expand. Believers is an episode that does what Babylon 5 did at its best: develops characters and makes you look at a moral issue from multiple viewpoints and recognize that each has merit. It also has a great Kosh line, one of his less cryptic.
I’m up to about episode 15 of season 2. I’m enjoying it but it’s not the greatest show I’ve ever seen or anything.