Babylon 5 was one of the most ambitious shows in TV history, maybe the most ambitious one. But it hasn’t aged well. Like any pioneer, it created trends that those following handled in a more polished manner, so if you weren’t around during the pioneering stage you might not appreciate that aspect of it.
It was basically trying to make a novel into 100-120 hours of TV footage. Many shows are serialized and tightly plotted today, but in the mid-90s this was rare or unheard of. Babylon 5 is still unique in that the story was pre-planned from the start - there were some changes made along the way due to circumstance, but JMS knew the story he wanted to tell and it makes a remarkably cohesive whole. Compare to, say, LOST, which follows the same serialized structure, yet those guys had no idea what the overall plan was and just tried to mystery monger to add confusing layer on top of confusing layer to keep you from seeing they had no idea wtf they were doing. This allows really long term foreshadowing and payoff. For example, from the very first episode you see that one day G’Kar and Londo will strangle each other, but it takes 5 years for you to understand the true context, and what you think it means will change several times in that period.
It was also fairly unique in that it was a sci-fi show mostly about politics, rather than technobabble or pulp sagas. It took a more realistic and plausible tone because of that and was a lot more interesting than almost all TV sci fi.
That said, plenty of downsides. The dialogue and acting are often very theatrical, and off-putting for TV. This especially has probably not aged well.
The production values are often very low, although the show was a pioneer in that regard too and did a lot of good with its small budget. In fact, early in the seasons, the attention to detail to doing good physics, especially with the starfuries, makes it interesting to watch, more interesting than a much slicker looking silly star wars battle with airplanes in space. Some of the random starfury vs pirates battles, or the battle of the narn ship vs the shadow ship from extremely long distance are some of the most realistic potrayals of what space battles might actually look like.
There are some really huge dud episodes. Most of these are in season 1 and season 5. In season 1, the show was just finding itself, was far more episodic rather than serialized in nature, and was bumbling around for the first half of of the season. It starts to tighten up in the second half. Second through fourth seasons are MUCH better and tighter, although with a few huge clunkers mixed in there. But if someone started watching the series and some of the first episodes they saw were TKO and Infection, I could see why they wouldn’t give it a chance.
It was interesting too that the creator of the show (and a creator who probably had the most control of his show ever) was interacting with the fanbase on usenet regularly, which made it an interesting experience.
As a whole, I would say that it may be the most ambitious, unique show in television history. Other shows have handled the cohesive serialized story in a more polished way, but I’m not sure any of them ever basically set out to tell a pre-determined story over a set number of hours/years. There’s a lot to like about it. But you’d have to be very forgiving of the cheesiness of the acting, dialogue, production design, occasional total clunker episodes, etc.
For you, if you liked season 1, you’re already through the worst of it, so you’ll love what’s coming.
