Babylon 5: It Sucked.

I never watched Babylon 5 when it was in first run back in the '90s.  But I have this vague memory of someone recently praising Babylon 5, perhaps in my writers' group (which is the only place I really talk to people who are into science fiction). So I put all of season one on my Netflix queue (it's only available on discs, not streaming).

My conclusion after watching one episode and perhaps a third of another: it sucked. How did this thing survive for five season?

Yes, the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation sucked. But not like this:

• The acting was wooden when it wasn't shrill
• The writing was atrocious (I turned off the second episode when a character said "clear and present danger")
• The production values were barely above porn movie levels (not that I've ever seen porn movies)
• The direction was plodding and pedestrian
• It was shot on video tape rather than film, which added to the cheap milieu (and didn't scale up very well on my big-screen TV)

The one thing I could recommend about the show is the make up on the aliens was generally done well. And occasionally they made a nod to real-life physics (e.g. the station rotates to simulate gravity).

But I couldn't sit through two whole episodes let alone the four on the first disc.

But now I can say I tried to watch Babylon 5. 

If it had been Star Trek: Babylon 5 I might have stuck it out. But if it had been Star Trek: Babylon 5, it would have been Deep Space Nine with was good, even if it had a rough first season.