Babylon 5 was a cumulative effort. I got into it during the second season when the overarching storyline became very sinister and the cahracters that we thought were comical took some evil turns while the characters that seemed one note villains in the first season found some nobility and nothing went right for anyone (there were some episodes where the tagline could be answered with a resounding No. As in "will the captain prevent the war from starting?" No. "Will the doctor save a race of aliens before they all die from the plague?" Not a chance.)

But then I tried watching the whole thing all the way through after it was on TNT and teh first season is hideously awful.

Overall it's a great storyline, but JMS has really clunky dialogue that only the best actors can overcome (and not even them at times)