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 shrillThe 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 pedestrianIt 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.