I watched DS9 when it first came out and I was... underwhelmed.
But then I caught a few episodes in syndication, and it seemed pretty good -- the captain shaved his head; there was this guy (Gul Dukat?) who had really interesting conversations; there seemed to be action everywhere.
Is there a season where I can start without all of the boring stuff?
Like Babylon 5, you kinda need all the establishing material.
Unlike Babylon 5, the first season isn't awful, just dumb.
Also, they keep having dumb episodes. Anything that deals with Dax is inevitably the worst episode of the season. It's a little weird how consistently bad the writers are whenever they have to deal with trill lore.
Sisko family episodes, Julian Bashir episodes, Ferengi episodes, O'Brien episodes, Bajoron faith episodes, Cardassian episodes.
The list goes on, though.
I can't resist a ferengi episode. Space jew comedy of errors
Sometimes the Ferengi were amusing but it was hit-or-mess, e.g. the Ferengi feminist movement.