Its a victim of its time. There is a decent amount of filler and some episodes have big inconsistencies at one point due to being released out of order since they were filler content, but the overarching quality of the show, and watching it slowly move away from monster/mystery of the week to something that rewarded its fans in multiple intentional and sometimes subtle ways, it truly felt… And still feels… Like something deeply special and really worth recommending, even if you do end up having to work through a decent amount of filler in the first seasons.

You’re not alone. I went in expecting it to be high-quality based on comments similar to the above, then adjusted my sights for trite but entertaining, then realized I was only even entertained when John Noble was on screen (and to be fair, his performance was very fun).

I do recognize that it broke new ground and wasn’t as cliché when it originally aired, but it’s hard to imagine that it wasn’t just as hammy.