I have the series on DVD but I've never seriously cracked it, only seen a few episodes. Was wondering what people here think, is it as good as the internet often says it is? I know it was an inspiration for one of my favorite franchises (Mass Effect) and The Orville had a cute reference to it by making its main actor the president of the Planetary Union, but that's the extent of my B5 knowledge. So anyway, should I binge the series?
Yes you should binge watch it.
Don’t skip season 1. There’s great character building in there. It does really set actual plot events in motion as well. I don’t know why anyone would say to skip it.
Now, you can decide whether to watch The Gathering (pilot episode, later released as a movie) before season 1 or not. They’ll make references to it in the show, but I don’t think most of the audience had seen it at the time those episodes aired, so skipping it might give you to “correct” experience. Some things are different that you’ll have to overlook, but there’s legitimate plot value there.
Stopping after season 4 is an ok thing to do, but I say go ahead and watch it. (Watch the Season 5 finale even if you do stop there, though).
Between seasons 4 and 5, you can watch or not watch the In The Beginning and Thirdspace movies. That’s the order they aired in. “in the beginning” is a prequel of sorts that adds some color to things we see flashbacks to throughout the show. Thirdspace was a season 4 episode that got cut when they rushed to finish the series early, I think?
The other movies…. Meh. The recent animated one was better than I expected, but I wasn’t expecting much…
Thanks for the detailed response, I'll start with season 1 then. I like how Tomalak is in the show :D
As an adendum to that guy's post, season 5 is weaker due to production issues, but really picks up in the back half and resolves the G'Kar-Londo plot. That last bit makes it worth watching all on its own, for me.