probably the best entry point for UC is in fact the original Mobile Suit Gundam in one form or another, followed by the Zeta TV series, since those two are really the touchstones of UC gundam and gundam in general. Though MSG in particular can be a bit uneven, it and Zeta are really what set the tropes and story beats that so many other gundam series have riffed on. One reason that a lot of modern gundam series have been uneven is their desire to redo story beats from either MSG or Zeta gundam, or just to redo those series whole cloth.
Not confirmed, but I've heard that those barricades did not go up tonight for this - rather, they went up a week ago, after the climate activist self-immolated on Earth Day...