If you ask most people what is the worst thing about the first half of season 5, they would say Lord Byron and His Merry Band of Singing Creepy Perfectly Multiethnic Long-Haired Telepaths.

I don't even remember BSG's news episode.  But then I did sour against the series pretty hard half-way through.

"But it does fall afoul of one of the major problems that formal experiments often possess: the gimmick gets in the way of the story."

Yabels- yeah, pretty much.  I think it's a like the Scottish clan system where they are not the same family but very distantly related from ancient times.

How come whenever people talk about the Gathering they forget the actual story of it?  I mean, there's a whole murder mystery and shit, remember?

It's a thing in B5 where Big Philosophical Ideas are repeated in different contexts.  The craziest example is Freddy's Cult in Grey 17 being based on essentially Minbari Buddhism or some crap.

I get the urge to compare these two eps because they're both about news media but they are really doing completely different things, both in terms of issues they're exploring and what they're supposed to be doing to/with the characters.

Well other than the two episodes focusing on media discussed in this thread (And Now For A Word and Illusion of Truth), it's hard to pinpoint episodes that focus on that story because ISN is a constant presence in the show, announcing major things that happen outside the station.

Also we are just assuming that guy was honest about their sex ritual.  Maybe he was a rapey creep who made it up.

Lochley was the best they could do with a character that appears in the last season of a serialized show.  And while this shouldn't affect one's judgement of a character or story, Scoggins was really cool whenever doing conventions and interviews, really sweet and a dedicated actress and super cool.  I wish she had…

Ivanova sex dance was stupid, agreed.
But I find Franklin's line about "taking one for Babylon 5!" funny.  Maybe I'm a terrible person for laughing at sorta-rape jokes.

Thanks!
This is why Delenn is maybe the most underrated character in the show.

Spy ring = Rangers?
They're not a "spy ringt," you're making it seem liks it's the CIA.

In the Beginning is fun but mostly just a bunch of fanwank for people who saw the first 4 seasons already, 'cause it's basically just visualizing a bunch of stuff that had been referenced already and adding some barely plausible situations where people meet each other earlier than you would have thought.

The Gathering is good.

In terms of pure plot, yes you can skip season 1 and follow what happens, because like you say of referencing and how they catch you up.  I mean really that's true about every series except like Game of Thrones?

Kosh saying "never ask that question" is one of the great foreshadowing moments of this series.  I mean that is referencing the most MAJOR thing that will happen in season 4.  Just remembering it makes me *squee* in B5 fan-nerd glee.

B5 is more serialized than DS9, even early on.
My recommendation is watch the whole thing or don't watch it at all.  Of course it starts slow and gets better, that's what all TV shows do.  If you really hate it so much why bother forcing yourself, not every show is for everybody.  Even the much-maligned first season…

Delenn's "discomfort" at this point I always read as being due to her place amongst her people and on the station.  We're at her low point now- she basically lost all connections to comfort and power, and only has Lennier and her small dedicated faction of caste/clan followers (and even that is questionable at this…

It is indeed in season 3 where Delenn confesses to G'Kar that they knew about the Shadows all along when they denied such knowledge after G'Kar tries to warn everyone earlier, because they weren't ready to directly confront them, and that this allowed the Shadows to ally with the Centauri, leading to Narn's…