I was crazy disappointed with the first episode. I know JMS has a history of playing the Long Game with story, but I found all the characters really bland. Too many things were introduced all at once, it went for shock value and failed, and I couldn't remember a single character's name.
I then rewatched the first episode of Babylon 5, because I remembered suffering through the whole first season before it "got good" (these were simpler days back when what-was-on was what-ya-got). I suppose I was hoping for a similar feel to the pilot of Sense8, with messy pacing, no character development, and lack of story... but no, they manage to introduce more characters in more dynamic ways in less time and have an actual episode plot. The drawbacks with JMS's first show are dated CG, bad acting and 90s hair. The new one looks sleek, has some nice performances (Benjen Stark has something new for his demo reel!) and I only saw one mullet. But I didn't get anything else out of it.
Again, this is only going off the pilot, but in my day if you didn't have a pilot you didn't have a show. I hated B5 at first too, so maybe if this gets great reviews I'll try again.