Finally finished Deep Space Nine. I watched every single episode all the way through...

Awhile ago I posted a table of episodes from season 1, tracking which ones were worth watching. I said that I would extend it with later seasons as I went, but from season two on, there were very few episodes that weren't worthwhile. Even the episodes which I did not find enjoyable usually included some important piece of character development. Each season was better than the previous, although the introduction of Vic fucking Fontaine in season 6 came close to ruining it. God damn I hated that character. Ahem...

Deep Space Nine is kind of like a soap opera. There is a lot going on, and missing the right episode could easily leave you lost. Watching it the way I did -- straight through in relatively rapid succession -- is probably the best way to do it. That said, I thoroughly enjoyed the depth and complexity. The political stories were very interesting, and I was amused at how often I saw parallels between things in DS9 and recent events -- especially considering that DS9 ended 10 years ago, before any of those events occurred.

On the other hand, was it worth 6 months of free time? After work and girlfriends, I have about 1 day a week for single-player entertainment, and I've pretty much devoted it all to DS9 since September. It certainly was entertaining, but I'm pretty much resolved not to watch another TV series like that ever again. I missed video games.