I sort of like it, but my major bug-bear about it is that the sci-fi is getting eclipsed by the 'relationship' stuff far too often; you'd think being seperated by several thousand galaxies would prevent the people on ship getting into much trouble with it, but my mistake!
I think the most damning bit is that, out of the 10+ episodes I've seen so far (I live in the UK, and we get everything later than Americans in general 
), only 3 have featured alien planets, 2 have featured exploration of the ship they are on (with an overlap with the planet episodes), and only 1 strange lifeform has been seen. Frankly, only 5 episodes have really interested me so far.
Also, the MMO guy... I dunno, something about him says 'comic relief because its fun to take the piss out of nerds and if you play video games, you are a damn nerd!'
I honestly think it's one of the bravest pieces of SF TV in years because of pacing as much as anything else. I know it was hammered for the 'We're running out of X' stories of the first six or so episodes but that blew me away, that for the first time you have a series that takes the standard SF trope of 'Pushing beyond the boundary of human understanding' and shows us the absolute bleeding edge of that. The second, two part, story in particular amazed me because of the time taken to explore the very real possibility that half these people were going to die, and the other half were going to die slowly on a sub zero, barely habitable world. This is humanity trying to write it's name across the black and discovering that it takes much, much more effort than they first thought. I know that's irritated a lot of people but it's a highlight for me.
Actually, that was one of the good episodes I liked. But what I'm saying is that we only get that less than half the time with SG-U. The rest are, frankly, dull drama about the people on the ship talking with the people back home about how hard it is being away from home. Oh, and the whole 'failing marriage' thing the CO is having. When it works well, its an excellent show, and I do enjoy the 'we need to sort out this without the men and material we would really need', and the way the Scottish scientist guy (I'm bad with names sometimes) is a very shifty bastard and you can't tell if he really wants to make it back to Earth or if not, what his agenda is.
The other thing that's really impressing me is the way some of what seemed to be the more stereotypical characters are being fleshed out. The first few episodes saw Ron Greer painted as the traditional, and frankly dull, rogue male marine. The way that he's developed into being both a respected figure in the military crew and a point of contact for the civilian crew has been really impressive. Likewise, the way they've positioned TJ as something of a natural moral authority on the ship and Scott's transition from brash, inexperienced young officer to a dutiful, troubled young man who argues with his faith as much as takes comfort from it. These are the wrong people for the job and I understand why the show is so regularly criticized for having unlikable characters but for me, they're the most grounded cast a Stargate show has ever had. Which isn't to say Rodney wouldn't have them home in a week or that being a bad thing, it's just refreshing to see the change:)
Eli, again for me so your mileage may vary, is actually one of the most interesting. He's clearly starting to move from being horribly out of his depth to being something different to everyone else onboard. He's respected by the command staff, has been confronted by and become a point of contact with the lower ranks and is a well liked member of the civilian crew. Superficially he's still a geek but there's definite work being put in to move him away from that into something new, especially the way his relationships with Scott and Chloe are evolving.
I actually have a fair bit more about this, and I'm doing a series of essays on the show over at my website, but I'll stop now before I start to babble:)
Hmm, I dunno. I think Scott's actor was a bad casting choice because, if nothing else, he looks about 15 and not really ready to lead a troop scout let alone most of the offworld missions. It maybe superfical of me, but he keeps throwing me out of the program.
And Eli is improving, though he still seems to be the butt of every joke about online culture and how useless geeks they are in the real world.
Another episode that really stood out as high quality to me was the one where they found the old recorder device on that forest world, and it turned out to be them from another timeline. The way that one took a no-win scenario
and actually killed off alot of the main character really impressed me; it wasn't the standard Stargate 'everything looks bad until the last minute, but then SG1 saves the day' show, and that was good.
I guess.. the thing is, there's currently too much relationship drama with Earth at the moment; that's what seems to be pulling me out of it at the moment. Its a sci-fi show, and having the characters walking around on Earth half the time really kills the feeling I get when I see them onboard the ancient ship, if you see what I mean.
