Funny, my first experience with the show was similar to yours - watched the first season or so and wasn’t into it, then started watching again in season ~five with someone else - but I actually started to really enjoy it from there. Granted it only took like a season for it to really go downhill, but it got me interested enough to watch from the beginning once it was over. Despite the knowledge of the terrible conclusion the first few seasons ended up being some of my favorite TV.