I watched it well after it was finished and cancelled because a friend of mine was obsessed with it and I was more enthusiastic outwardly than I actually was. It was just...fine. In terms of enjoyment factor. Everything else that you mentioned was bad and made me uncomf.
But you are so right that it carries this cultural weight and at the time at least among the people I knew, you couldn't even say it was average, let alone bad for xyz reasons.