I have no beef with Paul Wesley - young Kirk was described as "a stack of books with legs" back in TOS, and I think that comes through in the performance.
But Sam Kirk is an absolute delight.
If the first season wasn't your cup of tea, you might try skipping to season two - I personally think it's the weakest of the five, but it does introduce Mount, Peck, and Romijn as Pike, Spock, and Una.
And then there's the major shift at the end, which sets the stage for some seasons that I really enjoyed.
The headline I posted was the headline at the time - the other verdicts hadn't come in yet.