I guarantee if you watch a few episodes starting from the beginning you'll get hooked. There are some kickass episodes in the first season, and the characters are what make the show so amazing, particularly Picard, Data, Worf, and Geordi. As the characters develop, the show gets exponentially better.

For the record, I've never watched the original series, and it doesn't detract from TNG to not watch the original series as far as I can tell.