Yes, it really is a legit good show. (Full disclosure: my cats are named after two Farscape characters.) First and foremost, it must be said that it's legit good sci-fi, so it's about flying around on a spaceship and encountering aliens, so you need to be on board with that, or I predict a major stumbling block.

But the characters are awesome and there is continuity and world building and humor and it's quotable and quite often bugnuts insane, but in a really entertaining way. John and Aeryn's awesomeness, both individually and together, are a large part of the awesomeness, but that's what you hope for for main characters.

Part of its awesomeness is due to how many conventions of a typical sci-fi space show it completely ignores, up-ends, or subverts. "Rules" of the genre set by Star Trek that were modeled by many, many subsequent shows. And I think perhaps this facet of its awesomeness may be lost on you, because I gather you aren't a big sci-fi person? But I think anyone can appreciate its creativity.

And the puppets grow on you, I swear. You like Doctor Who, and if you can roll with those special effects and aliens, you can roll with Farscape's.

Its growth as a show is analagous to Buffy's, because the premise is solid, but a lot of early episodes are a little rough around the edges, perhaps, and the budget was non-existant. But after the first batch of episodes, you see glimmers of what it could be and then it starts getting better and better, and it's not long until it's legitimately awesome.