Exactly ! The first season or 2 seasons made him seem a little bit annoying, like over confident, but right when he gets his beard for some reason his character becomes cooler !
I'm precisely at S04E06. I still can't get into the original series, so I skipped to TNG, and got hooked after a second try (I don't like the very very first episodes, I can feel they were trying to find their style and then used the good recipe for the rest of the series).
My favorite characters would be Picard and Data, Picard for being the example of what would be the best commander ever (which touches me in real since I'm actually First Officer in real life and obey orders from my own Captain and am supposed to be a captain myself in a few years only), and Data because his character is well tuned and his lines and self centered episodes are very interesting and subtle for a character that would appear cliché at first.
EDIT : and as stupid as it could sound, I actually get interesting things out of TNG for my actual jobs. Even though everything is scripted and fake, the interactions and reasoning between the members and their hierarchy are inspiring and interesting for my own point of view in my real job. Questions like "when should I question my superior's authority", "how should i do it", "how do i take a decision" are complex things and even though this is all fake, it's actually credible enough sometimes.