Babylon 5 went even further than most shows today. It had one giant narrative arc over the entire series. The first season was mostly setup. Things started picking up in the second, built up to a huge peak in the third and fourth season, and wound down in the fifth. This wasn't entirely intentional (they were worried about season 5 being cancelled and crammed more into 4), but the effect was like you were reading one big novel. That might have made the last season disappointing if you were watching one episode a week, but it works great for binging.
By comparison, Sopranos for example had a narrative arc for each season, and the new Battlestar had a fairly continuous level of narrative tension throughout, with maybe three or four episodes from peak to peak. I don't think I've ever seen another show that did quite what B5 did.