^Pretty much. It's digging into the standard scifi tropes hard, but mostly in a way that's engaging if you like that stuff. Group of people cruising around a fucked up galaxy (mining colonies, cyberpunk style mega-corporations, Chinatown space stations, etc.) getting into violent shenanigans and trying to solve some big mystery, leans heavily on Firefly for the setup and episode structure (although it's a bit darker), SG:U for the long term plot (big ship, big mystery to be solved, bit of interpersonal conflict, although it's all on a less cosmic scale) with a bit of Mass Effect thrown in (sans aliens and space-magic). If you like that stuff, you'll enjoy it, if you don't, skip it.
The storyline obviously has the potential to go the way of Lost or the last season or two of BSG unless they've been really tight with planning ahead for the story, and some of it is a bit too tired or contrived (5 episodes in and we have a love triangle? not to mention the space samurai dude with less personality than the android) but for now it's mostly fun.