pokemon og aka ashinme is lame when you compare it to other anime for kids from its time such as digimon. Pokemon all it had to do is add motivations to Satoshi that were more than just "im gon be le very best" something more grounded in reality so the character becomes more human and relatable, same with the rest of the cast who stand as merely companions who never break the mold. But they never tried to do this, so the formulaic nature of the show becomes a bore to watch even as a little kid I noticed this.
The slapstick humour is all over the place and then there's a focus on pokemon who cannot speak human language despite understanding it, if they reduced a bit the slapstick humour, added more personality to the pokemon instead of all of them being one dimensional, and also developed the personality of the characters as they follow their adventures, we will have a more nuanced show worthy of a rewatch as adults such as digimon.
One of the best episodes of pokemon that manages to do this is the one that tells us how Meowth became a member of team rocket and why he can talk and walk like a human.
https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/EP070 Go West Young Meowth
It's one of the best pokemon episodes because it adds layers to a pokemon that are humanlike, tells us his origins, how he fell in love and his love wasn't reciprocated despite him trying his best: learning to talk like humans and walk like one to impress his love interest and then going to save the female meowth's life and all for naught, cause in the end, she goes with a Persian and Meowth heartbroken joins the team rocket...
It also adds meaning to one of the best melancholic ED in the show that has Meowth as the singer. All of it makes it quite memorable and worthy of a rewatch, but the rest of the show isn't like that, it will never be like that. It's too simple and fails to catch your attention for more than a few minutes cause it's predictable and utterly childish.
