Difficult to like them

I think the writing is to blame, the actors were part of this problem but with such characters it's difficult to inspire much sympathy. I felt like the show expected at all times, from day 1 till the end, that we somehow believed these people were interesting, nice, funny and likeable.
Instead, they were mostly abrasive and repulsive and boring, I was not interested nor I was rooting for them. Barney seemed like the only good one because he's mostly attacking the other 4.

I could see the creators thinking these were the new Friends, but I struggled with these people on a human level like no other modern show.
It felt entitled and definitely not half as smart as it supposed to be.
It felt artificial, there was no honesty and certainly no magic in it, that's why I think I couldn't connect with these people.