@ greg: the story may be good but it doesn't matter how good a story is if you can't stay awake long enough to watch a single episode since it numbs you and puts you to sleep.
This coming from a OP fan? The show where 7+ minutes of a 24 minute episode have been devoted to recap, flashbacks and the never-ending opening?
Now please don't take this as a personal attack on your being. It's just an observation, a pattern if you will, that I have observed in attacks on the series. Anyone who uses the argument, "Eva is boring.", really isn't taking the time to think about what they're watching. That's not to say Eva is flawless in its use of time. There are parts that are genuinely boring. But that's not to say they're artless.
Eva is one of those special series where using the down time to actually THINK about what you're watching or researching it will reward you in so many ways.
For instance, ever note the constant buzz of cicadas? It's not just there for BG filler. Cicadas only live in Japan for a few weeks in the summer. Although the series never directly comes out and says it, this new world, or at least Japan, is actually in a perpetual state of summer due to Second Impact. When you don't just sit there and doze off or refuse to think that what you're watching has meaning, you will be lost, but Eva was created with meticulous attention to detail and overall story to the point where it is tenable to suggest the story was created from the end forward not unlike OP. Evidence of this may be seen in the opening where we see events/objects that only come into play MUCH later.
If viewers got off the emo train and considered that yes, our characters are imperfect, the two human main characters come from HORRIBLY broken/fucked up families, and saw the positive aspects of their actions, like, the fact that they have a will to live to begin with, one might actually be impressed by just how much they accomplish during the series.
Anyway, I don't mean to preach,but Eva really isn't just some 'boring-ass emo series'. Yes, it has its faults but when you examine the details in relation to the bigger story instead of sitting there expecting to be told EVERYTHING (like most anime post 1996) then you will certainly be bored out of your mind.