No it didn't. It felt silly to you because you compared it with other gundam shows. Try to look at it as something else standing on it's own. There is nothing silly about the Master-student relationship and the shining finger is just a special attack, think rasengan and you will probably be able to watch the show.

The Characters in this show alone are enough reason to see it. I say give it another try and stop thinking "Oh gundam this will be war and cool mechas with guns" think something like "cool a diffrent gundam shows, the guys at GW says it's good so i better watch all of it so i don't miss out."