Yeah. That's pretty much the only thing I hate about Ash. He's so gullible. lol Oh, and the fact that his voice changed in the last season and he now sounds like he has a sore throat.
Anyway, I happen to be a hardcore veteran fan of the pokemon franchise. In fact, the first video game I truly owned was pokemon yellow and the games have stuck with me ever since. And even though my interest in Pokemon dwindles from time to time I wind up getting back into it every time a new generation comes out. (I currently have pokemon yellow, red, gold, silver, crystal, ruby, sapphire and pearl)
As for people who say the show is stupid. They don't know what they're saying. Because the japanese version of the show happens to be just as complex as the games. Despite the repetitive incidents of team rocket capturing pikachu, there's a perfectly logical explanation for why there are now TEN seasons. THE ORIGINAL SHOW IN JAPAN IS SO DAMN GOOD! In the Japanese original the voice acting is top quality and they actually use swear words and the characters behave in a more mature manner than they do in the english dub. So don't blame the show, blame the american dubbers for believing that any anime that doesn't have blood and PG to R violence should be made for kids. In one japanese episode that was banned for the use of "projectile weapons,"(the safari zone episode where the game warden pointed a revolver at his face) James actually says "You're starting to piss me off!"