I started watching the show "real time" near the end of Season One, and quickly decided that Xander was my favorite character. I didn't get involved with fandom, especially online fandom, until sometime during or after Season Three, and -- well. Walking into a Southern Baptist church during a service to announce that one worships Satan and to ask if anybody has any spare babies that one rape, eat, and sacrifice would have gotten a warmer reception. This was during the period that B/A'shippers were fuming that "Xander's Lie" hadn't been addressed or punished, that C/X'shippers were pissed that Xander had fluked with Willow and didn't beg Cordy enough to take him back, EVERYBODY was pissed that Xander didn't become interested in Willow until after she was with Oz, and W/X'shippers were pissed that Xander didn't immediately start pining away for Willow or try to get her back AND that he later lossed his virginity to Faith.

Then imagine trying to keep with Season Four via the internet because your local area didn't have the WB for more than a year, only to discover that what seemed to have been set up to be a potentially interested subplot for your favorite character was really only being used by the writes to deliberately reduce said character's screentime and as fodder for humiliating comic relief, and they never had any intentions of giving him a real plot or arcline.

The rest of the show in real time was real frustrating in that regard, in that, yeah, they seemed to sow the seeds for a potentially interesting plot for Xander in the opening episodes of each seasons, only to consistently fail to follow up on it just about EVERY TIME. Had I watched in marathons, maybe I'd have been far less disappointed.