I had both experiences with BtVS. I started regular viewing with season 4, and was sent bad tapes of the first three seasons, as taped on FX (which I didn't have at the time). I started buying the DVDs as they came out, so was rewatching those in marathon (bad quality to better quality), while watching the later seasons in real time.
Didn't really get into fandom (didn't know it existed) until season 6. That was a wild ride. My Spike didn't gel with the Spike my two best friends saw (and their opinions differed from each other), much less large chunks of fandom. I was on TWOP a lot then, and didn't find LJ until the long winter hiatus, I think. On LJ, I found people with views closer to mine, and finally, found fic. I think it helped me make sense of it all.
What's been interesting to me, is that my opinion of the seasons changed when I saw them in marathon later, and my feelings about all of it, including Spike, have also changed, based on who I am now. Not drastically. I was a redemptionista, whether I knew it or not, and I still have mixed feelings about so much of season six and seven, for all that I actually didn't hate them at the time. A lot of my defensiveness around Spike relaxed when I rewatched in marathon. I attribute this to not having the time to obsess over what something might mean; to look at every move and expression and worry over nuances that may not have been there.
no subject
Didn't really get into fandom (didn't know it existed) until season 6. That was a wild ride. My Spike didn't gel with the Spike my two best friends saw (and their opinions differed from each other), much less large chunks of fandom. I was on TWOP a lot then, and didn't find LJ until the long winter hiatus, I think. On LJ, I found people with views closer to mine, and finally, found fic. I think it helped me make sense of it all.
What's been interesting to me, is that my opinion of the seasons changed when I saw them in marathon later, and my feelings about all of it, including Spike, have also changed, based on who I am now. Not drastically. I was a redemptionista, whether I knew it or not, and I still have mixed feelings about so much of season six and seven, for all that I actually didn't hate them at the time. A lot of my defensiveness around Spike relaxed when I rewatched in marathon. I attribute this to not having the time to obsess over what something might mean; to look at every move and expression and worry over nuances that may not have been there.
So, yeah. What you said. :-)