But last year I noticed I was really out of step with a lot of my former SV conversation partners, and I was avoiding their reviews to stop myself from getting into stupid character wars or taking character criticisms personally

I know what you mean...I'm still planning on following the show, but a lot of the time I feel like most of the people I started watching with have moved on to new shows, so I always end up feeling really out of place. I miss the days of Clex fandom when there were literally dozens of reviews I could read and nod along with *sighs*