drothgery said:
I've always wondered if there were some issues with the actor, or one of the major writers just didn't like the character, because the way they wrote him out of the show in season 5 was pretty awful, and so was his one-episode return in season 6.
As Chun-Tzu points out, Riley was always supposed to be treated badly by Buffy, ultimately, and was never intended to be a permanent cast member. That being said, from what I remember, fan reaction to Riley was pretty bad- a lot of people (or at least a vocal minority on the net) hated the character and didn't want him to be with Buffy. I expect that if the character had had a huge following, he might have been inducted more permanently into the cast (as happened with other characters over the course of the show), though I doubt he would have remained Buffy's significant other permanently.
Myself, I didn't really care for Riley at first, but the character grew on me quickly, and became one of my favorites on the show. I was very disappointed to see him go, and wish that more had been done with he and Buffy in the "reunion" episode in Season Six between them (there was too much emphasis on his wife in that one, who was played by a really bad actress).
Frankly, I felt that Riley was one of the best developed characters on the show, to the point where he (IMO) seemed to overshadow some of the long-running characters, such as Xander, during the early half of Season 5. Blucas has that old-school Cary Grant sort of charm, I think, and really deserves to get more high-profile roles than he seems to.
