I haven't disappeared completely, I've just been focusing on writing and participating in the odd thread here. I've been rewatching the show too. Half the time I come on here and can't get the pages to load to write a response to all the new posts overnight
Anyway, here are my thoughts.
I sort of liked Sue Ellen and Clayton, I don't know if it was necessarily in a romantic way but I really enjoyed their friendship and I could feel for Sue Ellen later on when Clayton moved on to Miss Ellie and she felt like she'd lost her bestie.
I also liked Sue Ellen and Jerry Kenderson being friends, I thought Jerry was sweet.
In rewatch I really liked Nicholas Pearce but not necessarily in the romance plot he had with Sue Ellen, I liked his friendship with April and his storyline on it's own. He and Sue Ellen looked good together though (Linda looked fantastic this season).
In rewatch again, Don Lockwood was so blah. I actually enjoy Lovejoy the show so it's not Ian McShane that's the issue, I just didn't think Don and Sue Ellen had much chemistry, certainly not enough that I'd believe things moved as quickly as they did or they were made to last the way the show implied with them being married later on. Linda's exit felt rushed towards the end of the season, I think the romance plot was meshed in with too many other things going on.
As for JR, I'm gonna go with friendships here again, I liked him and April together and I enjoyed his relationship with Serena, Sly too. JR hanging out with Sly and Kendall in that one scene was just cute TV. Also JR and Sly going to bed one time and then Sly being massively relieved he didn't want to continue it is just so funny to me, I just watched that episode a few days ago.
PS I must correct you - Clint and Sue Ellen never slept together AT ALL. And Sue Ellen called off the would be 'affair' out of respect for Mrs Ogden (Alicia). She had a sense of decency that few of the tramps on the show ever had. What she had with Clint wasn't really an affair at all.
That's not quite true. They spoke about never sleeping together when they dated in college, but they resumed a relationship later on and as they were both married it was an affair, a physical one as well as emotional (Clint more emotionally involved than Sue Ellen). Sue Ellen eventually called it off, but the subtext was definitely there that she and Clint were sleeping together before her meeting with Alisha. There were two scenes that were as suggestive as you could get without showing them in bed, in The New Mrs Ewing and Mark of Cain, both hotel room scenes with them kissing and the camera panning away or them moving away from the camera. Sue Ellen changed her mind about being anything to Clint after speaking to Alisha and hearing her thoughts on love and staying with a man who cheated because she couldn't bear to lose him. I think Sue Ellen had a lot of empathy for the situation she was entering having been in the Alisha position before, loving and staying with her husband despite his infidelity.
Side note, have you ever noticed Linda and Monte say the character's name differently, one says Alicia like A-lee-c-a and the other says Alisha like A-leash-a, obviously the script didn't specify the way it's said because Sue Ellen would only know of the character from Clint so it wouldn't make any sense to pronounce his wife's name differently to how he does in conversation.