For me it's almost 100% live-watch, mostly because that works better with Dramabeans. Commenting on recaps & posts here is so much fun, but not much point if I'm 5 weeks behind the rest of you. FWIW, I lurked here for a few years because my early kdrama days were watching on TV and they were always 2-to-6 weeks behind, so I never had anything to relevant to say.

There have been binges in the past - Queen In-Hyun's Man & Girl K because I heard so much good about them here, but nowadays I do well enough at keeping up to date that the closest I come is a catch-binge when a show is still running, like Last Empress and I'm sort-of doing that with the not-Veronica-Park show.

My method of watching drama is doing it while doing chores or exercising. I feel less guilty and can get other things done.
I don't have favourite writer, PD, actor or genre . I love Signal but couldn't get myself to watch Misaeng, Ahjussi or Aseudal. I thought I don't like Kim Eun-seok, but in reality I completed her dramas more than other writers. I have To Be Watched list, but it mostly based on DB or MDL rating and beanies recommendation. I can watch any genre as long as there's no love triangle and switch at birth trope.
I come to conclusion that drama slump is a myth. There's literally hundreds of dramas out there waiting to be watched. If I no longer enjoy a drama, I don't hesitate to drop it. I'd rather start something new or try it another time. I dropped Healer the first time, then after a year I picked it up and now it's one of my favourite drama.
Marathoning is a no for me. I don't have attention span and energy for binge-watching.

Thanks for this amazing article @missvictrix ! I have been doing the same, watching live shows along with already aired shows. Only in my case, it has happened that the already aired shows have turned out to be more interesting to me than the currently airing ones, that somehow my interest in the currently airing ones started to wane. The already aired shows that I have watched have been some of the best rated dramas on Dramabeans so I guess if pitted against certain current shows they are definitely better!
I have a tendency to sit through dramas that I don't enjoy, but there have been a couple that I dropped. I'm going to take your advice and watch them later in life and see if I enjoy it then!

This days i always keep in check with the dramas that air and will air and basically DL almost every week day drama first(to have it there in my HUGE Dramas Folder) and mainly watch each day the shows that air then and based on what drama i start adoring i watch it on priority first...The ones that for time reason can't keep or not in the mood to start but the premise,actors intrest me remain in their cozy folder and goona watch them later(so basically those end up being marathon type)...Mostly DL the ep right after it airs and re-watch again later when subs come for the fine tunning of understanding(10 years of drama watching made me understand korean on the common thing without the speciality terms).....I rarely watch a weekend 50 drama because time,space etc...ALso don't know about u guys but i'm very much OCD about subs and need to always DL them and correct those " - " and have each dialogue on two separare rows,so it takes time and i always but always atch it on my laptop and not on streaming sites...

I've dabbled in so many of these drama watching methods. When I first started watching dramas 2 1/2 years ago, I was strictly a binger. I find that I have the most emotional attachment to my earliest binges such as Oh My Ghostess, Oh My Venus, Age of Youth, & Goblin. Pairing a newbie drama watcher with a binge fest really gets you emotionally invested.

Then as I became more knowledgeable on dramaland, I became a huge live watcher with a healthy dose of catching up on older dramas on the side. This caused me to start my gigantic "To Watch" list (currently 84 dramas strong) so that I could keep tabs on everything.

Now that I am no longer in school and work full-time, I think I have settled into a new routine. I prefer to watch currently airing dramas, but at a slightly lagged pace. I like to wait until a handful of episodes have aired so I can do mini-binges on the weekends. If I'm really pulled in by a drama, I'll catch up and live watch. But, strictly live watching is really hard for me nowadays. I have too much on my plate that I really can't remember what happens from week to week.

I've also noticed the number of dramas I can watch at once has changed a lot. First starting out I could only watch 1 at a time (another reason for my huge emotional attachment to the early binge days). Then, the number increased until I was watching 4 or 5 dramas at once. I think I've settled in to a nice groove of watching 2 to 3 dramas at once.

I'm a casual drama watcher and watch no more than one already completed show at a time (so I don't waste time on dramas that fall apart), no more than two episodes a week, if I can even squeeze them in. I have a list of dramas I'm interested in so when I finish one show, I pick another show from the list and get started. This does mean my list is probably larger than I'll ever have time to finish, but I'm only one person and have too many interests. If I could make a hive-mind duplicate of myself, I'd gladly dedicate one to full-time drama watching though.

I totally get what you mean by mood. I have to be in the mood to watch certain things sometimes. And I always do have a to-watch list that I often don't get to bc of the mood I am in. My mood usually doesn't match the dramas that are on that list. I also totally get you when you say you watch currently airing dramas and dramas that have already aired. I have been doing that these days bc I am currently in a desert of currently airing dramas. Not that many dramas airing that I want to see.

In the past, I only used to do marathoning/binge watching, because I relied too much on recommendations. It was good, usually I couldn't control my time until I finished, but I had lots of fun on my own. There were favs like "I hear your voice", and question marks for me like "my name is kim sam soon" (however you write the name) that I didn't understand why my best friend would have recommended to me. I didnt like kim san soon.

And yes, they were all recommendations. Although I discover DB long ago, I didn't catch up with the community and the fun of live-watching and commenting but until SWDBS, and then I thought I enjoyed live watching better, because as @lordcobol says, commenting and recaps are so much fun! And it is true!!
But nowadays I do a little of each, being careful what I chose to binge while I wait for my airing episodes each week, because I need balance in real life, and yes, just like @missvictrix, it depends on my mood. I have wanted to watch "the most beautiful goodbye" and "sky castle" (just to mention two dramas) since they came out and I haven't been able. I was rewatching "Chief Kim" for a second time but left it at episode seven or something and haven't been able to catch it up again, and I can't manage to finish Mr. Sunshine last two and a half episodes because I know someone will die and I don't want to see it... please don't give me spoilers!
But anyway, it has been better with you guys, either way, thank you very much. 😍
You are my only digital social "place"! 😉

Wow this is such a thorough analysis of the art (or science) of watching dramas. I enjoyed the wry humour and dramatic flair of the essay - very appropriate to the subject.

And yes, long live “To Watch” lists and the practice of dropping dramas! 😊

I almost never live-watch dramas. I am all about binge watching dramas because if I love a drama I gotta watch it all right meow. Unfortunately, it does mean the recaps here don't mean much to me as by the time I get to watching them most people have moved on to other dramas, which is a big downside to waiting for dramas to complete.

I did recently make the mistake of starting The Secret Life of My Secretary (I thought it was ending this weekend) and now I am in that horrible position of having caught up but needing to wait for more episodes to come out. I was not expecting to love it as much as I do and can't wait for more episodes to come out.

I also watch a lot of dramas at work (my family makes fun of me saying I watch more dramas then I do work). If there is a drama I really like I will wait to watch it in the comfort of my home where I can give it my full attention and watch another drama while working. But I am usually watching a couple dramas at a time. One that's my guilty pleasure at home, another that I will be watching with my Mom and my 'work' drama.

Great and fun article that I think pretty much everyone who visits this site can relate to 😸

The best way to watch a Kdrama is with Ramen and a Melona

I live watch dramas I find interesting. I watch first two episodes and judge which ones are worth following. It sucks to miss out the fun if I had to wait until a series is finished. Waiting every week is a torture especially if you’re crazy about the series but that’s part of the fun I guess! And as Lord Cobol mentioned, you meet people online and discuss the dramas you like, so that’s the thrill of live watching is about as well.

If a drama made me uber crazy to the point I couldn’t wait for subs to come out, ie. You’re Beautiful, Dream High, Reply 1988, I would watch it in realtime, as in legit their Korean time which is mostly 3-4AM my time! It’s insane, but, *shrugs* 🙃

I tend to check out what’s popular on Naver drama ranking. I’m not into non-romance dramas but if like, something is like super popular on there, ie ratings soaring high, I’ll check them out - Signal, SKY Castle - loved them.

On my kdrama slump days, thats when I check out dramas I had missed live watching, and it’s not healthy either cuz I binge watch..... especially if that series turned out to be so good.

I have no way out of this unhealthy uncontrollable drama-watching cycle 😐

I had to voice type this so it's probably not as eloquent or cohesive as it could have been.

There seems to be a great deal of similarities between how you watch, @missvictrix, and my own methods.

When I first started watching k dramas I binged everything. But not consistently. I think I only watched a drama about once every one to two months. I followed the recaps on here, because it helped me with things I didn't understand but I did not start live watching until late 2016. 2016 was also when I stopped watching any other kind of television and switched completely to kdramas.
(It is perhaps worth noting that I did not grow up watching television. Therefore my television education came only in my very late teens but mostly when I left high school. I only watched American and British television shows for about 2 years before "giving up"; I have been watching kdramas for 4 and a half now.)

Nowadays I try to have a balance between live watching and watching older already aired dramas however as of recently this seems to mostly be live watching. (I was supposed to start Tree With Deep Roots in January...)
I binge watch far less these days and when and if I do, it is no longer extreme binging, watching a single show in one or two days; it will only be three episodes maybe in a day (partly because I don't typically like to watch during the day anymore)

I like to try and have 1 episode to watch for every night of the week because my evening routine involves kdrama to unwind before bed.
Thus I usually have two to three airing dramas on the go and one other already aired.

I have a Master Word document where I keep track of everything I have watched, dropped, coming soon, airing, want to watch, to watch, variety and now even some jdramas, cdramas, or otherwise.

My mood definitely affects what I watch or what I want to watch. Sometimes I only feel like rom coms, and we'll watch nothing but them for entire months. However for more serious action, thriller or political pieces I like to have the head space for them, and time to watch them because I will inevitably write a lot about them (probably. if they're good)

I used to be a serial finisher. I had to finish the drama, I could not drop it. Now I give myself more grace with dropping dramas, however I still have a semi formal rule that I have to finish a drama within 4 episodes of the finale to call it "watched".
I also as of late seem to somehow enjoy watching dramas I don't like, just because I can tear them to shreds. This is probably a form of masochism but shitposting is fun.
I hope to endeavour in the future to watch more dramas I want to watch, and be more brutal with my selection.
However because one of my favourite things to do is analyse writing (books film tv you name it) I find watching and analysing bad shows rewarding in its own way anyhow because it teaches me more about writing in general (what not to do in my own writing, common mistakes in...

I live watched Signal, Arang, and Rebel: the thief who stole the people because I couldn't bear to wait til I could marathon them. Shows that I wasn't interested in (and I can't tell you why now) were Chief Kim and Misaeng. (I didn't give either of those dramas until after the final episode had aired. And then after I marathoned them I thought, "why the heck did I wait so long? These are great!) And one of my most favorite shows ever was "History of a Salary Man." I started watching this, dropped it, started again, dropped it again over and over. But finally I got sucked in. That show has the best ending--well, except for maybe the Hong Sister's "My Girl." (Also, special mention for ending of the film, Miss Granny.)

I'm glad Psychometric was one of the shows that got you interested enough to start watching! 💚💚💚

i guess i related to almost everything except keeping an eye on how a drama performing.
for me if i like a drama i like even if its not liked by majority or even if its a flop in korea.

rest is so true for me... while live watching if i delay watching even a single episode i get into this whirlwind of time with other drama episode and i dont know how to finish the one i postponed.... and that had me dramas dropped cause i just couldn't watch it any further.
also hv exact same way of watching to love watch 3-5 on air shows (and if i have time) and any of actors of live shows i am watching first time then their old shows will be my marathoning dramas.
and only if people, who ridicule kdrama watcher saying its waste of time, read this to know how much hard work, determination, technical and scientific approach it is to watch a drama.thanks for sharing

I usually have a backup drama to watch when I don't have enough live dramas. I started Five Children (since @mary recommended it) and was happy with it in the background for one or two episodes a day. Then around ep. 30, I started getting invested and I binged the rest of it. It's 54 dang episodes. Needless to say, my sleep/work/eating/housecleaning suffered for a few days. I need to be more careful what I start in the future!

Thank you Miss Victrix for this wonderful essay. It has helped to clarify some of my own practices.

in my early days of drama watching, i practically watched anything i could get my hands on that had english subtitles. this largely meant i had to wait weeks for episodes so i often waited until the end to binge and live-watching was pretty much out of the question. i really have to thank subbing groups (big shout out to with s2 subbing squad...anyone? anyone?) who provided (d)addicts (anyone? anyone?) like me with access to dramas. some of you (?) might remember the struggle...hahaha...

since turning to dramabeans (many years ago) and subsequently the rise of sites like viki and dramafever (rip), i have fine tuned how i watch dramas. it happened unconsciously and just became a routine.
as all of you know, dramas require a significant amount of commitment--time is a scarce resource and you can never get it back. i use recaps, in particular those on dramabeans, to screen dramas unless i already adore the actresses/actors (e.g. gong hyo jin, im soo jung, jang nara, han yeri, gong yoo, etc.). reading recaps and comments have (for the most part) consistently provided me with the best use of my time because they have turned me onto great dramas (e.g. signal, life on mars, reply 1988). Using the cast as a heuristic has, unfortunately, only worked some of the time (switch: change the world is one that currently comes time mind. i dropped that fast.) the great thing about using recaps as a screening device means that i save my time and effort for those i truly enjoyed reading, often binge watching and then live watching the final few episodes. i do not have to worry about fast watching nor wasting my time. i devour the drama in all its glory, savoring every single minute. i have "finished" entire dramas through solely reading recaps (e.g. missing nine, beating again, reply 1994, etc), with the understanding that the nuances of a scene or details will likely be missing--i'm okay with that. so far, this has often worked the best for me. reading recaps have often saved me from wasting my time on a bad drama. there have also been many, many recaps that have been better than the drama itself. (some dramas i've read and watched concurrently).

Good read! For me one of the dramas I didn't intend to watch but ended up binge-watching was Sky Castle because of the attention it got. Anyways, I agree with most of the things you said and I do them myself. I've had so many dropped shows but as you said, time is precious. We can spend those hours on a different drama, ones that resonate with us deeply, more effectively. And the list! Aha I even include in my list the actors and actresses and my very own rating after watching a drama. That's how I know I can re-watch or recommend that drama to others. ^^

My practice rule is short and simple: Never live-watch, never watch more than one at the same time. No other method has worked for me.

Along the years of drama watching. I noticed my watching style has also changed.

My current watching preference is anything that involves actors I like with hopes the storyline will keep me interested. Luckily for me, I'm enjoying the dramas I watch. And since I only have a very small pool of actors I like, my drama to watch list is also small.

I live watch several dramas but usually only 1 at a time. I try watching dramas at random, if it piques my interest I will stay. if not I'll drop it.

I dwell on dramas I like. I'm still hung up on LoM and TLE. I foresee the same will happen with Perfume, but its too early for that. Hahahaha

too many dramas to watch, and not enough time lol...i mostly binge on shows that are completed (the options are too many since i only started watching kdramas first time few months back) and try to also keep up on current airing/live show/episodes mostly to relate to the articles here, but I'm definitely behind on many such shows...also, there are many shows which i watch after a break because i can't seem to binge on them back to back for some or the other reason eg DOTS, SFD, WWWSK etc...i don't think i 'drop' a show as such, it's more like i put them on hold coz i need something else at that moment to watch (i can usually pick up (episodes) where i left off very easily), but on a daily basis i need few doses of kdramas in my life & more so during the weekend:-)