I would say I'm a pretty easy going person in general, and that extends to my drama watching. I'm selective with what I watch, so I usually don't do hate-watching. However, before I realized I didn't have to finish everything I started, I did finish a few dramas that made me angry. Unfortunately, a couple of these were surprise Hate Watches - the things that made me angry weren't there right away - they snuck up on me, darn it! But now, if a drama makes me angry/upset in a way that's not fun and that affects me longer than when I'm watching, I drop it. Here's a short list of dramas that made me angry:
● Lucky Romance (the FL)
● You're All Surrounded (the mystery resolution)
● Graceful Family (the FL and the mystery resolution)
"Annoyed Watches" and "Disappointed Watches" are another story 😂

I do not purposely watch a show I hate. I will skip it and spend my precious time elsewhere or another drama/show instead.

But there could be an instance I stick through a mediocre to bad show until the end if I like the leads. I do not consider it a hate watch. Its just a self imposed chore perhaps. Maybe I hope against hope that it will get better for my fave. Or a sense of loyalty? maybe for the bean? Its something that may change in time.

Is there a science to it? I thought it was just self-inflicted pain. I think for me hate watches are probably when you’re already knee-deep in the drama and
1. can’t/won’t drop the drama
2. Keep hoping/waiting for drama to get better
3. Have too much faith in the actor/writer/Director

This is just a few examples.. sometimes it depends on your mood as well.

I prefer quitting instead of hate watching dramas. 🤔 For the most part, I just drop dramas that are not worth my time - whatever the reason. No hard feelings. I don’t have a grace period either: if something doesn’t work for me mid-episode 1, I’ll opt out.

In the past, I had to learn this while reading books: I always thought I’d have to finish every book I started. But some were just incredibly frustrating to read, and once I noticed that they took the joy out of reading in general, I just quickly put them on the dust-collection-donate-later-pile. A life lesson I directly applied to watching kdramas 😂 My free time is limited and precious!

I don't really hate watching. It's just if I don't have a lot of dramas to watch, I won't drop some dramas I would have dropped in other circumstances. I watch in a indifferent way, nothing makes me excited or angry... I'm just resigned. When I really hate a plot or a character, I drop it.

I'm ready to admit I totally hate-watch shows. Everyone else here is so reasoned!!! I also drop shows, but that's when I'm bored (**cough** Hide**cough**), not when it's got me so strongly in its emotional clutches that I actually feel something--including anger, resentment, or hate.

When I really-truly hate-watch, I rarely comment or post about it on Dramabeans, though. That's not to say I never do that (Not Others) but when my feelings are running negatively hot, that doesn't result in interesting conversation for me or anyone else.

Other examples of full-on hate-watches for me include Kkokdu, Heavenly Idol, and True to Love/Bora! Deborah. Those were all known by me to be pushing all the wrong buttons early on. I persisted because I wanted to know how they could further twist me into a knot...but also with the (tiny) hope that they could indeed pull something satisfying out by the end and offer me the promise of the unmatchable joy that is seeing someone turn this thing around and prove me wrong.

Then there were a few that I only came to recognize as hate-watches near the end: Yumi's Cells (I know, I know), Be Melo (I KNOW, I KNOW), Strangers Again, and My Lovely Liar. These all have the property that in the final weeks I finished them with dread in my heart, knowing full-well that I had been betrayed and that I was persisting because of my own resentment.

Hey, it's a fan's life.

As some other folks have said, most of my hate watches were early in my drama career, and most occurred because folks had raved about a show so I kept watching expecting that it had to get better. A few personal examples:

City Hunter: The stupid, it burns.
The End of the World: High brow cynicism about how all humans are terrible at its most pretentious and obnoxious
Damo: The show that most made me want to throw my laptop against a wall. Don't set your female lead up as a the world's most brilliant detective and then turn her into a total idiot in order to force a faux tragic ending.

Or, a more recent unfortunate example: The Kidnapping Day: For the love of god, google contemporary HIV treatments. Please. It's not the 1980's any more.

Hate is a word I rarely use, including its use for watch. If I can’t like something or someone, I’ll just walk away. IRL, if I have to work with someone I initially didn’t really like, I often end up finding their good sides that make me not dislike them anymore.

For Kdramas, I realised that for a show I’m on the fence about, if I give it more time, more attention, watch at normal speed, no ff, it can grow on me. If it’s still not enough for me to keep watching, then I’ll drop it.

A wise beanie once said something along the line of “we owe the show nothing, we owe the actors nothing, so never feel obliged to finish something that doesn’t make you feel good”. Nothing truer has been said.

I'm notorious for suffering bad dramas for the sake of actor bias - much less lately than before, look, I've made a progress! - which I wouldn't always call hate watch... But sometimes there's just no other words to describe the experience. Main rule here is: It's only hate when you care somewhat - otherwise that's indifference.

This is directly related to my stress level while watching - if I had zero prior expectations other than ogling a beloved face for a few hours, why would I be seriously annoyed at any bad elements? But if I did have some hopes for the plot/other actors, oh boy... The bigger my expectations were, the worse is the hatred when show does not deliver. Same for dramas that started out strong and then went downhill - I prefer to drop these, but sometimes I don't, and that's when my full unhinged snark shows its venomous head. Pretty sure you can recall some examples of that...

Sadly, my faves seems to love trolling me with spectacularly crappy dramas on a regular basis. Well, then they can't complain when I troll them back in my reviews for I'm always judging media, good and bad, with the same intense level of passion^^ The biggest problem usually is to resist the urge to punch the screen...

Hate watching is not good. And I'll also add that it is not fun.

There are so many dramas I've stayed away from simply because it had an ingredient that'll lead to a hate watch.

I've hate watched before. Of recent, I was hate watching Live Your Own Life because I wasn't cool with Ha Joon's character. Surprisingly I liked Ha Joon and was team Ha Joon in Destined With You but somehow, I hate watched his scenes in LYOL for almost 30-35 episodes.
Another more recent hate watch was Our Blooming Youth. And that's because it did something I'll never forgive in a rom-com story. I perfectly understand if A and C will not be the endgame, but A and B will instead. But what I'll never forgive is cancelling out the history A and C shared and built simply because they won't end up together and it is the past. Past or not, romance stories have to respect the history and love that was shared, especially when the C was not a bad guy or a bad lady. The way OBY handled its love triangle soiled the romance for me and gave me a distaste for Park Hyung-shik. That was my first time watching him and the writers did a good job pissing me off.

The reason why I hate watch is the reason why I don't... I don't like the main cast, or the leads.
I specifically stayed away from Wonderful World because of a particular actor I won't name but you already know the name. I did want to have to critique this person. It is sad to not watch Kim Nam-joo and Kim Kang-woo. So I'll watch this when it ends so it'll be a single feeling and not spanning over weeks.

I stayed away from The Matchmakers cause I can't stand Ro-woon. TM was sooo good that it didn't stop me from watching what the rave about episode 13 is, but I was glad I didn't watch the whole drama. The recaps were enough for me.
I've stayed away from a number of dramas lead by young bloods for fear of hate watching them, for example Twinkling Watermelon. Why? I do not trust them to lead a story. Often than not, I've not bothered to confirm because I can see how they acted in dramas they've previously been in. TW turned out to be a really good drama judging by the reception here. Still, I know I made the right decision for myself.
If more thoughts come to my head, I'll drop it.
But generally, I can tell dramas I'll hate watch from a distance so I do not bother starting them. I've dropped dramas right at news bites and teasers cause I know I'll hate watch it should I press play on them.

I could be accused or excused for probably hate watching in the past. If I had invested so much time in a long series, I usually try to finish it even after it goes off the rails. But over time I have gotten more analytical in watching dramas than suspending all disbelief, such as the last weekender LYOL which had the elements and dialog facts to be a good show but repeatedly messed up every aspect of the production. I guess there is a fine line between hate watching and being very critical of the program. And I think it is slightly different from watching a program that is SO BAD that it becomes a watchable farce.

I try as much as possible not to hate-watch dramas. But sometimes, I do continue watching dramas where I am annoyed with many aspects of character or plot development (SISSYPHIS, I'm looking at you) and/or feel strongly the actors and writers could have done better / where I expected more. I like to trash-talk dramas like that, and yet even that comes from a gold place, I think.

If I truly despised a drama/totally can't abide an aspect of it, I drop it completely.

For me, mostly I stand through a show I hate for the cast or because I already made it far through the show, so I tell myself to stick it through.

This is a topic right up my alley, since a fair number of shows I watch I find it satisfying to make fun of--usually for bad writing or, less frequently, for weak acting. So thanks @missvictrix for bringing up this topic.

First, I am retired. My time is not precious, and I have plenty of it. So I have the luxury of ignoring the sage advice to drop a show you don’t like. I do agree, however, that the first element of the “science” of hate watching is that If the show is truly offensive or depressing to you, you should just drop it. (Unfortunately for me, my watching partner, my wife, really does have a completion compulsion, so I have watched shows-- Our Blues (2022) and Trolley (2023) come to mind—that I consider a daily dose of depression.)

But also let me make it clear, that in my opinion, saying that sticking with, and continuing to comment on a show that you actively disdain is truly a matter of “hatred,” is too strong. In fact, the second component of the science of “hate watching” is taking a perverse enjoyment in watching and making fun of a weak show. The very fact that the show is unsatisfying often makes it satisfying to watch and criticize.

Also, one more result of fun hate watching. If the show isn’t offensive or depressing, very often I end up kind of enjoying it beyond the satisfaction of making fun of it. An example of two recent ones that fit that category are King the Land and Dr. Slump. Its no coincidence that both are romances with happy endings, so it just shows that hate and love can be intertwined!

One final thing: I realize, when you love a show, it can be awfully annoying to have someone making fun of it. I actually appreciate it when there are big fans of shows that I think are pretty bad, because their comments make me think about what it is that they are seeing that I am missing. So after reading the comments of fans, I always consider if I’m being too critical. (Of course, usually, I say, “nah--to me the show deserves it.”) Still, I understand that a hate watcher like I sometimes am can be seen as a troll, just trying to annoy people. I assure you, I am not—I’m just enjoying articulating my opinion and pointing out kdrama absurdities. Feel free to ignore my comment if you don’t like it, or, alternatively, argue with me, and I’ll respond in a way respectful to you--if not to the show! So that's my hate watcher's creed.

Along those lines, let me just conclude by saying what I always say, that to me, the great virtue of Dramabeans is that the vast majority of commentators are able to separate the show from its fans--or its critics!

I don't hate watch and I don't understand it as a concept--life is so short. Why would anyone spend any of it watching something they don't like? I do, however, have a tendency to drop shows too soon or, to put it another way, to decide I hate something abruptly and then absolutely refuse to spend another single second on it. And sometimes, I sortof regret this, especially when I read recaps that make the show sound like something I might actually have liked were I to go back to it. But I (almost) never do.

In general, I am an easygoing person who avoids conflict. As such, throughout my life, I've been very slow to develop serious interpersonal issues with others that would demand confrontation. This is not to say that I like everyone because of course I don't. But for the people in my life I tend to have a lot of patience and loyalty until . . . I suddenly don't. It's hard to say what, exactly, will do it, but when I'm done, I'm done. I guess that has carried over into dramas, too.

Shows I've Done This With:

My Lovely Liar
You From Another Star
Just Between Lovers (although I did go back at one point and finish it)
Hotel Del Luna
Be Melodramatic (I know it's a classic and very well written. But something about the fart episode turned me off, I guess?)
Romance is a Bonus Book

The thing that is most likely to make me stay watching a frustrating show that becomes a hate watch is if I expect to see things turn around. The two examples below were hate watches because my expectations based on the start of the drama were not met by the way it played it and the end was just a big disappointment.

Why Her was frustrating because initially the female lead was really strong and good at her job but then the character started to deteriorate for no reason other than to move the plot along and it was very disappointing to see the romance story line because it was unnecessary. The show also got the award for showing a body drop scene as often as possible at the most random points in the story just for shock value.

I think I only stayed watching because the weecap and comments section made the process a fun experience. It was also on at a time when I had just joined DB and I really wanted to maximise the number of live dramas I watched; half the year had gone by so I felt I had to make up for lost time so I could participate in the bean count. I learnt the lesson the hard way that some shows are not worth hanging in there just to get the bean.

Something is the rain kept me watching because the romance was so amazing at the start and I had every confidence that it would end well.
However, the female lead's character and her mum became really hard to watch. The soundtrack nearly pushed me over the edge and it was only a couple of perfect for the moment songs that kept me from muting the sound. I was so annoyed that I had stuck with it when it didn't feel sufficiently resolved for me to feel my time and emotions had not be wasted.

It was before I had DB so I asked someone to watch it because I needed to see if it was just me who experienced it that way (I didn't say how it had effected me. They had watched and loved a popular drama that I had not enjoyed so I thought they might see things differently to me and help me see alternative perspectives). They watched it months later and were equally frustrated but by then I had watched loads of other K-dramas and joined DB so I felt really bad for making them share that experience.

Now I have learnt to drop a drama I am not enjoying I rarely hate watch a drama. Sometimes I stick with it through weecaps because I want to know what happened in the end but most of the time I don't follow the story. I don't like to have my stress hormones released in my down time because of fictional characters and their experiences. A prime example was my reaction to some of the characters in Bora Deborah, I gave it a couple of episodes and my emotions didn't change so I dropped it. I read the weecaps and comments for a few more episodes to see if it improved but it took a long time to turn around. I stopped following the weecap because I no longer cared about the characters. However, with Forecasting love and weather I stopped watching due to my reactions towards certain...

I’m one of those who used to hate watch when I first started K dramas. I thought maybe there weren’t very many shows out there to watch, and I needed watch the ones I found. I particularly hated the trope of the main guy who is mean but gets a little bit nicer at the end of the show. I watched two episodes of boys over flowers and dropped it because the main character was so abusive. A few months later, I read that it was such a famous drama, that you could understand all the in jokes about K dramas if you would watch that show. So I picked it up and finished watching it. I hated it the whole way through. After that I learned to drop shows. The only other one I probably hate watched is tunnel. Because I wanted to see the actor, and I’d been told it was a good show. But I mostly just kept a running count of how many people got killed.

Most of my hate-watching comes down to curiosity.
I kept watching 'Angels Last Mission;Love' after I hated it, because I was curious about religion and culture. ( I ended up stopping because it seemed more about the writer's view of God than South Korean sociology.)
There are a few other shows that I have watched a few more episodes/to the end instead of stopping, because I was more curious about the settings or the characters than about the story. (Romance is a bonus book- If the ensemble cast had not been so stellar, I would have stayed for the landscape- the beach in the snow slayed me- and Doom at your service- an excellent character in search of a good plot).
I have also Started watching things as a hate watch- expecting to last a few episodes just to have some idea of the show- and been suprisingly caught. ' Love Alarm' was like that. it sounded like a gut churning premise with a ML who was all style and no substance. But the writer had a suprisingly mature story, and the director put Song Kang's superficiality to good use.

Like @claire2009, Healer’s, “Hate is a word I rarely use”.

Background. When I first entered kdramaland (with KBS’s HEALER (2014/15)) in early 2016 for some foolish reason I adopted a rule: ‘Start a drama, end a drama’. Dumb. I followed that rule for almost two years until the appearance in March of 2018 of OCN’s CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD. I started watching that drama on the dark side but the subs were so bad (and I mean bad!) that COALG became my first ‘drop’. It was my emancipation. The best thing. ‘Dropped’ now entered my kdrama vocabulary.
In the kdramaworld (less so with cdramas) I am still kind of picky/selective on what dramas I start. I don’t consider myself a serial dropper.
A couple/few years ago I stayed with 2 dramas (both my ‘stinkers of the year’) to the end out of loyalty to favorites of mine who were MLs. Both dramas happened to be in the horror genre and on OCN (late of happy memory):
1. DARK HOLE (2021) (12 eps) (Viki US). I stayed with all 12 episodes out of loyalty to Lee Joon-hyuk (1984). I told him (in my imagination of course lol) that he owed me one. He repaid that debt later in 2021 with his great performance in his first sageuk: SECRET ROYAL INSPECTOR & JOY;
2. A SUPERIOR DAY (Fortunately only 8 eps) (Viki US). I stayed with ASD out of loyalty to Jin Goo. I also told him he owed me one. I am still waiting for Jin Goo to make good on that debt lol.

I very rarely hate-watch a show because I taught myself to know when a drama is a lost cause and when to drop it to not waste my time.

The only time I hate-watch a show is if I'm almost to the end of it (ep 13 onwards or so) and find it pointless to drop it at that mark when I could just get it done and over with, even if the ending is pure garbage.

I barely have the time to watch the dramas I think I will like so hate watching is not something I engage in. But I am guilty of doing for a couple of shows. The one I really did was The Matchmakers. After loving the first half I realized where the show was going and I watched the rest with mostly ff just to see if it had the audacity to go in that direction. Unfortunately it did and you all know how I felt about it.
Another similar drama was The Red Sleeve where I also liked the first episodes but I after reading the true love story of the real royal couple I found the drama being dishonest. They could have chosen any other royal couple but they chose to screw up probably the only real one in Joseon history.
Lastly, the KTL. It was not really a hate watch but more of curiosity watch of why it was so watched by many people.

I don’t really hate watch. Life is stressful enough. If things bother me I’ll tend to drift away and never come back. Like walking away from an uncomfortable situation at a party. Recent example: the gay brother’s situation in Wedding Impossible. It may have redeemed itself but I will only find out through recaps. In my early days I used to watch things all the way through thinking my investment in viewing hours so far meant that surely it would get better. I’m older and wiser now. So many shows start strong and implode = kdrama reality. Now if I’m getting a feeling that things are NQR I trust myself. I’ve had many “huh? What happened?” moments and sat through plenty of dross some of which I didn’t mind. The times I have felt rage though are when I’ve committed to the end and felt cheated by shoddy storytelling (Do do la la).

I can't say I've ever hate-watched anything before. But I've definitely hate-read a bunch of books before.

I think it may have something to do with how I can mark it as complete an give it a 1 star on Goodreads. If I had an account on a k-drama tracker, I might be doing some hate-watching myself.

But as it stands, I just lose interest and can't be bothered to ever finish the stuff I don't like....

"Do you do it?" Hate-watching is my lastname.

I used to do it way more in the past because I was horrible at dropping shows. Now it's more conscious and intentional, and not that often.

I do it because it's fun, especially when you're not doing it alone.
Even if a show (LifS for ex) is bad, I don't regret watching it because the experience itself was fun. And, for me, watching dramas is 50% about the fun.

I also do it when the show is about to end. It's like a "hate-finish". At one point I started hating the show and I stayed because I had few episodes left, or because I hoped it would get better (but it never did).

Also, hate-watching isn't that hateful most of the time. Or at least that's my case. If I really hate a show, I drop it.

I think I have done it once, and only because I was sharing the experience with two friends who were also hate-watching the show with me (the drama was Perfect Marriage Revenge, which we started as a game or a challenge). It was a funny experience, honestly, but we almost swore we would never do it again 😅

I tend not to hate shows very often. I might find them disappointing or boring or mediocre, but hate is a pretty strong word. My one exception that I can think of is pretty beloved on here: Destined with You. I have never hated a female lead on such a visceral level before - to the point that everything she did or said was grating to me and I was hoping against all drama logic that she would die and the male lead would be free to live a much better life without her. BUT, as soon as I realized this was how I felt, I dropped. There are plenty of things to be angry about in the real world, I don’t need to be angry about the things that I’m doing for fun too. My time is much more limited than it was a year ago, so I’m careful to spend it as well as I can.

The only show I can think of that I hate watched after I picked up watching k-drama religiously was probably Kodku, Boys Over Flowers and Heirs. The rest, I didn't truly hate, though if given a choice I would drop them now.
I only watch dramas where I am invested in the characters, even though I might not like the drama on the whole, or roll my eyes at the cliches, tropes, lazy writing, bad editing etc etc. The Good Bad Mother would be a good example that I watched because I was invested in the characters. If the characters do not interest me, I will drop the drama, no matter how much I love the leads. I finished Captivating the King because I was so invested in JJS's character and wanted to see it to its end.
However, last year I learned about getting 'beans'. It's sending me down the rabbit hole again for finishing a drama because I want my bean. So I eye-roll watched the disaster called Queen of Divorce. And received my hard earned bean.

I'm a proud hatewatcher, but for me kdramas are just too big of a time investment for hate watching. I will sometimes keep watching a bad drama just to participate in the fun conversation online about it, but I don't think I would start watching a bad one just due to FOMO

I very seldomly hate watch something, but recent beanie favourite Hidden Love is one that comes to mind. I didn't like the FL, the ML or anyone for that matter (except the brother - I LOVE the brother). This is no reflection on the actors, Zhao Lusi is downright adorable, but the intial manipulative efforts of the FL on the obviously clued in and already interested ML followed by their inability to communicate drove me wild for 14 episodes where I finally pulled the plug. The show was not for me but I had such expectations for it.

There have been some other dramas where I've started to hate the drama past the second half but couldn't stop watching in anticipation of sweet come-upance or sheer disbelief at the stupidity.