Hate-watching: Enjoying the Frustration
| Hi, guys! I'm Kate, and I'm addicted to dropping dramas. Giving a drama a fair chance to draw me in and entertain me is not in my current nature. I just could not care less. How I went from never dropping any drama to dropping dramas on their first episode? Is such a change even possible? Yes, it is, ladies and gentlemen. Let me take you on a journey of how my dropping dramas habit evolves. |  |
 | ENTHUSIASTIC BABY (gifs source: yesdramas) |  |
This is the time when I just got into drama. Everything was fresh, new, and shinee (hehe, Kpop references never die). Each and every drama I started felt like a whole new wonderful world that needs to be explored. All the colours, pretty faces and fancy clothes. All the rude boys that truly have soft hearts deep deep DEEP inside and need a nice girl to show them what love truly means. Amazing attention to detail and high production value. No matter what I started watching, it all looked so much better than any western show I have seen.
Cliche? Overused trope? Not for me. At first, every amnesia made me cry, every white truck of doom shocked me, and every mean lead was a prince I fell for. I was obsessed with Lee Min Ho and thought he was the best actor on the planet. Unrealistic plot? Plot holes? I did not have time to think of stuff like that, as I was simply amazed by the new cinematic world I stumbled upon.
| DRAMAS I WOULD PROBABLY DROP IF I WATCHED THEM NOW ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ | ||
Genres: Comedy, Romance, Drama Tags: Rich Man/Poor Woman, Stolen Identity, Contract Relationship, Pretend Relationship, Quirky Female Lead | What do these dramas have in common? Both present a "Cinderella story" type of plot, when a girl from poor background finds herself a man with some cash, and while they might not like each other from the get-go, their love blooms in front of viewers eyes. The world of evil mothers, crazy second female leads and over the top plot lines that revolve around a rather simple love line. My teenage heart loved every second of that. The idea of the girl being the one to warm the heart of the male lead. Oof. What standards I had. That said, I would like to defend these dramas a little bit. Yes, right now we say they are full of cliches and overdone stereotypical K-drama characters... but! They were some of the first to use said cliches and make them as popular as they are. Even if now we find them boring, back in the days they were gold. | |
Genres: Friendship, Comedy, Romance, School, Youth, Drama Tags: Adapted From A Manga, Rich Man/Poor Woman, School Bullying, Arrogant Male Lead, Love Triangle |  | |
 | RATIONAL BRAIN (gifs source: kookyely) |  |
At some point, it hit me: I don't have enough time for all the amazing dramas. I had to find the solution! How was I suppose to compromise between my heart telling me "all the dramas deserve a chance, they can always get better" and my brain saying "why watch something you don't really enjoy when there are so many dramas you will love for sure?". And that's when I came out with the system: do not drop dramas earlier than halfway through.
It's fair to say that if you don't like the first half, you probably won't enjoy the 2nd either. It's not like they will change the production style, rewrite the whole plot and change all the character. And with that, I slowly started dropping dramas. I still felt a bit of guilt, but it was a step in the right direction. Still, I only dropped dramas I truly disliked and pushed through some mediocre ones.
DRAMAS I PUSHED THROUGH EVEN THO I SHOULD HAVE DROPPED THEM | ||
That was the time when I slowly started to explore other genres than romantic comedies. I barely dipped my toes into this new territory, so I was still quite lenient towards your typical romance dramas. They were the main source of my entertainment, after all. And this is when I started skipping scenes in dramas. Dropping everything I stopped enjoying was still out of the question, but skipping scenes here and there? I could deal with that. I was also willing to watch anything with the actors and actresses I liked. I could suffer from a boring plot, poorly written characters and annoying plot twists if I could look at their pretty faces (with some it was more worth it than others :cough: Hyun Bin :cough:). Slowly but steadily, I was starting to figure out what exactly do I like, which plotlines would make the watching feel like hell, and which will lead me to paradise. |  | Genres: Psychological, Tags: Dissociative Identity Disorder, Double Identity, Love Triangle, Playful Male Lead, Hardworking Female Lead |
 | Tags: Australia, Co-habitation, Possessive Male Lead, Divorced Couple, Ex-girlfriend Comes Back | |
 | EMOTIONAL CRAZE (gifs source: wooyoungbby) |  |
Seo Kang Joon is me waving to the dramas I'm dropping and wishing them good rest with the other ones on my dropped graveyard.
Drop... drop... DROP... DROP! Let's drop dramas left and right! Am I not feeling it 10 minutes in the first episode? Drop. The first episode seemed boring/over the top/not my type? Drop. I dislike one side character a lot? Drop. No guilt to be detected.
While this type of "emotional" reaction and decision making has its advantages (ain't wasting no time on shows I might not enjoy), it also left me in the place of "I have nothing to watch", especially since I like watching currently airing dramas and discussing them with other users on feeds. But if I drop all the currently airing ones, I'm left with nothing.
| DRAMAS I'VE DROPPED ON THEIR FIRST EPISODE | ||
Genres: Thriller, Mystery, Romance, Drama, Investigation Tags: Paparazzi, Badass Female Lead, Cold Woman, Journalist, Strong Female Lead |  | This phase left me with one legit question: How many gems have I dropped just because I was not in the right mood to watch them? A normal person would simply move said dramas to "on hold"... not me though. With my weird system of using "currently watching" for currently airing dramas I watch, and "on hold" for dramas that finished airing I'm watching, I have no space for "it's good but I ain't in the mood atm" dramas. I had no choice, I had to drop them. Is there any way a drama could have survived my lack of interest? The answer is: no. Not even my favs could save it. Not the amazing OST, or well-written characters, good production value or outstanding plot. If I'm not feeling it, I'm dropping it. |
Genres: Food, Comedy, Romance, Drama, Melodrama, Detective Tags: Time Skip, First Love, Opposites Attract, Love Triangle, Meet Again |  | |
 | HOPEFUL TRY (gifs source: zhaolusi) |  |
Me resurrecting dramas from my dropped graveyard with a glowing ball.
The more you use feeds, the more you start to regret dropping dramas. There will always be someone who loved it, and their posts are usually convincing. With that in mind, I started my "2nd chance" project. With the use of high tech equipment, allowing me to generate randomized numerical representation of the dropped title (aka I used google's random number generator), I began my new journey to redemption.
| DRAMAS I GAVE 2ND CHANCE SO FAR AND HOW IT WENT | ||
| As of now, I managed to finish 3 dramas I previously dropped and re-dropped also 3. How it works, you could ask? Let me explain: First, I randomly pick a drama from my drop list with random number generator. I exclude dramas from the current year since this is way too fresh of a drop to give it another go. Second, I rewatch the last episode I have previously seen to refresh my memory and get back to the story. Third, I watch two more episodes and give my final verdict based on that. If the drama is good/entertaining enough, and I was simply not in the mood, 3 episodes are enough for me to make a decision. How successful is my project? It's not...? The highest rating I have from the 3 dramas I finished was 7.5. That said, the process itself is fun, especially sharing my progress with friends :) | Abyss | Genres: Mystery, Comedy, Law, Romance, Fantasy Tags: Murder, Serial Killer, Childhood Friends, Nice Male Lead, Hidden Identity |
My Strange Hero | Genres: Friendship, Mystery, Comedy, Romance, School, Drama Tags: Corruption, Student/Teacher Relationship, Second Chance Romance, Evil Parental Figure, Wrongfully Accused | |
So that's the story of how my dropping habits progressed (or regressed, if you truly think about it). Since I like to try watching different dramas, it's given I will drop more than an average person. But then, what is fairer? Giving dramas a try even though they don't seem like your type and dropping them, or not trying to watch them in the first place? :)
How about you guys?
Do you drop dramas? What makes you drop them? Do you hesitate a lot or you don't even think twice about it? Maybe you can place yourself somewhere on the 4 stages journey I have dealt with? Share your thoughts in the comments, and I will be more than interested in reading all your opinions. :)
