‘Hate-watching’ — is it a thing?

I do not intend for this to be a political or controversial thread (all while appreciating my occasional propensity for misreading, ahem, what exactly we mean by that here), but anyway, let’s see how it goes. I read a review that jokingly referenced ‘hate-watching’ a film and, while this was a few days ago, the term is stuck in my mind.

I’m currently watching Manifest (have found the corresponding MoFo thread but don’t have much to say on the subject for now). I stumbled onto it and kept going out of sheer boredom (and because I refuse to get Sky as I already have Netflix and cancelling that and signing up again while losing my tailored recs doesn’t sound ideal, which is why I can’t watch season 2 of From). Am being mindful of spoilers, but .

I dislike it and am especially perplexed by/uncomfortable with the message, more so perhaps than I tend to be with any of the modern overly ‘progressive’ things. As such, I suppose I’m hate-watching it.

Does anyone else do this? Is ’hate-watching’ even a thing? For what it’s worth, I am not talking about the Oh-my-God-this-is-disgusting/too violent/too weird-but-I-cannot-look-away kind of feeling that a Lanthimos or a von Trier or a Haneke might elicit. I guess what I mean by ‘hate-watching’ is acknowledging/being fully conscious of the fact that the thing you’re watching is, well, not your thing, and maybe even knowing that in advance, but persevering, I guess, despite hating it. I think for me it has to do with tending to finish everything I started and wanting to know about things, being able to be part of the conversation, at least, especially when it comes to cinema. I anticipate the counter-argument that ‘not everyone has the time for that’ and that’s exactly what my current boyfriend says when I mention watching something, usually a show, that I’m ambivalent about. But I suppose I feel that, time constraints aside, it’s worth giving a show/film you don’t immediately connect with a good honest try before giving up on it. Appreciate that’s not the same as so-called ‘hate-watching’, though.

Keen to hear any perspectives here.

Yes, every time I watch American Psycho

I’ve seen it 4 or 5 times now, and I just hate it a little more every time. Like part of me wants to like it and thinks I should like it but then the credits roll and I hate myself for wasting time.

I hear it mentioned a lot and I'm not sure what people mean by hate-watching.
I watch some reality tv and there are always people who I hate. I enjoy watching them be terrible people but this is usually balanced out by some charm on their part or of the other protagonists. So is that really hate-watching? I have very little patience anymore because of my addiction to social media. So if something doesn't grab me for some reason, I will bail out immediately. I do watch some YouTube videos that are I'm sure are intended to radicalize the viewer one way or another in an attempt to get other views. But do I hate watch them? I don't think so. I just try to be wary of them. I have heard some weird stuff coming out of my mouth because of things I've seen. So I definitely try to be vigilant and stick to reality as much as I can find it.

I guess this is not really helpful. It sounds like I am not a hate-watcher.

I'd say no. If I really dislike something, I stop watching it. I definitely continue to watch shows that I'm not liking that much that I think are just kind of decent or maybe close to mediocre, and I'm more likely to do that with shows or films that are very popular or critically acclaimed, since I'm always wondering if it will turn around for me. But, I don't watch things that I hate in the way that you are describing.

There's a word for that and it's masochism.

I hate-watched a few movies in the past but I can't say I enjoy doing that. It was mostly films I felt I had to watch because of all the buzz among my friends. But those were movies I knew I was gonna hate. Nevertheless, I maliciously watched them and wrote a dismissive review later on and made sure my friends see it. I enjoyed pissing them off like that. But sometimes this didn't work because I ended up quite enjoying the film I thought I'd hate and so my review wasn't scathing at all!

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Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.

Nah. If I still hate it after five minutes, I turn it off unless it's a film or series someone else chose.

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Look, Dr. Lesh, we don't care about the disturbances, the pounding and the flashing, the screaming, the music. We just want you to find our little girl.

In the sense that failures can be interesting, and it can be instructive to think about why they fail, sure.

In the sense of just watching something I hate, no. The only thing I watch that comes close to that is sports.

I think your example is kind of another question entirely from the ostensible title, though. How we react to art we enjoy, but which disagrees with us, is another idea entirely, even though there's a similarity there.

I appreciate these ended up being two separate things, but I was thinking about it as I was writing, I suppose. None of what I mentioned I enjoyed, but probably not the best thread title regardless.

i dunno, i guess sometimes its okay to finish if your believe that "finishing" is in some aspects an achievement. If it starts bad in the first 15mins or so I give the movie a chance to right itself, but sometimes it doesn't, like La La Land or David O. Russell films.

Yup, God knows I regret finishing La La Land.

Don't even get me started

Given I just left a Barbie screening one second ago (yes, I did finish that), this other Ryan Gosling reference has got me traumatised. The man loves pink-hued musical monstrosities.

I'm scratching my head trying to figure out someone can watch, or more importantly, re-watch a movie or a TV series that they hate.

Well, I don’t think I’ve ever hate-rewatched anything (as per initial post, I’m not even sure I understand what hate-watching is, hence the thread, so wanted to hear other thoughts).

Oh no, couldn't do that one. Ryan is probably a good dude, he just gets taken advantage of too much.

Shockingly, I think Barbie was better than La La Land (but that might be because I hate musicals). But still, no one should waste 2 hours of their life on that, even I shouldn’t have.

Laughed out loud at your last sentence

I am so glad to see other people who hate La La Land.

As you'll see if you visit either of the Hall of Infamy threads, the answer is yes.

I definitely hate-watched God's Not Dead. And to be clear: I love many films that deal with religious faith and even argue for the importance of religion/existence of God/etc, movies like Ordet or The Song of Bernadette. But I kind of had a sense that I'd dislike it, and very shortly into the film (around the time it was clear that no one bothered learning anything about Muslim women aside from "scarf on head" and then didn't even get that part right) my expectations were confirmed. Because there was literally nothing for me to enjoy in a genuine way, my only choice was to sort of laugh in derision to get through the interminable 100 minutes.

I don't think that the enjoyment that one gets out of contempt is the most noble of human emotions, but it is certainly a thing.

Generally speaking, however, I don't often go into films that I expect to dislike or that I'll find offensive for whatever reason.

The only way I'll hate-watch something is if a friend pushes me for it. But there are limitations, and a movie like Barbie is where I draw the line. Luckily, my friends aren't into chick flicks, so I don't really have to worry about that.

All these criticisms on Barbie coming from some people who haven’t even seen it.
Weird.