Hate watching is a cultural phenomenon that binds together every movie or show critic on the planet. Some people describe hate watching as watching a show or any production simply to critique it, while others succumb to the negative reviews presented on social media and feel as though they have to see it to believe it. Netflix originals have been the main source of hate watching, especially during its productions of The Kissing Booth and He’s All that. 

   The Kissing Booth has now been turned into a trilogy due to the millions of people who have decided to give it a chance. Movie critics had very low expectations in the beginning, because of the fact that the  movie was based off of a romantic Wattpad story written by fifteen year old Beth Reekles.  However, they were greatly mistaken as even the Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos called the film, “one of the most-watched movies in the country, and maybe in the world. Which, frankly, no one expected.”(Los Angeles Times). Although, with a whopping 26% on Rotten Tomatoes, it is evident that the majority of that viewership came from hate watchers.       

   Which begs the question: do some movies truly deserve sequels, or do so many people watch it just to criticize it, leading producers to continue making more because they think people like it?

   Senior Alexa Conrado agrees that “hate watching is probably the reason that those shows/movies get so much exposure, even though it would probably be better if they didn’t.” Hate watching also adds to the  culture and society in the film industry because everyone can bond over a mutual hatred of something. The people are also in fact aware of hate watching, deliberately choose not to watch a certain show or movie in hopes that it will be discontinued. This is especially true for senior Aminda Dubuisson who spends more time reading the reviews than actually watching it. Tik Tok being her main source of information grants her “ the overall insight of the entire movie, but in a comedic way” this allows her and millions of others to get a preview of what to expect. 

   The people who are aware of hate watching deliberately choose not to watch a certain show or movie in hopes that it will be discontinued. For Aminda, spending time analyzing the abundance of bad reviews is how she decides whether or not to give a movie her view. She understands that just one more person watching can mean the difference between an abrupt cancellation or a long road of sequals.      

   All in all, as hate watching became the national pastime it continuicly  proves to be the main suspect of increasing viewership and giving productions what would seem to be unrealistic attention, a second chance.