‘Why do I watch it if I hate all the characters?’: Nine shows people love to criticize but can’t stop watching

The moment the 'Emily in Paris' trailer hit social media (Netflix released it last Wednesday), the knives came out. With the fifth season of Emily’s adventures just around the corner — dropping on the platform on December 18 — and now with Emily in Rome, viewers are gearing up to love her, hate her, or both at once. For the uninitiated, here’s a quick explanation: the Netflix drama stars Lily Collins as the perky Emily Cooper, a marketing executive who moves from Chicago to Paris to start a new job and a new life. Not exactly irritating material on paper, and yet it has become one of the most beloved shows to tear apart. This isn’t a new phenomenon. “Hate-watching,” which we’ll generously call “ironic viewing,” has been documented since the 1990s, though it’s probably always been around and has reached its peak thanks to social media and to streaming, which lets you binge-watch episodes. There’s no longer time to wonder whether you really want to keep wasting your time on a show you only watch so you can mock it, because the gap between episodes is so short that you barely have a chance to question what, exactly, you’re doing with your life.Stefano Mazzola (GC Images)

The term was popularized by 'The New Yorker' critic Emily Nussbaum in her writings about 'Smash,' a series released in 2012 about the inner workings of a Broadway musical based on the life of Marilyn Monroe. Was it awful? No — it was a fairly solid show, well-produced and packed with big-name musical-theater stars. The same goes for 'The Newsroom,' Aaron Sorkin’s drama about a cable news network, another early victim of hate-watching. It boasted a prestigious cast, but its pompous monologues made it more ridiculous than stirring. It’s impossible that Sorkin could have foreseen the ridicule his dialogue would provoke, but perhaps Darren Star — the mind behind 'Sex and the City,' 'Beverly Hills, 90210,' and 'Melrose Place' — had an idea of the effect 'Emily in Paris' would have. A series overflowing with American clichés about Paris (croissants, berets, romance, accordions) whose true main character is the wardrobe. A cross between those two 'Sex and the City' episodes that sent Carrie Bradshaw to the French capital and the movie 'Amélie,' combining the worst of both and brimming with implausible situations and laughable dialogue — irresistible for viewers who tune in only to arch an eyebrow and rush to social media to tear it apart. Although, as 'The Guardian' wrote, “To get annoyed by TV as blandly pleasant as 'Emily in Paris' does at times feel like kicking a puppy.” Below, we revisit other series that are as beloved as they are vilified by their most devoted viewers.Marc Piasecki (WireImage)

‘Dawson’s Creek’ — Kevin Williamson’s series about four teenagers coming of age in the fictional town of Capeside — amid docks, film-buff banter, and layers of melancholy — holds the dubious distinction of being the founding title of hate-watching. The earliest online fan communities emerged on the rudimentary website Television Without Pity, where, as early as 1998, each new episode was savaged with relish. And there were reasons — especially one. And he has a name. “Why did they make Dawson so unbearable?” asks one Reddit thread. That, precisely, is the root of the backlash the show endured. Every other character was more interesting than its protagonist — every single one, even Jen’s grandmother. Jen — played by Michelle Williams, long before anyone could have imagined she’d become one of the finest actresses of her generation — was one of the show’s big problems, as she embodied the more conservative, jealous, prudish side of that insufferably selfish and self-absorbed Dawson. In fact, watching him suffer because the love of his life had fallen for his best friend was one of the main pleasures of the show.Getty Images (Getty Images)

'All's Fair' — The Disney+ lawyer drama made noise from the moment it was announced. Partly because it was produced by Ryan Murphy — capable of the brilliant ('Glee,' 'Popular,' 'Nip/Tuck') and the truly dreadful ('Hollywood,' the later seasons of 'American Horror Story') — and partly because its cast was… let’s say, eclectic. It brings together Sarah Paulson, now practically fused to Murphy’s brand, with Naomi Watts, Kim Kardashian, and Glenn Close, who, judging by her latest projects, seems to have quite a few mortgages to pay off. The presence of the most famous of Kris Jenner’s daughters, who also produces the series, sparked a curiosity that was more than satisfied once the show premiered. The reviews were so vicious they bordered on parody. 'The Guardian' awarded it zero stars, and the review itself became news — not something that happens often. Rotten Tomatoes gave it a flat zero, and critics published brutal takedowns, suggesting the script felt as if it had been written by an outdated AI. Yet despite the uniform backlash, it became one of the most-watched series on the platform. And we know that because it’s been renewed — Disney wouldn’t have hesitated to cancel it if it weren’t performing, no matter how many prestigious names were in the credits. The maxim “say what you want, as long as you say something” has proved truer than ever in an era when social media interactions count as much as viewership. A horrendous review can generate more curiosity than praise from the most respected TV critic. There are people paying for Disney+ who may not even know a season of Willow ever existed, but everyone has heard of 'All's Fair.' These days, generating memes or going viral on TikTok counts as much as 'The Guardian’s' star ratings. Or maybe we’re just tired of being sold smoke and seeing mediocre shows hyped to oblivion. So when we come across something as downright bad as 'All's Fair,' we feel oddly satisfied: “Yes, this is the trash I was expecting — and it does not disappoint.”Edward Berthelot (WireImage)

‘Grey’s Anatomy’ — Being one of the longest-running shows on television doesn’t make you immune to hate-watching. Not even if you bear the signature of TV deity Shonda Rhimes. The ABC medical drama has been a magnet for insults since the day it premiered. As with 'Dawson’s Creek,' the issue was its protagonist: the perpetually tormented Meredith Grey. A bottomless pit of childhood trauma who somehow manages to center her first-world miseries even though everyone around her suffers just as much — if not more. To be fair, she has been through everything: held hostage by a gunman, keeping her hand on a bomb lodged in a patient… Who among us hasn’t had an afternoon like that during an ER rotation? To this feast of horrors, there are the details that makes viewers squirm the most: How can a widowed mother of three small children hold down such a demanding job, constantly traveling, and not drop dead from exhaustion? Especially in a series where grandparents apparently do not exist, because this universe is populated exclusively by attractive medical professionals. If you want to see less-than-beautiful people, that’s what British TV is for. Maybe the reason people keep watching 'Grey’s Anatomy' even while hating it is that they’re hoping to learn the secret of balancing family life with a stellar career. Or maybe it’s simply because everyone on the show is good looking.Frank Ockenfels (Disney General Entertainment Con)

'Girls’ — “Why do I watch 'Girls' if I hate all the characters?” wondered 'Complex' magazine about Lena Dunham’s series — a question that became increasingly common as the seasons went on. The HBO show was marketed as the millennial answer to 'Sex and the City,' and the comparison was inevitable: four young women living in New York. Except, to seem more “authentic,” instead of lounging in glamorous Manhattan apartments, they wandered through carefully shabby Brooklyn flats that they also clearly couldn’t afford on the inexplicable jobs they somehow got (and even more inexplicably, managed to keep). But it seems no one actually wants realism on TV; just remember that 'My So-Called Life,' one of the rawest portrayals of adolescence ever made, didn’t even get a full season. Despite being sold as something entirely different — purer, better — 'Girls' amplified all the flaws of Carrie Bradshaw & Co. Hannah, played by Dunham, was profoundly selfish and a walking tribute to self-pity. But because Dunham created the show, she could indulge in fantasies Sarah Jessica Parker never could, like having every attractive man who appeared on the series fall for her before noticing Marnie or Jessa — something that required a heroic suspension of disbelief. Or shipping off Shoshanna — the funniest character — to Japan so she wouldn’t steal the spotlight. Despite the cringe-inducing behavior of Hannah, the show was impossible to look away from: a slow-motion car crash. And thanks to streaming, it has been rediscovered by a new generation that’s reached the exact same conclusion as its original viewers: Hannah was unbearable, and why on earth are we still watching this?Rob Kim (FilmMagic)

‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ — or, as Patricia Gosálvez of EL PAÍS cheekily titled it, “The Summer I Fell in Love with a Shitty Series” — perfectly captured the phenomenon sparked by the Amazon Prime Video show. “Why am I hooked on a cheesy, toxic teen story that I wouldn’t want my daughter to watch?” she wondered, reflecting on her addiction to the series based on Jenny Han’s trilogy. Both the books and the show follow a fairly unoriginal plot: a love triangle between a young girl and two brothers, set against the backdrop of an idyllic summer in Massachusetts. Love on the East Coast is always more intense than in California. Beautiful people, endless beaches, stunning landscapes, bohemian-chic houses — basically, Taylor Swift’s legendary birthdays turned into a series. Who could resist? Judging by the social media frenzy, apparently no one. Despite the laughable script and clumsy performances, everyone knew what they were getting into. Yet whether the protagonist, Belly Conklin, would choose Conrad or Jeremiah Fisher became almost a matter of national importance, sparking some extremely harsh words online. The obsession reached such heights that Amazon had to issue a statement before the finale of the third and final season: “The show isn’t real, but the people who play the characters are,” wrote the official TikTok account, following death threats aimed at Gavin Casalegno, who played Jeremiah Fisher.Lyvans Boolaky (Getty Images)

‘Friends’ — Whether 'Friends' was a target of hate-watching during its original run is hard to say, since we didn’t yet live under the full sway of social media. What was easy to see, however, was just how incredibly popular it was. You didn’t need audience data — which were hard to access in the pre-internet era — to notice it: you realized it when everyone knew what “taking a break” meant, or could sing at least a few lines of the hit 'Smelly Cat.' Ross’s tan, Ross’s teeth, and Ross’s leather pants became standard points of comparison. For 10 seasons, half the world was focused on the emotional misadventures of six friends, and whether Rachel should end things with Ross took up far too much of our conversation. But just because 'Friends' didn’t face the scourge of social media at the time doesn’t mean it escaped scrutiny. Its revival on streaming platforms has invited fresh criticism — for its lack of racial diversity, homophobic jokes, and emotional toxicity — a revisionism that has also touched classics like 'Love Actually.' This new perspective has made people talk endlessly again about a show whose final episode aired in 2004, but this time many weren’t watching because they loved it; they were watching to gather ammunition to hate it.NBC (NBCUniversal via Getty Images)

‘Élite’ — The Spanish-language Netflix show by Carlos Montero and Darío Madrona was born as a guilty pleasure, something acknowledged even before it aired. Just look at those physiques so rare in Spanish high schools and the magazine-ready interiors. This wasn’t going to be something like 'Degrassi,' but a drama that would make 'Beverly Hills, 90210' look realistic. The show could have been content as a teen drama about raging hormones, but it went further, including crime and investigation — though who actually died didn’t really matter to anyone; it was the emotional entanglements that counted. “'Élite' is like a drug,” wrote Natalia Marcos about its first season in EL PAÍS. Yet the same ingredients that helped it cross borders also made it a show people watched just to see how far the writers could go in sabotaging their own creation.NurPhoto (NurPhoto via Getty Images)

‘And Just Like That’ — “Even if it’s terrible, I’ll keep watching it,” was the emphatic response Junior Healey, co-host of a 'Sex and the City' podcast gave to Raquel Piñeiro in an article for EL PAÍS trying to explain why people kept watching 'And Just Like That' despite its low quality. The piece discussed the decline of the spinoff about Carrie, Samantha, and Charlotte’s adventures, and also the strange fascination it held over viewers. The heir to one of HBO’s most iconic series not only failed to meet the high expectations set by its predecessor, it dragged them through the mud. Where the original had left behind a trail of recognizable references and relatable situations, this one became a catalogue of eccentricities of idle millionaires, testing viewers’ tolerance for secondhand embarrassment. After each episode — or even during them — social media erupted and WhatsApp groups buzzed; it was impossible to keep track of the bizarre situations faced by these characters, who barely resembled the originals. Yet it held an irresistible pull. “I hate this show… and I need 19 more seasons,” read one comment online, a gathering place for those scandalized by the series, where sarcastic critiques flew about Carrie’s wardrobe, Miranda’s ridiculous lesbian subplot, Charlotte’s forced ‘woke’ awakening, or anything Aidan did (why was he throwing stones at a window?). But when Michael Patrick King abruptly announced the series’ end, viewers felt a profound sense of disappointment, of loss, of sadness. 'And Just Like That' was a mess, yes — but we still wanted to keep watching.James Devaney (GC Images)