Dropping Asian Dramas... Is OK!

Recently I saw some posts about dropping dramas. The first post was from a member who thought their MDL statistics looked so “ugly”. The other one was a discussion about dropping dramas. The post said that it's ok to drop dramas but “only bad ones”.

Since it is a topic that comes up all the time, I started to think about it, figured out a few theories, and did a survey. I got 153 participants (thank you so much!!!). In this article, I will present the results and my conclusion. Keep in mind that I don't judge anyone.

General Dropping Statistics

The average participant watched 103 Asian dramas and dropped around 24 Asian dramas in their life. Here's the summary of the results of the first question:

Only five people said that they never drop dramas. Actually, that's fewer than I expected. One theory of mine was that people who never dropped a drama just didn't watch enough dramas to come across one that doesn't match their taste. I was wrong. One of these participants watched over 600 dramas and Asian shows and never dropped one - I want to say WOW!

Two of them could imagine reasons why they would drop a drama... maybe one day. But what keeps them from dropping a drama? 4 of 5 chose their favorite actor/actress as one of the main reasons why they hold on. The second most chosen answer was an attitude: I should finish what I started. The hope that it could become better was the third-ranked reason.

One of them, however, acknowledged this:  "I don't really officially drop a drama. I just start another one (which is more interesting) so I forget about the other one for months/years. So in a way, I technically dropped it but never "officially" decided to drop them on MDL (that's why it's zero)..."

On the other side of the statistic are the people who barely finish any drama. I didn't expect more people to have problems not to drop a drama than to drop it. But none of these participants dropped all the dramas they ever watched. Actually, the correlated percentage between completed and dropped dramas is not that outstanding. Four of them are totally average but they judge themselves harder than others. It is a typical example of the different perceptions of what is normal and what is not. So IF you felt guilty or bad — you really don't have to!

I thought that every person drops around the same percentage of dramas... nope. The range is somewhere between 20% and 55% — guys, you are too individual and completely falsified my theory.

68% of the participants said they drop dramas sometimes but only really bad ones. So let me ask you: What are bad dramas? In Reasons for Dropping an  Asian Drama, I will explain what I figured out later.

The remaining participants are totally fine with dropping dramas. A quote from one of them that I really liked: “My personal view is that dramas exist for our enjoyment. If you're not enjoying it, you shouldn't feel obligated to finish it.”

44% of them drop a drama after watching at least a third of the episodes; 21% watch at least half of the drama. Some participants said similar things to this member: "Time to drop: I just have a 'feeling' that is so strong that makes me drop it."

Maybe a New Genre?

Here's an overview of ranks in popularity compared to most dropped drama genres.  The participants were allowed to choose their three favorite genres and the two genres they drop the most.

The overall favorite genre was Comedy/Romance. One person made it clear that these were two completely different genres. Yes, you are right, but I tried to find a way to shorten the question so more people participated, and grouped as I assumed a quite similar audience and emotional response.

So 85% said Comedy and/or Romance was their favorite genre. At the same time, it was the most dropped genre as well. But at this point, we have to consider that it was also the most produced genre so we cannot really read anything into it.

The least beloved genre was Melodrama/Tragedy. It seemed like more people tried and dropped genres that weren't their favorite. So it leads to my next theory: People often drop dramas of genres they usually do not prefer.

21% of participants drop only dramas of genres they don't count as their favorite genres. For 33%, at least one of the most dropped genres didn't belong to their favorites. So 54% often drop dramas they don't prefer. Yes, still 46 % of droppers stay in their beloved genre but it is enough to proof that my thesis is reasonable.

So if a person has a long Dropped list, they may just like to try new things, and maybe have the same attitude as this participant: “Life is too short for 'bad dramas'. If you don't feel like watching, drop it.” I liked that they put 'bad drama' in quotes. Just because someone dropped your favorite drama doesn't mean the drama is bad, it was maybe just someone with a  different taste.

Reasons and Prevention

I collected all the reasons I could imagine. The people participating in the survey were allowed to choose three and three (I had to split it). Here's the ranking:

As you can see, there is a clear trend in answers. It is so sad that so many dramas lose their chance to get appreciated because the story develops too slowly. I realized this often with especially Chinese dramas —  so much potential, too much airtime.

But there are other reasons I didn't consider as this MDLer told me: "Too much popularity and the gushing of fans can be a reason to be annoyed with a drama and drop it."

As the next step, they were asked what strategy they used to keep themselves from dropping a drama. Here is the overview:

Obviously, all strategies and reasons I could imagine are getting used. My ideas refer to four types of fan.

The loyal fan: For their favorite actor, they endure and never lose hope that it will become better. They at least want to be up to date to write a review.

The detail lover: Even if the main characters are bad, particular storylines and side characters keep this person hooked.

The cheater: By skipping boring parts or simply putting the drama on hold instead of dropping it, the dropped list stays clean.

The weak conscience: They have to finish what they started, and feel guilty when they drop a drama.

The outcome is really mixed. I only want to say something about the cheater and the weak conscience. For the cheater, I only want to say: It is okay. If this is the way you enjoy watching dramas, go for it!

But you don't want to feel guilty; keep in mind dramas are made for our pleasure and MDL is made for fans to have fun, right? One of the survey attendants simply  answered: "I don't track my dropped dramas." Whoever you are, you are one of my heroes! If you feel guilty, just remove the drama from your list completely. No one and nothing is allowed to give you a bad feeling. Here's a report of someone who overcame their guilty conscience:

"At first, I was completely against dropping dramas and anything I started, I would finish. Then the ones that got too boring, I started to put on my On Hold list, but deep down, I knew that I would never finish them. Eventually, I cleared out my On Hold list by putting most of them on the Dropped list but a couple I put back in my Plan to Watch list because I was willing to give them another try. Now if I don’t like a drama, I won’t waste my time with it and will put it on the Dropped list right away."

In the end, everybody has their strategy, just never forget to have fun!