"...disappeared like a chaebol’s memory after a run-in with the Truck of Doom."

This is the only place where you can say that and have people know exactly what you mean. ?

My first drama, All In, was a binge-watch that almost killed me. I watched the whole thing straight, no breaks. After that I swore I'd never watch another drama, until I discovered the pleasure (and pain!) of live-watching like you. But now I have a little more self control and can also do shorter binge-watches while still doing things like sleeping and eating and all that good stuff.

The main reason why I try to live-watch now is so I can participate in Dramabeans discussions.

Otherwise, binge-watching has major advantages. No waiting on cliff-hangers. Don't forget what happened last week. Can decide what to watch after seeing how shows rate in Dramabeans "What We're Watching", instead of wasting a couple hours on early episode before deciding a show isn't worth it (cough Ruler: Master of the Mask cough).

I think a lot of beanies are going to identify with this one. ^^

I also started K-dramas when I was working part-time and had too much time on my hands, but for me, binge-watching got in the way of finding solutions to the issues in my personal and professional life. I (mostly) live watch shows now, but I wouldn't say my drama watching is under control. It's a love-hate relationship LOL ^^;

The joys and perils of live watching and binge watching. Adulting does impinge on kdrama schedules, but it did help me in choosing which dramas to live watch and what to binge watch over weekends. It is really a matter of time management. Thanks for sharing.

When I binge watch a great drama I get so immersed that if something terrible or heartbreaking happens I can not function for days afterwards. I recently got behind and binged the first 8 episodes of 7 Day Queen and about died--all I could think about for days were first loves and doomed fates and broken brother bromances. So as painful as it is to have to wait out cliffhangers, I find that my emotional well-being demands it.

I too went from binge-watching to live-watching but for a different reason. Cliffhangers work! If I can instantly find out what happens in the next episode, I start to loose interest. I enjoy the thrill of speculating for a week and having time to come up with fun theories. (Which my co-worker found to her dismay as I live-watched 'Nine: Nine Time Travels.' Every week she would get an explanation of what happened and what I thought could happen next.)

The one drama that I binge watched and stayed memorable for me was Stairway to Heaven. I cried bucket of tears for those few days I stayed up awake as long as humanly possible. I was addicted. Sadly though I do not think I will watch it ever again. The trauma stayed with me and my younger self couldnt understand why it had to end that way. Maybe thats why I choose romcoms first nowadays.

I much prefer live-watching because I unfortunately lack the self discipline to control my drama watching HAHAHA (the last drama I binge watched, I watched 32 half hour eps in 6 days when I finished work at midnight). And also sometimes the angst is too much to handle at one go ;-;

And live watching means you can avoid spoilers and can join in the theories about the drama with other drama watchers which I think is extremely fun :")

Unfortunately live watching brings about the waiting process which sometimes makes me lose interest in a drama if the cliffhanger is not enough to sustain my interest for the week.

And on the other hand, a week is too long sometimes. You just want all the episodes to be delivered to you instantly
(hi signal, I see you from my peripheral vision. Oh hi there too, chicago typewriter and goblin.)

yes, i can identify with this... i started in the fall of 2010 and was binge-watching everything (so many recommendations came flying at me from all directions, once the 'word' got out amongst the brethren) until Mary Stayed Out All Night, my first live watch.

i found live watching very frustrating, having to wait for the next weeks' two episodes!

but in the meantime - like almost every other waking hour during the wait - i continued to binge watch all the other dramas i trailed to, depending upon which actor's or actresses' work i started to follow...

thank goodness i didn't start The Princess' Man until after it finished - i watched that one in 3 days one weekend, and my husband and daughter would walk by me at my desk saying "she HASN'T MOVED!!" yes, those 28 episodes were worth it...

i only recently did that again, with Reply 1988 the other weekend... my tomato plants were sagging as i neglected to go out to water them in those 3 days it took me to marathon....
: D

My goodness, I can relate with what @ladytron333 wrote!

I started watching kdrama and Korean movies 10 to 15 years ago, but back then I would only hear of shows and movies by word of mouth of friends or those that were imported by our local TV networks.

Early this year, I binge-watched upon recommendation of a friend Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo.

Oh, I would stay up way late watching, and even sometimes spend office lunch break on my own to sneak in one more episode. ?

Around the time I finished WFKBJ, I also left my job and had three whole months of spare time.

Three whole months of falling deeper and deeper and deeper into kdrama rabbit hole, apparently. (Curiouser and curiouser! ?)

So in those three months, I was able to binge-watch 12 series and 2 movies. ?

Coincidentally, I got my new job also around the time I started watching live. (Fight for my way)

I agree with others that binge-watching is great because the heart and appetite get to be satisfied within your control and at the fastest possible time.

But live watching is also great in that one gets to savor each episode. Plus, a HUGE add-on to the enjoyment is also the opportunity to discuss (dissect) everything with beanies!!!

I used to binge-watch a lot, loved it and still do although right now real life is catching up, so have to give it up for a while. For me, it gives me pleasure to know the ending beforehand, which is why I prefer to binge-watch. However, as I get older my eyes no longer can stand staring at the screen 16 to 20 hours straight without feeling exhausted. I even had to sleep for a day just to replenish my energy for too much binge-watch. Another downside of binge-watch is the hollow or the withdrawal syndrome I have everytime I finished a drama, so I ended up watching another drama, and the cycle continues. It was bad when I was starting to neglect my surrounding and everything and chose to watch dramas instead. So now the only way to feed my love towards watching drama is to watch it while it airs, but I still hate the fact that I don't know the ending, which means there is a possibility to get disappointed along the way. Guess I have to deal with it somehow T_T

Binge-watching is already part of my life I guess. Been doing it for more than a decade now and I can't seem to stop, back when I'm studying a 5yr not-so-easy-at-all course in a quarterm school, reviewing for board and now that I have a full time work (including out of the country trips) but I also love live-watching as well especially with beanies on board.

No Live week wait for me, I much prefer binge watching, 2 episodes at night and 1 full drama each weekends.
I caught up with a lot but there are still so many. Dramabeans helps me (Ratings) pick which shows to watch and I sometimes read the recaps after an episode (not the recap per se, but the comments at the end, it helps me look at it from a different POV since I am not asian).

I guess I am lucky to have stumbled upon The Princess's man as my first K-Drama, it was love at first sight

As a matter of fact i also enjoy Live watching (or as I'm doing right now due to lack of internet funding *live-reading* on dramabeans).

At tge beginning it was nice to just delve in but now i like following and waiting to know what happens next and coming on here to discuss and dissect plot point and characters haha.

What you write resonates somewhat, Ladytron333.

I can't say I ever was the hardcore binge-watcher of dramas, but I did go for dramas that had been completed to begin with, and never bothered to find out what was airing. I also watched indiscriminately and without analysing. However since they were completed, I did watch each over a few days with normal breaks in between ....

.... that is until I decided that it was way more fun live watching shows and commenting on them on DB. Reading recaps, having my mind wowed by reviews, being able to say stuff and get responses was so addicting. Having a community to watch with, who understood, who oohed and aahed and wailed with me, was just the icing on the cake.

So it's basically live watching for me now, and 'old' shows are for when nothing airing is interesting enough. And while the temptation to click to view just another episode, ... just one more.... still crops up. Good old age and tiredness kicks in pretty much and the eyes don't stay open long enough to binge watch anything. LOL.

Great reading ya!

Totally my path as well! You described it way better than I ever could. I started drama watching when I randomly started Secret Garden on Netflix. That definitely opened the floodgates and I was searching for any other drama to catch that drama watching feeling again and again. I was a junior in college and it was summer. I had all the time in the world. I am like my mom though where I don't always mind spoilers. In some ways they are a comfort to me to know how it ends, if the guy I liked would end up with the girl. It would save me time in that after the first couple episode of Dream High I quit cause I didn't want the heartbreak (don't worry, I eventually went back). At work I would look up recap websites (Dramabeans) to skim through pictures of my next episode.

As I years passed though, I got into medical school and things got busy. I actually needed sleep to function. Before I had watched some dramas live like To the Beautiful You and Heirs...I was young, didn't know any better and prob would have dropped those in these days. But as my list of must watched dramas became less I started getting excited about more upcoming dramas. As medical school progressed too my attention span became smaller and less kept my interest. My friends always say I'm watching too many, but honestly I start a lot see how I feel then drop most keeping one maybe two to be faithful to. I have deduced that a downside of watching live though is i have a week to mull over the drama and in that week I starting finding flaws, some big enough to decrease my interest in watching the next week until I stop it all together.

My cousin and I actually have this conversation a lot. She's still young, in college and always says she gonna wait to binge things cause she doesn't like waiting week to week. I complain cause I want to talk to her about the drama I'm watching and by the time it's done she may forget and watching something else. Also, I cannot stay up all night anymore and not many dramas have won over sleep these days, an indicator that I may not love this drama as much too. Plus, I also get to vent my feelings about things following live to the DB community watching live!

This sounds a lot like my life...used to binge watch a lot while in college...who cares about dark circles...but now with a full time job.. only get time during commute... sigh #notenufhours...?

My very first K-drama was 'The Great Queen Seondeok' and I skipped a party and a dinner out to binge watch and I've been hooked ever since.

I used to binge-watch. As much as I loved doing that, I also had to keep reminding myself of my priorities.

Binge-watching for meant clicking the pause button on my life so I try to avoid it as much as I can. Live drama watching should be just around 2 but then there's never a certain rule when it comes to dramaland so I sometimes break it ?

Like most, I started off binging and then went over to live watching. Binging can take a serious toll on me. Like some, I've watched 16 episode shows in 1-2 days. The surprising danger with this is that if I get really tried and the show is ok/kinda good but not great, I tend to fast forward bits just to finish--looking at you Moorim School. In that way, I see binge watching kinda like a bandaid, especially with shows that other people love, but I find out that I don't love as much. I couldn't live watch something like Boys Over Flowers for example.

Somehow I'm not built for binge watching. It's not that I can't watch tv for hours on end, I just can't handle watching the same show that whole time. I don't really get it myself tbh. I think live watching is the way forward, especially since I would love to participate in the community here more... but there are so many older shows on my list that just sound so appealing goddammit! I literally have 140 dramas in my 'to watch' list right now. Maybe when I'm 70 I can start live watching?

You had me at the cover photo, Ladytron333 ?
I was unemployer for a few months last year and that part could have been written about me. Thankfully I have past that phase, eventhough it was fun.
Thank you for sharing your story.

Fun! I have a similar story. I started with boys over flowers through recommendation and hated it, but wached it (Most of it) simply in order to find out who she would end up with!
Now, after that one and playful kiss i started my master and didnt have time anymore... didnt yet discover the fascination of watching while airing.
Later on i watched few others through recommendation or simply discovering my favorite genres, during times i had vacation or was unemployed...
And actually... i have always binged amost all of my dramas, stopping ocasionally for important things like writing my thesis, and even so... i think by the end of my thesis i started to watch while airing: (with strong woman do bong soon), and it drove me crazy, because i fell in love with Min Min, of course. So i would rewatch their scenes together, because it was all i had.
But anyway... and by the way, now i will Start working this very week and i feel like you.
No time to binge. ?
Two or three dramas per week, sometimes even dropping those that show to be lacking (i.e. Tomorrow with you or The best hit), and watching what i watch barely once if possible because i also have to cook, clean, swimm in the sommer, and keep in contact with family and so...
In conclussion: i liked your post. I understand you completely and felt identified.

the King 2 Hearts couple you have in the pic is my faaaaavorite!!!
and I completely understand your change in "Binging and then not Binging". There is something very exciting about waiting for ON AIR episodes!

Wow Ladytron! When this topic came up, I thought I hadn't changed my tastes so much as honed them in, but when I saw the title of your piece, a little bell went off and I clicked right away! I relate to much of the evolution of your drama-watching, though for me it began just a few years prior. MySoju and DramaCrazy!!!! Way to bring me back, girl! I marathoned like a crazy gal and I HAVE gone to work with Seul-Gi eyes. After watching many of the classics, and then seeing the hoopla and excitement leading up to new dramas here and on DramaFever, I began to appreciate watching dramas live. Plus it's fun to converse about the shows on here as the shows unfold. I feel like I'm with the big kids now! It also feels a little more healthy. Do I still binge though? Most definitely.

I'm an avid binge watcher when time permits. My attention span for dramas is about the size of a gnat. I abhor waiting for dramas to air, having to wait for them to be subbed, or having to search for a site where the show is streaming. Like others, I ONLY live watch to participate in recaps. Honestly, that's been awhile as well. Right now, I'm faced with a major drama dilemma because I'm watching Father is Strange but Dramabeans isn't recapping (understandably so) so there's no discussion to participate in...

I do both. I watch all of the currently airing shows live and then on the weekend I binge watch a completed drama (I watch Thai and Chinese dramas as well so often it will be one of them that I will binge). When I first started (high five for the 2011 squad!), I binge watched sooooo many dramas (yep, on Dramacrazy) in the first few months. Scent of a Woman was the first drama I live watched in its entirety, and I loved it so much I would watch the raw episodes while reading the recap so that I could follow along. Then, I watched Spy Myungwol live and after that catastrophe, I swore off ever live watching a drama ever again (it was a very sudden introduction to the pitfalls of the Korean drama industry!). That only lasted about a month though, and then I was live watching something else. I have no will power and hate waiting for things.
I prefer live watching because sometimes I look at the episode count and think "No, that's just too many to binge". So if it's a family drama, I better be watching it from the beginning otherwise I never will. Shorter dramas though, or web series, I like to binge watch.