When the leads have already got together (e.g. episodes 8 - 10) and I can tell they're about to introduce some contrived reason to separate them before finally reuniting them in the finale, and I just couldn't care less.

Several things can do it for me:

A plot becomes repetitive (this happens more in C-dramas).

When I am left with the distinct feeling that the actors do not care and are just mailing it in. If they do not care, then neither do I.

When the script is so ridiculous that I feel that my intelligence is being insulted.

When there is so much filler material to a thin plot that I stop caring about what happens.

In my younger years, I would make myself finish a book, movie, tv series, baseball game, etc.—even if I was bored or found it a struggle—partly on principle, and partly with the idea that maybe it would get better if I just stuck with it. At some point I realized that life was too short to waste on something I wasn’t enjoying. Now I don’t hesitate to drop something if it’s just not “doing it” for me. Some of my “drop triggers”:

🗑️ My mind keeps wandering from the show to the cookies sitting on the kitchen counter. Or to possible solutions to the word puzzle I didn’t finish yet.

🗑️ I have shouted at the screen in exasperation multiple times and have now reached the point where I’m in danger of hurling physical objects.

🗑️ I spend nearly as much time covering my eyes whenever flesh is cut, pierced, stitched, or torn as I do watching the rest of the show.

🗑️ I start a show based on recommendations from the Kdrama community, but then discover it’s the kind of show I loathe—usually one that most people might describe as “fun” or “wacky,” but which I would label “idiotic.” (My most recent drop in this category was Pegasus Market.)

🗑️ There’s too much gratuitous violence. I’m fine with violence, but only as long as it’s in service of the story. So yes to Weak Hero Class 1, a quick drop for Bloodhounds.

I drop dramas for so many reasons (or really, no reason at all sometimes lol). But the one thing that’s guaranteed to make me drop a drama is the lack of compelling characters.

I can complete a badly written drama, as long as the leads (in particular the male lead) connects with me. Love Rain is a great example of this. The drama wasn’t great but Jang Geun-suk really sold me his character and the inner struggle/conflict. Probably anyone else would’ve made that plot look contrived (and it did look that lol). But I cared so much about his character that I couldn’t drop the drama. On the other hand, I seriously couldn’t care less about any of the leads in DOTS so I dropped that like a hot potato irrelevant on how popular it was.

I think everyone’s different but I’m definitely more character driven than most.

I watch at least the first two episodes of a drama. If the story isn't complelling for me, if the actors are seriously bad, if the comedy is just cringe I drop. I also imediately drop a drama when things make no sense or are just too irrealistic... Jirisan for example.

If I decide to move forward I can usually reach half way. At this point I drop if I don't feel a thing for te characters, if I don't care for them or what they do. At this point I simply let the drama die.

But I have also dropped dramas in the final episodes. That happens when I realize I'm simply laughing at everything and insulting all the characters, because of their stupid behaviour and nothing makes sense anymore. May I help you I'm looking at you right now. I don't watch the last episode in some sort of revenge or self preservation XD

Reasons to drop
1. Heroine is too dumb or damsel in distress
2. Toilet jokes and making a mockery of a profession (think KTL and hoteliers)
3. Too makjang
4. When the cast is led by Cha Eun Woo (only)
5. Plotless
6. Too fluffy and no substance
7. Zombies or horror elements

I drop dramas that start meandering in pointless directions and away from the actual storyline, or that have characters they don't need and focus too much on them to the detriment of the flow. Before I make the decision to drop, I start fast-forwarding through the padding, and always through any wasteful montage that drags on for the length of a boring song. I find meandering often starts a few episodes from the end but if I've enjoyed it up to then, I'll FF through even more out of loyalty just to get to the end. If it goes all over the place long before that, I'lljust drop it without regret or a backward glance.

The more dramas I watch, the less patience I have, as many follow the same pattern and I'm not prepared to be bored by it anymore. Too many struggle to fill 16 episodes without resorting to the same old same old, but having said that, I did happily sit through Never Twice which had a vast amount of episodes, simply because it was silly in an endearing way, yet touching as well as entertaining.

Entertain or astound me, don't bore me or test my patience making my eyes roll back in my head. 😄

I usually binge-watch dramas in 2 or 3 sittings because I'm relatively new to K-Dramaland and so I'm still catching up. My personal rules for dropping a K-Drama is the same as dropping any drama in any language:

1. Too much sexism, misogyny, and violence against women masquerading as "romantic gestures" - I've found this happens more with older dramas (before 2015 aka before the #MeToo movement).

2. The second-hand embarrassment gets too much - If being embarrassed for the ML, FL, 2ML, and/or 2FL happens a little too much, I bail because I don't want to spend my free time cringing for someone else. HA!

3. If binge-watching is the only thing that's keeping me going and if I stop I don't feel like going back, then I don't.

4. If the humour falls flat for me. K-drama humour is usually my jam but once in a while, I come across scenes that are just in bad taste or is just a scene that you know is supposed to be funny but for some reason you don't find it funny and you can't put your finger on it.

5. Too much gratuitous violence and gore and chest-beating toxic masculinity in it.

CAVEAT: Sometimes I recognise that I might not be in the right headspace or mood to continue watching a drama, so I'll probably come back to it later. So there's that category of "It's on my watchlist and I'll try again when I am ready for it".

I don't have a rule besides "when I get too angry I drop it". I don't mind spoilers, and I like to know broad brushstroke-wise what I'm getting myself into so when I'm starting to watch a new show and I like it I peek into recaps of the finale to see if it tanked along the way and if it did, if it would matter to me.
Another reason to drop would be losing the connection. When we watch the characters in a drama we follow them around and try to make sense of their actions. I don't always have to approve of what they're doing, but I want to be able to understand at least. When they're suddenly acting out of the character they were before it often happens that my connection is cut, and I'm out. That happened once for me in The Good Wife (not the kdrama version if there is one). I couldn't understand the main character anymore so I left. More recently it happened with Call it Love. There it was more losing the connection to the others but the FL. I can even put my finger on the exact moment that hurled me out of the drama.
My goal for watching kdramas (or watching dramas, movies, reading books in general) is to immerse into a story. I want to be pulled into another world and exist there, follow the story, drink in scenery and conflicts, just "live" there for a while, in the best case take something with me when it ends. But sometimes these experiences are ruptured by bad writing, bad acting, both...or a single action or development that just doesn't fit. Then I'll drop it.
Or I won't feel the pull from the get-go. I'm one of those people who give a grace period, but I've dropped dramas before that ended because we just didn't match.

My number one reason for dropping is when I dislike the character of either lead. They can be imperfect but I should be able to resonate with them.

It is different reasons for different dramas but essentially the drama stops "resonating" with your sensibilities "at that time".

- Few may be a hard drop - too much angst, violence elicit those.

- Few had characters or scenes we really liked or enjoyed but feel we cannot accompany them for the rest of their journey. However, if we read or hear a particular scene being discussed by someone who liked it, we may be tempted to go back and watch just that scene or if the timing is right then the entire drama.

- Few just didn't pull us in or we never got invested in it.

King, The Land was a strange one because I just couldn't press play for the finale week. I don't think I will be going past episode 14 anytime soon, but never say never.

WAAAY late too this thread but what evs. Been thinking about this for days and it made me come to terms with just how many drops this year (and just how few Beans I can count) as a direct result. Serious question: does making it through season 1 of any drama count as a bone fide bean?? Please say yes