The term hate-watching first appeared in 2012, quickly morphing into a transitive verb hate-watch (often realized as a participle adjective hate-watched, e.g. one of the most hate-watched programmes). The concept of watching something specifically because you derive pleasure from criticizing it is of course not a new idea, just another example of our tacit enjoyment of poking fun at things. This therefore begs the question as to why this practice has only recently been identified and named. Some believe this is precisely because, relative to previous eras, a large proportion of 21st century TV is of a very good standard. This means there’s a sharper contrast when things aren’t up to scratch, which somehow makes being critical a much more satisfying experience. Social media also of course provide the ideal platform for talking about such issues and allying with like-minded opinions.