Netflix’s 2020 release Indian Matchmaking drew a massive backlash particularly from South Asian and diasporic audiences who felt it normalized the experiences associated with arranged marriages. Audiences took to the internet to express how much they loved hating the show but at the same time also continued to obsessively watch despite their reservations. My paper takes up this paradox of simultaneously loving and hating a media product. By drawing from interviews with the showrunner, members of the production team and a close reading of the show’s texts and paratexts, I argue that “hatewatching” or “cringe-binge” as a mode of spectatorship only seems an oppositional form of viewing or an act of resistance to the reification of dominant hegemonic values. Far from being a function of spectatorial agency, I demonstrate how the platforms utilize “hatewatching” as a lucrative form of viewership and consumer habit to cultivate stickiness for their content.

Netflix 2020 年发布的印度对接会引起了强烈反对，特别是来自南亚和侨民观众，他们认为它使与包办婚姻相关的经历正常化。观众们在网上表达了他们多么喜欢讨厌这个节目，但与此同时，尽管他们有所保留，但他们也继续痴迷地观看。我的论文探讨了同时喜欢和讨厌媒体产品的悖论。通过对节目主持人、制作团队成员的采访以及对节目文本和副文本的仔细阅读，我认为“仇恨观看”或“畏缩”作为一种观看模式似乎只是一种对立的观看形式或抵制主导霸权价值物化的行为。远非旁观机构的功能，