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Thank you for joining the conversation, @Kawaitanee. Indeed, the dilution of the FL's story (if she had one) in favor of focusing only on resolving the ML's story is actually one of my peeves when it comes to K-Dramas. You mentioned Her Private Life but for me, the K-Drama that left me the most frustrated was actually Healer. The story started with the Female Lead and what she went through (her trauma), but all of that build-up was discarded in favor of focusing on the Male Lead's abandonment issues and a "corrupt group of power-hungry old men" plot that was needlessly introduced towards the end.

Ironically, though, Healer is also one of the few dramas that show the ML letting go of his "dream/goal" in favor of joining/helping the FL accomplish her own goal/dream. So the FL dreamt of being a great reporter, so the ML also became a reporter towards the end (or a camera-man?).

Thank you for the support, @Penel! I'm glad you enjoyed the series, even if it took such a long time to wrap up!

Thank you very much for reading, @sebba. Indeed! Now I think people will understand why articles regarding "Top Strong Female Leads" or "Five Strong Female Leads" as well as "5 Nice/Adorkable/Adorable Male Leads" keep popping up. It's because that is the formula we have been working with when it comes to K-Dramas.

Thank you for reading, @autumn carrot. I have been wanting to write an article about balance of power, because that's really the heart of the problem. When you have a Male Lead that is pretty much perfect and pair him up with a Female Lead who's written with more flaws than strengths, it becomes a frustrating watch. It isn't even that the Female Lead isn't strong, but that she's simply not the heroine of the story. Which is ironic when you put it into perspective. Shouldn't a story that's marketed towards woman have a Female Heroine?

That said, here are some shows that break the norm and, because of that, they became shows I truly enjoyed: Hyena, He is Psychometric, Crash Landing on You, It's Okay not to be Okay, Save Me, Stranger, Stranger 2, Extracurricular, 365: Repeat the Year, Hospital Playlist, Missing: The Other Side, Search, Mystic Pop-Up Bar, Sweet Home, The World of the Married, Arthdal Chronicles, Big Issue, Possessed, The Tale of Nokdu, Uncanny Counter, and Hotel del Luna to name a few

Thank you for reading, @Muna93!

Thank you for joining the conversation, @IDRAMA. I agree, it was a bit disappointing once I realized the pattern and put it all on paper. I actually crave better written Male Leads. Better written as in I don't want them to be perfect, I want them to be humans who also need help to face hardships, who struggle, who make mistakes and pay consequences.

Of course, I wouldn't mind if we started also getting more shows with several (as in more than one) female characters in their roasters, who were integral to the story being told. In crime stories, we're lucky if we get one female character...

Thank you for reading and joining the conversation, @Joy! I agree in that most K-dramas seem to have the goal of making the audience fall in love with a ML, and for that he needs to have all the things that are traditionally manly (power, glory, success, influence, and money). I do wonder how much of that has to do with the fact that men are the ones making decisions when it comes to a drama's production, though.

I do believe that these past two years we got a lot of gems that went against the norm. You mentioned two with which I agree completely. There was also: Crash Landing on You, It's Okay not to be Okay, Save Me, Stranger, Stranger 2, Extracurricular, 365: Repeat the Year, Hospital Playlist, Missing: The Other Side, Search, Mystic Pop-Up Bar, Sweet Home, The World of the Married, Arthdal Chronicles, Big Issue, Possessed, The Tale of Nokdu, Uncanny Counter, and Hotel del Luna to name a few.

Thank you for reading, @Vix. This series certainly required quite a lot of time, which is why it was difficult to finish it all in one go.

To be honest, it's been a long while since I watched Because This Is My First Life. The only thing I remember is that by the end, the FL sort of disappears after their typical "3-year time skip" and she was randomly living in hostels. The ML, meanwhile, sold his house and was looking for her. But I don't remember her actually becoming a successful scriptwriter. I only remember she was disenchanted by the experience of working on a script (but I think this happened around the midpoint of the drama?).

The fact that we aren't even 100% sure of where she stood by the end when it came to her career is one of the problems with the wrap-up of the Female Lead's stories. Usually when it comes to Male Leads and their successes, it happens either at the start of the show or, if it happens by the end, there is no doubt about it left to the audiences.

Thank you for reading and joining the conversation. I agree with you. I gave a longer answer to the OP, but basically Flower of Evil stands out because the Male Lead was written beautifully flawed and a normal level of strength (he was most certainly NOT a one man army). Meanwhile, the Female Lead was written with flaws balanced out by consistent strength. Meaning, she didn't forget her skills or let emotions rule her. Instead, she accepted her emotions but still managed to fall into action rather than remain a passive bystander of the story.

Thank you for reading and joining the conversation!

FOE actually falls in line with some of these, the difference is that Flower of Evil manages to give us several things that are out of the norm. Mainly:
1) The FL is written with strengths and flaws, but she's always consistent and capable. So rather than being written as an emotional character, the Female Lead is a character with emotions. Meaning, emotions never become her ruler.
2) The ML is written with as many flaws as he has strengths, but he's consistent. He doesn't suddenly become more powerful because reasons. Sometimes things get out of hand and he faces consequences. He is, overall, written very human and that makes him a strongly written character.
3) There is a balance of power between the leads not only as partners but as a couple as well. When the ML is weak, the FL steps up and shows strength. When the FL is weak, the ML steps up and shows strength. That makes them a power couple, rather than a damsel and a knight.

So in that regard, as an audience, we take note of both leads moments of weakness, and moments of strength. Because when they face hardships they do so together. And when they overcome those hardships, they do so together.

Other shows that manage to strike this sort of balance are Crash Landing on You, It's Okay not to be Okay, Save Me, Extracurricular, 365: Repeat the Year, Hospital Playlist, Missing: The Other Side, Search, Mystic Pop-Up Bar, Sweet Home, The World of the Married, Arthdal Chronicles, Big Issue, Possessed, Search WWW, The Tale of Nokdu, and Hotel del Luna to name a few.

I agree, the last half of episode 3 and all of episode 4 downgraded her. Basically, she lost all her independence, wit and spunk the moment she started to fancy the ML. Meanwhile, the ML who was introduced as refreshingly flawed and even a bit dumb, suddenly because smart, strong and, noble... Basically he got an upgrade.

I'm LOVING this drama. The Female Characters are written so fantastically! And Male Characters are also atypical which just makes this a very refreshing series to watch!

Dain being in constant distress and needing to be saved for this last couple of episodes doesn't bode well with me. If the trend continues and she's turned into a perpetual damsel in distress, I will just drop this one, as that is most definitely not my cup of tea.

I still think the ML at least, might die. The problem is that I won't be shedding a tear at the rate this is going, lol.

I also want them to make me care for the characters. The development in that department is so lacking (more tell, less show), that if they all died... I wouldn't really care at all. And that's bad considering we have crossed the halfway mark.

Given that the third child has a dissociative identity, I'm hoping Jamie's "hidden power" is something else (that is assuming she has one).

I agree, the potential for this show is there, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed by how the story is unfolding.

With the watches especially... if those weren't added to the evidence list because "someone wanted to hide something"... why leave the watches in evidence at all? I might end up dropping this one if next episodes aren't... tighter in the details.

Another soul who feels the same! At least 17 other souls are with us, lol.

I think it's all about what we expect from a good story and whether that story delivered. In this case, this one didn't deliver for us, but it surprisingly delivered for a lot of other people. Keep in mind that many people only review shows they like, so there may be other people who felt like us (maybe haha).

I think that, had I watched this after Sweet Home, rather than the other way around... I would have given this show an even lower rating. If you haven't seen Sweet Home (Kdrama), I highly recommend it!

Even I had noticed this unconsciously and it wasn't until i started reflecting on why the audience focused on different things when tagging the genders, when i noticed this.

I agree that having a FL struggle while a ML just swoops in to save her is a fantasy some women still enjoy. The Cinderella Story + Knight in Shinning Armors are tropes for a reason.

I still have hope that more Dramas will start to delve into a role reversal (FL being the successful one and ML being less perfect) type of stories. Or that we get stories where the focus/interest resides on the FL, so that by the end she is able to overcome her struggles through skill (rather than just be saved and handed the solution) and she accomplishes her dream. Or at the very least, have her story end when she's accomplished something that has moved her in the workplace/actually advance her carreer, rather than give up or go back to the place where she started and settle for that.

I agree that the scene wasn't handled correctly. But i think you are giving the director/writer too much credit. The scene was done just for shock value. In fact, the entire thing has been designed with shock value in mind, more than substance. And the problem with that results in lackluster characters. Because, here's the thing, all characters were flat. But male characters were at least given moments of "nobility" and flashbacks that shallowly touched on their motivations. On the other hand, Female characters were treated as unimportant. Only three had flashbacks. The girl at the start's flashback was about how she had sex with a superior to get a job (sex sales, remember?). Like I said in my review, the transgender girl was the only one with a flashback which was about her... Though it was still depicting her relationship with her own father. And the FL...?

The simple fact we don't even know if Usagi is supposed to be a student or not shows that her character wasn't explored. Her one flashback was about how much she loved her father... And focused on his dreams and aspirations instead of hers
Her only role is to be the love interest of the ML, who we know - -because we got actual flashbacks about him-- that he is a neet.

As to the actress age, AFAIK it's against the law everywhere to have underage actors perform any kind of sexual scene, so I had no doubt she was not underaged. Unless the law in japan regarding that is more lax than in the US.