Akumi

Jang Hye Sung from "I Hear Your Voice" is one of the first characters that pop into my mind when I think about female leads breaking the barriers of their usual cliches. She was strong, unapologetically flawed, and she was not the always kind and forgiving typical female in Kdramas. She was downright mean quite a few times. She was just so human and that made me love the drama. She had a ton of the less attractive personality traits all of us humans have, but she also had the ability to grow as a person and learn. She should definitely be on this list. OH! And most refreshing, for me anyways, she did not give up her dreams, goals, or morals and immediately fawn over the male lead.

Lee Yeon Jae from "Scent of a Woman" should also definitely be on this list. Granted, she may have started as a cliche and maybe wouldn't have broken the mold so thoroughly if it weren't for her circumstances, but she did break the mold. She was unapologetically reaching and striving for what she wanted most out of life and unabashedly letting herself be who she wanted to be. She was strong, brave, kind, and rude when she needed to be. She was very much human and utterly beautiful in all her human messiness.

Chae Yeong Shin / Oh Ji An from "Healer". While she did encompass a few cliches, she mostly made her own path in this drama. She was quirky, sweet, kind, forgiving, but also mean, brutally honest, selfish, and unforgiving. She could handle her own in a lot of situations and didn't have to do it the cliche ways. She used her charm, her ability to lie, and her will of iron. She could be downright terrified, but she would still do what needed to be done. She was an awesome mix of the cliche damsel and strong female kdrama action star. She didn't fit either mold and just made a new one. Even if she needed to be saved from a situation over her head, she didn't crumble afterward and just kept doing what needed to be done. She also absolutely refused any and all noble idiocy from the male lead which is always refreshing. She faced her feelings head on and threw her whole heart into loving those she chose, and she did so without coming across naive or desperate for love.

I think the main thing all these characters have in common is a certain level of maturity and at least a small amount of confidence in themselves. It's sad that that's so rare in Kdramas.

Awesome article! It's always fun to remember the female leads that surprise us and make us fall a little in love with them!

I don't think you were being disrespectful or even saying you didn't like it like others seem to assume. When I first broke into Cdramas I was confused by this also. It appeared in Wuxia dramas, which was expected, but also in very serious historical dramas, which was confusing to me. It IS just the way a lot of Cdramas are and you either learn to suspend your disbelief enough to enjoy it or just ignore it until the drama moves on. But it is disorientating the first few times you see it when you're not at all expecting that level of fantasy in an otherwise serious/realistic drama.

eh...I'll watch this for Chang Wook, but I feel like I've watched dozens of dramas with the same synopsis. Here's hoping I'll be pleasantly surprised instead of suffering through the same exact story for the countless time.

I haven't started it yet, but the conflicting reviews have me really intrigued. It seems like the people that hate it really hate it and the people that love it really love it. I tend to listen to those that fall somewhere in the middle because I feel they're the most objective usually. I like a con and pro list. Anyways, I think I'll give this a shot and see what's what.

I adore her. She's so completely versatile! She's amazing. My favorite roles of hers would have to be a tie between her role in "Healer" and her role in "Missing You". Both were unique and really interesting. They also both show how wide her acting range is. Awesome article. This amazing actress deserves all the love and recognition in the world.

I agree with all of this even if I guiltily enjoy TTBY on days where I don't want to think too hard, I know objectively it's horrible in almost every way. I deplored BOF so much. It just took every cliche and trope ever and amplified it to a thousand. I like the bad boy thing every once in awhile, but Joon Pyo was psychotic in his extreme mood swings and just down right abusive and cruel. I really was disgusted by almost every single character in BOF. Heirs was much of the same and to see the extreme level of assault and bullying that happened there along with the obsessive stalking and what essentially amounted to sexual assault in some cases made me sick to watch. It was absurd that it was even marketed as a romance.

I'd add Playful Kiss because there's a useless, weak, and obsessive female lead and an abusive and cruel male lead. The whole drama was infuriating to me and I've watched the Taiwanese and Korean versions before I absolutely refused to subject myself to more by watching the Japanese version. I felt like I had to give the first two versions a chance because everyone else praised them like they were the best dramas ever and I felt like I was just not getting it. No, I got it. They were both just horrible examples of a healthy relationship.

I'm sure there are more but those are the the ones off the top of my head and you covered the other most glaring ones. This article was fun and it's nice to be able to vent frustration about dramas that are extolled when some people just can't understand why. It's also really interesting because some people ask themselves "Why does anyone like this??" about dramas I love. So it's intriguing to get a different viewpoint. I sometimes forget that just because I really love something doesn't mean everyone does when I'm in my fangirling mode. It's nice to be reminded.

I totally missed out on the hype. I came back a few days ago and saw the poster for DOTS and decided to download it and give it a shot. It looked more mature and hopefully gritty than most of the other dramas I've seen. I was skeptical of Joong Ki being a soldier, but I had time, so why not.

I was hooked ten minutes in and I never got un-hooked. It was a very character driven story and that is my absolute favorite kind of drama. If the characters are strong and well acted/written, I just need the plot to be passable. It doesn't have to be perfect. The emotions and the messages in DOTS were so well done that it surpassed a lot of dramas out right now.

That's not to say this is the best drama ever and it's perfect. It's not. It's the best drama I've seen in a while, but that's a personal opinion, not an objective fact. I got addicted to DOTS and have been spamming my feed and just realized now that I have probably been making people annoyed because they probably went through that weeks ago already. XD My bad.

I don't really see anything wrong with people expressing their love for a drama, even in abundance, if they're not rude about it. It does get annoying when everywhere you look there's a post or article about it, but it's not an individual fan's fault that a lot of the world agrees with thinking DOTS is awesome. So, relax a little, don't attack people for liking something even if you can find faults in it. I mean "Heirs" was worse than this and that was ridiculous. (I'm such a hypocrite. :P)

haha So let's just let people fangirl/boy about what they like and don't let it stop you from enjoying what you like.

I hated Reply 1997 so much. I just didn't understand why everyone was SO excited about it. I watched it twice because I thought I was surely missing something, but no, it was nothing special.

However, I did love Master's Sun with a ridiculous amount of devotion. I still love it. haha I liked You Who Came From The Stars, but it was never my favorite. It was really slow plot-wise now that I think about it. Not much really happened.

I adore Queen In-Hyun's man, but I don't see Secret as a romance drama example. Their relationship was extremely unhealthy and twisted. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the drama because I love a good melo now and again, but it isn't a drama I'd use as a tool for measuring romance in other dramas.

Kill Me, Heal Me was a good drama and had some of the best acting, but I had to suspend my knowledge of DID to really enjoy it.

Anyways, I think people should be allowed to give their opinions without fear of backlash from rabid fans. No single drama will make everyone happy and it's okay to say you don't like it. Chances are that someone else doesn't like the same drama for the same reasons and would have liked to have been warned. *shrugs* As long as it's worded nicely and without personal insult towards people that DO like that drama, say whatever you want. ^.^

Even though I adore Chang Wook and have seen everything he's in, I voted for Ji Sung when it came to the best actor of 2015. Chang Wook is definitely a great actor and has grown immensely through the years, but Ji Sung acted out multiple different characters, sometimes in the same scene, flawlessly. That takes a ridiculous amount of talent and he should have won because of that. Still, everyone is entitled to their opinions and I'm pleased with the rest of the results. It's kind of nice to have fan based voting and results when it comes to awards for our favorite dramas. I've stopped watching award shows long ago because I get so frustrated with them. XD

Flower Boy Ramyun Shop was one of the first ten dramas I ever watched and it was kind of a culture shock at the time. I've never been a fan of toilet humor and that drama has A LOT of it. I was shocked that they can't show full kisses in most dramas but they can show a woman constipated on the toilet?? It just didn't seem really attractive or endearing in any way to me. I mean, I get it, we all poo, but I don't need to watch someone do it and I don't find it funny. I think that and seeing people eating with their mouths open are my only two major pet peeves with kdramas and I eventually learned to deal with it, but at the time I was appalled like I was a 90 year old scandalized woman. XD I pretty much agree with every other opinion you have about the others dramas and movies I've seen on this list.

I don't think it's unfair to drop a drama after one episode, but it IS unfair to rate it based off of one episode. You can't rate the entire drama if you didn't watch it, but you can drop it if you're not interested in watching more.

I deplored BOF. You are not alone.

I HATED My Girlfriend is a Gumiho! HATED! I forced myself to finish it because every time I put it on hold everyone would do exactly what the other commenters on this post did. "Are you sure you won't watch it?" "But it's so good!" "It's a classic!!" I finished it and felt like I died a little because of it. If you don't like a drama, do NOT force yourself to finish it for anyone else. I may not understand your dislike for Bridal Mask since it's my favorite drama ever, but I respect your decision not to watch it. Don't feel guilty. Dramas are there for you to enjoy and love. You can't enjoy/love everything. Just say you're sure it's a perfectly good drama, it's just not for you.

I agree with the suggestion for Scent Of A Woman.

Haha I realized after reading your post that I do the same thing. I have a few in my On Hold section that have been there for a few years now, but I still convince myself I'm going to finish them someday because I feel too guilty about dropping them. I've finished much worse dramas then the ones in my On Hold section, so I don't know why I never go back and watch them. XD

I have never actually dropped a drama. I have, however, skipped a good portion of a drama before. I don't think there's anything wrong with dropping a drama, it just bugs me to do it. Still, there are a few dramas I've rated extremely low or wished I dropped. There are also dramas I refuse to watch because I know I'll hate them.

Boys Over Flowers is a drama I deplored and wish I had dropped. I kept watching it because everyone holds that drama up like it's the holy grail of dramas. I was convinced there had to be some redeeming factor I was missing, so I kept watching. But no...no there was no redemption. It just got worse! >.<;

Playful Kiss. I can't...If I could light every copy of that drama ever on fire I would. That's how much I hated it.

Mary Stayed Out All Night....I almost dropped this. ALMOST. I skipped a lot in the later episodes and I tried to at least see some good in it, but no. Hated it.

My biggest issue with dramas is female leads that are treated like they are retards and they're okay with that. I can't stand seeing the female lead being so stupid and consistently being treated deplorably by the male lead and yet they stay like it's perfectly alright for the male lead to treat them less than human.

I also hate when in family dramas the Mother-in-law crosses the line into cruelty in regards to how they treat their to-be daughter-in-law. I can handle mean, I can handle harsh, but I gat irate when their actions are things no decent human being would do to another human being.

Another deal break for me is characters that are acted or portrayed poorly. Like when a character that has been established as being one way by either the narrator or themselves suddenly begins to act in a way they never would for the sake of the plot. There's no logic in their actions, but it makes the plot more dramatic and extends the drama, so they act that way. That drives me up the wall. I'm not watching dramas for the plot, I'm watching it for the characters. If I didn't give a crud for the characters then this plot device works, but I usually always DO care for the characters, so it just ends up ruining the drama for me.

Also, as I was reading through comments, I realized I've put a few dramas on hold with the idea that I'll watch them eventually. It's just been a few years now. Hahaha So maybe I have technically dropped a few dramas. I actually think I'm a complete oddity since I've seen over 250 dramas and I haven't dropped any. XD

This is a fun article and I'm enjoying reading about what drama people have dropped and why.

I liked it. A lot. I tend to really like dramas that others don't, so there's no accounting for taste I suppose. I think it helped a lot that I read through the comments and went in knowing it was more focused towards Yeo Jin's revenge. I started watching with the expectation of a revenge drama and that's exactly what I got. I really loved the struggle between Yong Pal and Yeo Jin to be honest. I thought their different views and how neither one really conceded to each other on the one thing they couldn't let go was a harsh reflection of reality. Yeo Jin was broken mentally and emotionally after being locked in a body she couldn't move for three years. Being conscious and well aware of everything going on around her, knowing exactly what everyone was doing to harm her, having to relive the memories of seeing the person she loved die in front of her, all of that is beyond traumatic. She begged for death and then when that didn't come, she dreamed of bloody revenge to keep herself sane. Honestly, can anyone expect her to wake up and forget that even if she falls in love? I sure as hell wouldn't. Not after those plans for revenge were the only thing that brought me comfort in the hell people imprisoned me in. Frankly, I was rooting for her the whole way. Still, I understood where Yong Pal was coming from when he pleaded for her to stop her revenge. And honestly, she did, after she killed the people that played the largest role. She didn't keep attacking the underlings. I just thought Yong Pal was amazing for standing strong in his beliefs and not giving in when it truly mattered to him all the while he still supported her. Even when he left, he waited for her. Not once did he give up or abandon her. If that's not true love, I don't know what is. And Yeo Jin finally healing and realizing she needs to step down, that's freakin huge for someone that went through everything she did.
So, it wasn't what other people thought it would be, but as a revenge/romance drama with medical and actions aspects?? FANTASTIC!

I refuse to watch any and all remakes of Bu Bu Jing Xin.

Omgiknowright!? Completely agree about Bae soo bin! I was pulling for him so hard in SI and then a few episodes into dong yi and I had to start preparing myself for him never getting the girl AGAIN because I knew she would end up with the king. It was like the kdrama universe was telling us that even in their past lives he was forever alone.

I really love Park Seo Joon, but I don't think I'm going to watch this drama honestly. I HATE dramas where all the humor comes from the female lead acting utterly embarrassing or disgusting in public. Like that GIF you have of her yelling with food coming out of her mouth literally makes my stomach roll. It's needlessly disgusting. Don't get me wrong, I've done my fair share of embarrassing things, but just looking at the pictures and GIFs is enough to see that this drama is not realistic. I also agree somewhat with your view on her not taking care of herself at all. The 'blushing' could be completely out of her control and too expensive to treat, but the rest is manageable. I have hair that poofs and can look just like hers, but I take time to style it in a decent way. It's not that hard.

Anyways, I can't handle pointless embarrassing scenes where characters act like they don't know how to behave in society at all. Manners- they are a thing.