Dee

Oh I loved Woo Tak. He was an amazing second lead. I didn't have second lead syndrome so much there because I genuinely liked the first leads together, but I so wanted Woo Tak to have a happy ending of his own (coffee shop girl! why couldn't he have met coffee ship girl!).

I understand your position, but I don't think you supported it all that well with specific examples. You posted pictures with the article, but the only one you specifically mentioned in the text of your article is the SML of Ashes of Love. 3 of those second leads you have pictured I wouldn't consider the "nice guy" type (see what I mean by "nice guy" below) but genuine guys who are nice and have the female lead's best interest at heart. I've not watched either Ashes of Love or Moonlight Drawn by Clouds so I can't comment to the SML in those dramas. As for Cheese in the Trap - the male lead always seemed like an actual sociopath to me (as much as I adore Park Hye Jin, sadly). I do remember liking the second male lead, but I don't remember that many details about his actions.

Sometimes it may be the female lead who is the problem...hung up on a jerk, but never saying outright to the SML "hey, you're a great friend but I really don't see you in a romantic light," as if she is afraid to come off looking like the bad guy. I imagine this will be an unpopular opinion, too. I don't think a girl is doing anyone any favors by knowing a guy likes her and NOT telling him flat out "I don't feel that way about you." If the guy has no hope, she should flat-out let him know. Don't string him along. Same goes for men.

I detest the Jerkass Male Lead trope. I think it sets a bad example for male/female relationships and teaches women to expect that beneath the horrible, emotionally abusive exterior beats a heart of gold, and in real life, that's just not realistic. I've dated a jerkass before and was convinced that he really wasn't a jerk deep down and really loved me. But it turned out he really was just a jerk. I don't think anyone who claimed to love a girl would treat her the way some of the male leads treat women.

Case in point: Jun Pyo. He basically tortured Jan Di (or at the very least sanctioned her torture/bullying by everyone else in the school) and sent some guys to either actually rape her or at least make her afraid they were going to rape her, and then up and decides he's in love with her. WTF??? I will never, ever understand what anyone sees in him (I don't like any of the male leads for the BOF/HYD series much, but Jun Pyo was the worst of the lot with Domyouji being a close second). If he was butt-ugly and poor as dirt, would they still think he was so awesome?

I do get the dislike for the "Nice Guy" by which I mean the guy who does stuff for a woman because he believes if he does stuff for her she will reward him by sleeping with him. I honestly can't think of a second male lead who falls into this category right off the top of my head, but that's not saying there aren't any and I haven't looked over my watched list to come up with an example.

And I do agree with you that a guy should back off when he confesses and discovers the female lead doesn't return his feelings. That's what bugged me about Cao Guang in Love O2O. Wei Wei flat out told him she did not have feelings for him but he continued to pursue her anyway. I NEVER had second lead syndrome for him. In that drama, it was the male lead who was the nice guy (not "Nice Guy") whereas Cao Guang seemed to think that he had the "right" to pursue Wei Wei even after she'd said in pretty much no uncertain terms thanks but no thanks.

Thanks for a thought-provoking article. :)

Thank you for sharing this! Your article was very helpful; I've been wondering how it might be possible to contribute an article or even if I should. I'll have to give it some thought. :)

I tried this app but don’t see English subtitles on the video?? Help?

I'm at ep 18 and this has started to drag for me...I wish they had wrapped it up already and I'm considering dropping it. Sheng Huainan *seems* like a nice guy, but he's also kind of passive/aggressive and makes snap judgments about the person he supposedly likes based on a conversation with someone he has already broken up with that he had a rather antagonistic relationship with in the first place. WHY WOULD YOU LISTEN TO HER SIDE ONLY??? And of course when given the chance to explain, Luo Zhi refuses because he's already judged her guilty as charged. So, again, what we have here is a failure to communicate. Things are starting to resolve, but there are six more episodes and I'm just not that invested in any of the characters.

Here's hoping that season 2 is all about Chu Yan, cause he deserves his own story.

Hmm. I'll possibly reconsider then. The rape trope really, really bugs me. I don't find it acceptable in m/f relationships, I don't think it's acceptable in m/m relationships, either, and I don't get why writers try to move characters from that into a romantic relationship. I can get past dub-con, sometimes (the "we were both drunk and one thing led to another type" but even that is problematic), but what you've described above is certainly not that! Maybe I'll just skip over that part. I agree w/ the out of date tropes that BL is rife with from what I've seen (still somewhat new to this genre).

yay, hope so! thanks!

I'm sure you're not the only one. He's one of my faves, but to each his own. I don't find Lee Min Ho and Kim Woo Bin attractive, but lots of people go gaga for them...

2019? Nope, still too soon to go back and watch this drama again. It hurts too much.

This is cute if you like this type of movie (not sure if it is based on a manga or not but it is that sort of style - over-exaggerated, over the top reactions). But I admit to nearly dying laughing when the newly-wed couple sees their house and landlady for the first time (and any other time the landlady showed up)!! No idea if the main actress is the one doing the screaming but whoever it was is really good at it.

Thanks for this. I had started reading this but if this is the way it's going to go...no thanks.

I'm not sure I understand the refusal to watch, continue watching, or to downvote a drama because it has cheating as part of the story. It's not pleasant to think about it happening to you, but, unfortunately, it does happen and it's something real couples have to deal with. Maybe not in the way this happened (with evil boss's machinations) but there is no guarantee that you or the one you love will never experience feelings for/be tempted by another person, ever. It happened to my best friend and her husband, and they are a couple I NEVER thought would have to deal with that problem.

As far as Korn and Knock were concerned...as many problems as they have had with communicating their feelings to each other over the course of the 3 series, it's not surprising that something like this would happen to them. Knock was holding Korn to a standard he had been unable to achieve for himself, and punishing him because of it by withholding his affection. Drunk, lonely and horny do not make a good combination for fidelity. NOT CONDONING IT, just saying that Korn is human and humans make mistakes, especially when they have allowed a bad situation to progress as far as they did. He made a mistake and regretted it immediately. Out of character? Not exactly. This is the same person that got drunk and had sex with his best friend. I don't see cheating when he's drunk and miserable because they've been fighting for so long as out of character for him - especially when Pete set him up to do just that. I doubt he'd have done it sober.
Mistakes and how people deal with them are one of the cornerstones drama is built upon.

Not to say that the drama doesn't have its issues - I found myself fast-forwarding after a while because I got bored (there is only so much "wtf doesn't anybody in this story just SIT down and TALK to each other" that I can take) and I still find that doctor skeezy as hell (and I found Farm skeezy too for following in his footsteps). Someone should have introduced him to Sleazy!Pete so they could live happily ever after. Bleargh.

Sorry! I misread.

Kiss Asian has it w/ eng. subs

yes, happy ending :)

All episodes w/ english subs @ https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6Ct-qhJF3xUHtvmwQ-ou_La0eb1wfl77

If you like youth dramas, this is a must-watch. Beautiful story. This is my new favorite C-drama, and perhaps my new favorite drama of all.

Cute, but if you're going to do an older woman/younger man type of romance, the younger man should be less childish. Also, not much payoff here after twelve episodes of back and forth. There some cute moments, and some really funny moments, but I found myself skipping through a lot of it.

What a lovely short and sweet drama. Loved Miri and Da Som's friendship. Their reconciliation actually made me teary-eyed.

If I had to choose one word to sum up this drama, that word would be AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGST!

Don't get me wrong, I love me some angst, but I have my limits.

This starts off really cute, but suffers from a plot that is too lengthy, progresses too slowly, and relies too heavily on misunderstandings and miscommunications. The ML couple fails time and time again to just sit the hell down and be honest with each other. There is also a conniving, petulant second male lead whose "love" for the FL borders on obsession. He has the face of an angel but I'd really like to smack the crap out of him most of the time. It's rare that I find myself shouting "NOOOOO GO AWAY!" at the TV. Instead, I'm usually suffering from second-lead syndrome. That is absolutely not a problem here.

Then there's the back-stabbing "best" friend who chooses torpedo her friend's career in order to ensure her own success, and who is so jealous she could spit nails. God save me from women that would rather be hateful to each other than support each other.

There is also a cute secondary couple, but they also suffer from foot-in-mouth syndrome and a general lack of honesty with each other. Even though brutal honesty seems to be Rui Feng's trademark, he can't bring himself to man up and confess to the girl he loves. Maybe it's because he's afraid she'll pull his ear off if he does!

I'm on episode 26. 10 more episodes to slog through. Fortunately, the end credits seem to reveal that everybody gets their happy ending SOMEday, even Ms. Backstabber and Mr. Petulant. They deserve each other as far as I'm concerned.

It's really more like a teen drama than a college or adult one. And I love teen dramas. I like this drama...I just don't love it.