This is a wonderful write-up, @leetennant!

2019 is indeed the year of WWW: women Women WOMEN!

Yes. Love this. Such a good year. It's why I love Catch the Ghost so much.

Congratulations LT!!! All hail women in all their forms.

My favourite of 2019 is Jaehee in Perfume. She was never a pot plant from the get-go, her husband cheated on her and she immediately told him in his face what a jerk of a human being he is. Unfortunately depression got to her and she spiralled into a point of no return at the beginning. She was centered and kind. She tries hard but as she said society is not as accepting as she wants them to be, looks and physique unfortunately does comes first to some, wether we admit it or not. So for her to realize the main point is to love herself and see herself in a warmer light, take the time to think and build her own world with herself as the center was amazing. Her growth and how she blossomed throughout the series was one of the highlights of my dramaland in 2019.

To more leading ladies in 2020! And most importantly: to more diverse roles for actresses who does not fit the normal kdrama beauty standard!! 

Ps: I hope Ha Jae Suk will get bigger roles. I believe Jaehee was her meatiest role to date and she was amazing. She really glowed and shined in the series, I wanted more 😆.

Yay it's published @leetennant
Congrats 🎉🎉🎉
I'll start reading it now

@leetennant This was incredible! I’m so glad you mentioned Sky Castle 🙌

SOOJEONG SOOJEONG SOOJEONG!!!

Great piece @leetennant.

It makes me so happy that there are quite a few characters that I could add to your list!

My own favourite tsundere heroine was Shin Hye-sun's kick-ass ballerina in Angel's Last Mission. And yes, I also loved Hoo-ja in MFC. She made that drama.

I am in the portion that thought this year was a little lackluster compared to last year, but you're right, it was certainly better in regards to the women problem. I had four favourites this year (one being Bok-soo) and they all had wonderful female characters. Spring Night had three sisters fighting against the oppression of a controlling Patriarch. Be Melodramatic is about three (no, four) working women with big beautiful personalities; they are already friends, but the drama sees their working lives overlap too as they all become involved in one project. And of course, Haru Found by Chance had my heroine of the year Eun Dan-oh, characterised first and foremost by the fact that she spits in the face of the weak feminine fiancé stereotype that her character is supposed to be. She is agency incarnate! (Well, at least until the drama derailed and had her tossed around like a ragdoll, but I'm trying to forget that.)

Up until this year - and it's a horrifying statement - I could not think of a SINGLE drama where I liked the heroine more than the hero. I'm really glad that's changed.

Great write-up, @leetennant. And may I add 2 more dramas to this list: Nokdu Flower and A Beautiful World. Both are full of complex and complicated women with agency, spanning from heroine to villain and also pragmatic human beings who was allowed to make mistakes and learned from them.

I agree with everything and would like another wonderful women ensemble VIP, all the ladies were wonderfully written and fully fleshed till the very end.

I agree with most of this, but I have a little bone to pick regarding BEST CHICKEN (not that anyone remembers it probably, haha). The male lead not a passive guy with no character arc. He left a life of privilege and a comfy desk job to follow his dream of opening a chicken restaurant. Usually we’d cheer at such a display of independence. The drama portrayed his struggles, and how with a whole lot of luck and his sweetness he finally won over the girl who tried to ruin his business again and again. The ending of the drama fell completely flat- it was terribly weak. But overall I thought it was refreshing to see a nice hard-working guy as the lead, who also served as a good foil for the brash female lead. The usual roles were inverted, as you pointed out.

Bok-Soo did this too, and much better. Maybe we could say it was also the year of the Beta Male Lead.

This was great. I loved all these dramas and the women in them. @leetennant, I remember your love for my strange hero. Yasss, to the end of potted plants.

Congratulations!! This is a great write up!
I really enjoyed Bo-mi's character in Spring turns to Spring, she is so determined and unapologetic about her desire to become a news anchor. She doesn't let anyone stand in her way and ignores what her peers or society thinks about how she should behave to achieve her goals. It was so refreshing to see a female character like that on screen as this trait is usually given to the male character and no one cares about it.

I had forgotten about the great characters we got to know this year, thank you for shouting them out. I hope 2020 brings us more dramas led by complex, interesting female characters.

The female historians in Gu Hae Ryung all had agency as well. I enjoyed the change from them being taken advantage of, to being part of the solution, being resolute in their calling. But yes, we had a lot of strong females this year! Congrats on another compelling write up.

I think what I like the most is that, as you said, we didn't just have good female lead characters, we had good female characters. Whether they were good, evil, or just plain complicated, it was gratifying to see women having full complex storylines, backstories, and relationships that didn't wholly revolve around some romantic alliance with a man. Is the delusional second female lead now a thing of the past? I hope so. Let's have more Veronicas. Let's have villainous women who aren't motivated by something to do with a man, but rather want good old fashion money and power. Like you @leetennant, my hope for 2020 is even more agency and purpose, and less pointless tears and wrist grabs.

Thank you for reminding us of the awesome female centric dramas. I would like to add Secret Boutique to the list. Kim Sun Ah and Jang Mi Hee are great in this, and the main part of the story. The male leads are mostly in supporting roles and were not even there in the last episode!

LOL at that screen cap of Picasso's funeral. I loved how ridiculous that scene was. Graceful Family and Search WWW are two of my favorites from this year. Great female characters!

As this was the year of very little drama watching for me, I missed most of these.
Thank you for your well written essay, LT. I enjoy reading your comments and hope to watch a few of these shows.
À funeral for a fish?!
I better start watching right away. This kind of crazy looks awesome...

Agree. This year was the year of the women taking the lead in k dramas.There were so many dramas that focused in more of depth of the female characters and their growth.
It is good that k-dramaland is increasing women centric dramas and every all these actresses shined in their portraying their respective characters.
My personal favourites are all the actresses in Sky castle, Shin hye Sun in love angels mission, Lee Na young in Romance is a bonus book, Kim Hye yoon in Extraordinary you and WWW: Search query actresses.

Great write-up @leetennant!

After all the Candys we've seen, this year made me closely examine the female leads of the dramas I've watched. Dropped MoA when all the wetter NPC did was cry each ep (although I did ff the last 4 eps last week).

Anywaaaays >.< this was indeed a great year for women characters! Here's to hoping we will have more next year.

Thank you for another push to watch Graceful Family @leetennant. It sounds like just what I need.

I hope you have time to watch Be Melodramatic since it's another complex women filled smorgasbord.

DUDE I WAS ACTUALLY THINKING ABOUT WRITING SOMETHING SIMILAR. That's supporting evidence enough that this is WOMEN'S YEAR. I was reviewing my 2019 watch list and all the female leads I've met are not Candies/potted plants. They're not tied to a male lead, they have their OWN narrative. They're strong, independent, a bit rough around the edges but they NEVER bore me. The male leads this year often makes me think, "aww what a precious bean"

This is so well written!! Congratulations!!
I felt exactly the same this year about women in the dramas I watched. Not only the leads, but also de supporting roles. Of course WWW was the best of it, but I also fell in love with the Be Melo and One Spring women.
I think I wrote it somewhere else, but it is refreshing to see some real women around. Women that struggle with everyday life, relationships with their friend, their lover, their children, their colleagues.
This year we've got to know some ladies that are not there only to be the love interest of a man and whose only purpose is to be nice and pretty and make other feel better.
Most of the women I've met this year had a goal, and it was to find happiness by themselves, because that's the only way you can spread happiness and love to others.

A bit late to comment, but I loved reading this! I’m glad you wrote about how important the women were in dramas this year!

I didnt finish anything and now I need to practice bye