So I’ve been watching these foreign Taiwan dramas on Netflix.  I’ve noticed an interesting pattern to the story lines.  They’re very formulaic that usually try to mimic  dating, heartbreak, communication faults and other “real world” experiences.  But there’s just one thing that I’m a little amazed that they usually do in almost every show.

That is that in these Taiwanese dramas, many of the characters do their best to hide negative information from the main female lead in order to minimize the female lead’s supposed ensuing heartache/sadness from hearing such information.  There is always one main story arc that dances around this negative information and is usually the critical piece of information that causes the conflicts.

Is there an underlying assumption that the female lead won’t be able to handle the information?  But then why are the writers making that assumption?  Why do the writers think that it’s OK to write a female character who is strong-willed, independent, and compassionate and yet won’t be able to think rationally through such negative information?  That confounds me… Is rational communication is ultimately one of the keys to a relationship?  If we take dramas as a sort of parable, then one of the lessons from these dramas is that effective communication must be key to successful relationship.