In recent days, its become increasingly popular for members of idol groups to star as main leads in dramas. Just in the past season, we’ve seen a flurry of new dramas featuring our favorite idols as leads. Let’s dive into a few of the most recent from the spring drama season.

My ID is Gangnam Beauty

ASTRO’s Cha Eunwoo finally got the lead role he deserves! The idol made his acting debut as a secondary character in 2017 drama The Best Hit, playing an immensely popular and spoiled idol known as MJ. In stark contrast, Eunwoo plays subdued and emotionally distant college student Do Kyungseok in his lead role for My ID is Gangnam Beauty. After seeing his performance in both dramas, his talent as an actor becomes very clear, despite any criticism that could be had for Kyungseok’s character.

Kyungseok is a naturally beautiful boy from a well-off family that appears perfect on the surface, but hides many flaws and emotional trauma just under the top layer. He plays a vital role not just as the main romantic line, but as a contrasting character to lead female protagonist Kang Mirae (Im Soohyang) and lead female antagonist Hyun Sooah (Jo Woori). The story focuses first on Mirae’s obsession with outer beauty, an attitude that begins to shift once she meets and grows close to Kyungseok, who is the first person she ever meets to truly not care about such things at all. For fans of the slice of life genre and an overall romantic-focused drama, this is a perfect choice.

Rich Man, Poor Woman

EXO’s Suho takes the acting world by storm in Viki original drama Rich Man, Poor Woman. The drama is a remake of a 2012 Japanese drama of the same title. Suho plays a young and brilliant CEO of an IT company, Lee Yoochan, playing the typical emotionally distant and arrogant young CEO trope, but with a twist: he is unable to recognize faces.

Counter character to him, we have Kim Bora (Ha Yeonseo), a Jeju Island native who moves to Seoul to attend college. She dreams of working at Yoochan’s IT company, which is known as the most desirable place to work for young people. Despite his inability to recognize faces, Yoochan finds that he can’t forget Bora so easily. If you’re looking for a romance-heavy drama, you probably won’t find it here despite the label. The drama tends to focus more on Yoochan’s past than on the subtly budding romance that is so slow burn it's almost hard to see. Still, if you’re a fan of EXO and Suho, it's worth checking out to support your fave!

Witch’s Love

We’ve got another Viki original that stars another idol! After the release of Meloholic featuring TVXQ’s Yunho and The King Loves featuring Girls’ Generation Yoona last year, Viki continues the idol features with VIXX’s Hongbin in Witch’s Love. The story depicts three generations of witches living in Seoul and running a restaurant. Our female lead Kang Chohong (Yoon Sohee) catches the eye of Hongbin’s character Hwang Jaewook, who is completely oblivious to her true identity and simply captured by her beauty.

Chohong is a willful girl who doesn’t want to follow the rigid rules of the older generation, who preach about not getting involved with the human world. Her curiosity proves to be stronger than the warning, and she quickly becomes entangled not only with Jaewook, but Ma Sungtae (Hyun Woo), both potential love interests in the story. Witch’s Love is a lighthearted romantic comedy with a slight supernatural twist, perfect for the fall season.

Sweet Combat

We’re throwing in a new feature here in a Chinese drama! Former EXO member-turned-actor Luhan stars in slice of life college drama Sweet Combat, a story of struggling young students Ming Tian (Luhan) and Fang Yu (Guan Xiaotong). Ming Tian comes from a poverty stricken background, having to keep multiple part-time jobs to provide for his two younger siblings. Fang Yu comes from the opposite end of the spectrum, with an expectation to take over the family business since youth, only to develop a love for mixed martial arts.

Despite Ming Tian’s warmer presence compared to Fang Yu’s ice queen reputation, the two have more in common in relation to their past traumas and dealing with them, despite butting heads upon first meeting. Ming Tian is the first male student admitted to Zhengze University, a formerly all-girls academy focused on martial arts. As the story progresses, the two become drawn to one another as Fang Yu begins teaching Ming Tian in the area of martial arts.