I totally agree with basically everything you said, and I'm really grateful for this list! I basically don't watch dramas unless I have a really good reason because I generally hate the way that romance is handled in the media for all the reasons that you said, so it's great to know this sort of thing beforehand from someone who really understands.
I don't know if you're familiar with it or watched it, but I personally really like the way they handle male/female friendships in Shiritsu Bakaleya Koukou. It was a low-budget late night drama, so of course the plot and stuff leave some room for improvement, but while the characters are basically all dumb 16 year olds dealing with feelings, the main female character and main male character have a friendship that the main female character values despite that she has an unrequited crush on him. I think it does a good job of showing her recognizing it's just a crush and accepting that she cares more about being friends with him and respects him as a person, rather than getting carried away by how horrible ~unrequited love is. The show also has a secondary male character who falls for the main female, who of course doesn't like him back, and what really makes me happy is that when he engages in potentially abusive behaviours towards her (trying to guilt her into things, etc), she shuts him down immediately and tries to emphasize that she values his friendship but isn't going to take any crap. The whole drama does rely on a lot of stereotypes (though mostly class-related ones), but I also think that it does a really good job of breaking them through the course of the drama, and address issues like sexism, classism, bullying, suicide, and gender issues. It's the first drama I've ever seen where the main point was that girls and boys can be friends without romantic attachments, and aren't necessarily inherently ~different despite gender. It also has the plus of passing the Bechdel test in the first episode!
no subject
I don't know if you're familiar with it or watched it, but I personally really like the way they handle male/female friendships in Shiritsu Bakaleya Koukou. It was a low-budget late night drama, so of course the plot and stuff leave some room for improvement, but while the characters are basically all dumb 16 year olds dealing with feelings, the main female character and main male character have a friendship that the main female character values despite that she has an unrequited crush on him. I think it does a good job of showing her recognizing it's just a crush and accepting that she cares more about being friends with him and respects him as a person, rather than getting carried away by how horrible ~unrequited love is. The show also has a secondary male character who falls for the main female, who of course doesn't like him back, and what really makes me happy is that when he engages in potentially abusive behaviours towards her (trying to guilt her into things, etc), she shuts him down immediately and tries to emphasize that she values his friendship but isn't going to take any crap. The whole drama does rely on a lot of stereotypes (though mostly class-related ones), but I also think that it does a really good job of breaking them through the course of the drama, and address issues like sexism, classism, bullying, suicide, and gender issues. It's the first drama I've ever seen where the main point was that girls and boys can be friends without romantic attachments, and aren't necessarily inherently ~different despite gender. It also has the plus of passing the Bechdel test in the first episode!