The latest K-drama, Idol I, starring Girls' Generation's Soo-young, premiered on December 22, 2025, and has quickly gained viewers' attention with its close-to-reality narrative. While the K-drama is a thriller that focuses on Maeng Se-na, a lawyer who takes up the case of K-pop idol, Do Ra-ik, whom she is a huge fan of.While exploring the story of how Se-na and Ra-ik's love would blossom amid the chaos surrounding them, the show has also captured moments that showcase the real-life struggles of K-pop Idols. Through Ra-ik's story of living under the spotlight and meeting fans who are sometimes rude and forget about his privacy, Idol I depicts a real-life problem that K-pop Idols, in this day and age, go through, and most of the time cannot even complain about it, just like Ra-ik in the K-drama.More on this in our story.Idol I subtly depicts K-pop idols' struggle View this post on Instagram Instagram PostThe central plot of Idol I is Ra-ik becoming a prime suspect in a murder case. He is part of a K-pop band named Gold Boys and is one of the most popular members of the group. However, his life changes overnight after one of his members is found dead, resulting in Ra-ik becoming the prime suspect.Soo-young's Se-na takes up his case, and her fantasy of a chance meeting with her favorite Idol becomes true. The K-drama will further explore how Se-na will save Ra-ik and how the Idol and his fan will fall in love.Along with the mystery, Idol I also captures Ra-ik's intense life as an idol, which would remind viewers of real-life incidents that K-pop Idols deal with regularly. From Episode 1 of the K-drama, Ra-ik's fame and the difficulties that come with it are shown as he is grabbed by his jacket by a fan. The struggle does not end there, as there are several other scenes, such as a fan being rude to him during a fan meeting, or him complaining about Sasaengs breaking into his home, which does happen to Idols in the real world as well.Not just rude fans, the show also depicts how, sometimes, the companies that these Idols work for fail in helping them against such issues, just to maintain the clean and controversy-free image of their Idols. In the K-drama, Ra-ik complains to his CEO about the Sasaengs and wants him to help him out, but is refused, resulting in the breakdown of the Idol. All of these incidents that Ra-ik deals with in Idol I resemble the difficulties of K-pop Idols.While the show's main focus is on Ra-ik's case and his story with Se-na, these incidents that Ra-ik faces have also made the K-drama gain attention among viewers. The compelling narrative will make you question whether Ra-ik is innocent or not, and how, without being proven guilty, the fans who adore him change their stance.The K-drama perfectly creates a narrative that revolves around the murder case and also subtly showcases the dark side of K-pop fandom culture on the screen, presenting the horror and discomfort that K-pop Idols feel on a daily basis and are not even allowed to complain about.To know more about Ra-ik and Se-na's story, tune into ENA and Netflix every Monday and Tuesday and catch the latest episodes of Idol I.Also Read: Idol I episode 5: Release date news, time, streaming details, and more