I think it might not be that uncommon if the show is themed around adoption storylines and social commentary, ie. Go Ahead and Rock It, Mom! with the latter being much more revolutionary for how much Yao Chen's character didn't want to take During the Day Bai Tian back (though I still think that Go Ahead was great for comfort and found family in spite of its flaws). And I feel that in mainstream media it's okay for biodads to be total scumbags, but biomoms still have to be redeemed and shown to have wanted and "loved" their child...
Lighting Up the Stars still walks it back a bit by having the biomom be a sympathetic character. She abandoned the child at birth, suddenly wanted her back ten years later, and is easily reintegrated into the child's life in the end once she's shown enough remorse and understanding that the child has found another family. Go Ahead was like this too but was much more contrived and melodramatic about the mom's backstory, though it did allow the abandoned son to confront her about it and feel complicated about restarting their relationship.
The "worst" character in Lighting Up the Stars is the auntie who isn't biologically related to the child but also appears to be a bad mother to her own son, which I guess counts as crit? (The bio-uncle is a doormat who keeps fobbing off the child to strangers which technically is not any better but he's seen as someone who "tries".)
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During the DayBai Tian back (though I still think that Go Ahead was great for comfort and found family in spite of its flaws). And I feel that in mainstream media it's okay for biodads to be total scumbags, but biomoms still have to be redeemed and shown to have wanted and "loved" their child...Lighting Up the Stars still walks it back a bit by having the biomom be a sympathetic character. She abandoned the child at birth, suddenly wanted her back ten years later, and is easily reintegrated into the child's life in the end once she's shown enough remorse and understanding that the child has found another family. Go Ahead was like this too but was much more contrived and melodramatic about the mom's backstory, though it did allow the abandoned son to confront her about it and feel complicated about restarting their relationship.
The "worst" character in Lighting Up the Stars is the auntie who isn't biologically related to the child but also appears to be a bad mother to her own son, which I guess counts as crit? (The bio-uncle is a doormat who keeps fobbing off the child to strangers which technically is not any better but he's seen as someone who "tries".)