Bed Friend (2023)

Thirsty Bathrobe Bois The Series

Firstly. I don't vibe with starting off this arrangement while one was drunk. I think in the BL world we've evolved a lot from that controversial narrative and this series didn't need that. I get Uea "hates" King at the beginning, but come on just have him be lonely and horny one night to start off the friends with benefits stuff. I also put "hates" in quotes because Uea "hating" King was for really dumb reasons. They say he's a player but we don't see that much and honestly for someone whose a "player" he was very quick to want to only have this FWB arrangement with Uea. There was never cheating or bad flirting or anything of the sort. So I think Uea was being too judgy at the beginning. Though the poor boys been through a lot, like damn they put his character through hell so I got over it.

One question I had throughout the series was: What is up with all the mirror shots? Like I'm not sure if they were trying to be artistic or something lol. But it didn't work and it was very distracting. Another question I had was if we were going to get a side couple. Which we didn't and that was surprising! I was fine with it because it lent more time for King and Uea. However, the sexy scenes, trauma bombing and arguments were getting kind of stale after awhile.

So the ending. What an abrupt af proposal and ending, like did they run out of filming time? It was really weird and poorly paced. Also the "setup" at the end with Jade and Tutor's character lollll was so stupid. What a lack of a role! Overall this was okay. If you want spicy scenes and thats it, just skip around the series since the plot isn't super important.

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EXCITING AND SEXY

This is the type of BL that feels similar to a wattpad fanfic with the amount of trauma the main character goes through. Whether that’s good or bad is up to you, I personally enjoy it because there's never a dull or boring moment. I enjoy how they chose to resolve the conflict and the way they handled the trauma with Uea in the end, I was worried in the beginning but they handled it surprisingly, very well and they are doing a pretty good job serving justice and punishing those who deserve it.

I absolutely love a good "friends with benefits" and "enemies to lovers" concept. This show has been extremely sexy with two actors who have fantastic chemistry in this series. They fit so well together and compliment each other very well both in aesthetics and personality.

I know originally this was supposed an 8 episode series and initially I thought its too short to properly resolve everything but honestly I would've been fine with episode 8 being the finale. A lot of my initial concerns and questions have been resolved and answered and I like the extra scenes they put into the last two episodes to really wrap things up.

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I'm still confused

At first I thought that the problem was me - this is a series that seemed very interesting based on the trailer alone, so I wondered if I my expectations were too big to begin with.
After watching 10 episodes (and having a hard time finishing the last two), I realized that the problem is in the series itself.

First of all, the idea that is supposed to be at the base of the series is not very clear. At the beginning I thought it would be some kind of spicy enemies-to-lovers story, but the ingredients weren't quite there - the reasons for Uea to dislike King so much are not solid enough to be convincing, and King's opinion of Uea at the beginning is a complete mystery. When the FWB situation started, I hoped that these things would be explored more as the series went on, but it never happened.
Instead of that, the story took an unexpected turn as it revealed Uea's turbulent past. I didn't mind the presence of such themes, but I was expecting them to be taken seriously and to be explored properly, which (again) never happened. If anything, it looked more like whoever wrote the story wanted Uea to have as many traumatic experiences and toxic people in his life as possible. I started to wonder if someone in the production team believes that "trauma is sexy" or something like that.
The series itself ended up failing with both the FWB story and the abuse survivor story, by never diving deep enough in either theme. The agreement between Uea and King becomes secondary very quickly, and Uea's problems only seem to grow in number. The relationships between the characters (not only Uea and King, but also their friends, colleagues and family) were also never shown properly, making their interactions always sound ambiguous - I was never sure whether one was supposed to be a close friend or a well-intentioned acquaintance. The miscommunication (which I was half hoping would not be there) and the awful pacing did the rest of the work to ruin it for me.
The acting is good enough, but since the story is so lacking in the first place, I was not able to enjoy it as much as I wished to. As for the music, it was too repetitive to add anything to the scenes. The sexy scenes were pretty mostly because the actors themselves looked pretty, I believe.

I was able to finish the whole thing thanks to some miracle, but I have no intention to touch this series ever again. I wish the writers chose one route and did it well instead of adding so many elements and handling them so badly. Its potential was wasted entirely and I can't bring myself to recommend it to anyone at all.

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A fun watch that falls short

I want to applaud the consent in this series. It is not often explicit, especially not in nc heavy series. Speaking of nc, they were a bit lackluster. The heavy music over it and no 'love making sounds' (like smooching?)-- how do people expect me to get into it when all I see is some weirdly put together montage of them kissing and licking each other... The hottest scene to me wasn't even an nc scene, but the scene with pinkish lights were King and Uea are laying on their stomach, King on top of Uea, and they're talking.

Acting wise it's also a bit awkward at times, but fun to watch. James did really well in some dramatic/traumatic scenes, but others were a bit hard to watch. I like Net's acting. He's cute. Actually, they're both cute. The rest of the cast is forgettable and also not that great. Yim's character (I forgot his name) got on my nerves at one point with his 'crying'.

The ending felt a bit rushed.

6.0 all in all because it did well on some topics (consent, trauma, relationship development, I just love netjames), but lacked a lot as well (how is it focussed on nc (they're friends with benefits ffs) but the nc scenes are so lackluster, the acting and dialogue was awkward at times, the plot was weak, the ending was rushed, some things did not get resolved).

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Average

This was not so good but it wasn’t so bad either, it was just basically average IMO.
People who go through the type of trauma Uea did, need to seek professional help. This BL dramas infer that once you fall in love, you automatically get healed, I am by no means a professional but I don’t think it works that way. The one series that I have watched where one of the main character was suffering from mental health problems and was in therapy was The Eight Sense.
There was some heavy emotional scenes in this but I felt it didn’t translate enough through the acting, there was some crying scenes but no actual tears were shed. The actor that played King did the best job IMO and was hence the bright light/spot in the acting department of this series.
This is another series that I have watched where the parents were there for the engagement (first was Hidden Love), is that becoming a trend now in dramas?
There were some steamy steamy scenes in this (I guess that’s what some people referred to as soft porn in their reviews) so if you like that then you won’t be disappointed.
I won’t be rewatching this though.

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Better than Exspected

Not that I thought this was going to be terrible, but my first go-around at trying to watch this didn't end very nicely (I dropped it after, like, the first 5 minutes in), but in all truthfulness, I was going through the worst case of BL-block during that time, so now, it's all better. I decided to give this one another try, and I was NOT left disappointed !

Let's Dive In.

Initially, the name of the BL series threw me off a bit. I assumed it'd be extremely smutty (which, it is, but not in the sense that I was assuming) with very little plot, but I stand corrected! I loved the direction they were in the entire time with Uea's character, even if it was a little traumatic. Do I think it's a bit much to have three different people as*****d Uea? A little bit. The first two are understandable, but the boss coming in and immediately wanting Uea was so... odd? Obviously, Uea's a very attractive man, but you also had King and Jade and the rest, so why was he immediately drawn to Uea and nobody else? It was to stir shit in the office and among Uea and King, but it all felt a little redundant. Not saying this can't happen in real life, but for it to happen as much as it did in this series, I don't know, they could've thought about utilizing something else other than making Uea more traumatized.

Actually, speaking of Uea being traumatized, that mother was probably the worst character I've seen on TV. She's obviously too full of herself and too much in love with the step-dad to see all of the wrongdoing going on around her, and I'm ecstatic that they didn't try to give her some redemption arc; she's just a terrible person and Uea learned to distant himself from her. Perfect. But I need him to save his sister, pronto. Like go back into that house and have her move in with you, I beg.

Onto the romance, I was pleasantly surprised. I love a slow burn, nothing new there, so I thought I'd struggle to find any joy in their relationship since sex was first before anything. However, they were still able to create this tension that wasn't sexual outside of their FWB relationship. It was really nice. The NC scenes were, dare I say, maybe a little much? Just for my taste though! They were still very well-shot, and very well-executed with James and Net actually looking like they want to be together, which out of everything, is the most important part. I also loved the way they talked about consent, getting tested, and letting each other know how they felt after sex. When they finally get together, it feels organic and not rushed. A really awesome job they did.

I know a lot of people talked bad about Middleman's Love, which is why I was going to put it off, but I really liked Jade's personality in this, so I'll definitely have to, at least, give it a try!

Ratings:

Story: 7.5/10 - I loved that they made Uea's character have depth, and this series wasn't just about sex. I think some parts are rather unnecessary, but overall, I was satisfied.

Acting: 8/10 - I won't give this higher than an 8, only because James, in scenes where he was supposed to be distraught, couldn't shed a tear. Outside of that though, they did a fine job in their roles, everyone did.

Music: 7/10 - I really liked the theme song!

Recommendation value: 7.5/10 - If heavy NC scenes are your thing, then this is the series for you. But also, it has tough subjects that not everyone can be mentally okay enough to see, so watch out for that. Otherwise, I think this is a really good series to binge!

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Jumping Out Of This Bed

Going into this drama, I really didn't have high expectations. Based on the title alone, I figured it would be something pretty mindless, something I wouldn't have to concentrate on too much. And in many ways, I was correct. It suffers from a severe lack of story or plot, the characters, while charming in their own ways, are not well fleshed out, and thus far, there's just a lot left out. That being said, it also has some nuggets that I actually really appreciated like the focus on consent, the way mental health is addressed, and the absence of a few all too common tropes. Those nuggets don't make it a good drama, but the fact that they are present is promising and makes me hope other dramas will follow suit in that regard.

Again, the storyline/plot is severely lacking. While I wasn't expecting anything deep, I did expect there to be some semblance of a plot. Instead, the first 6 or so episodes is essentially made up of our leads flirting, mostly on King's part, and a fair number of awkwardly cut bedroom scenes. And then suddenly, it's like they decided that they actually did have a story to tell and the sex scenes all but disappeared and now its time to focus on Uea's trauma and fixing everything. On the one hand, I like that justice was served, but it also didn't flow with the rest of the story. The final episode didn't add anything really other than more lovey dovey scenes between our leads and introducing Tutor's character of Mai from Middleman's Love.

Speaking of Uea's trauma, good lord did they dump on the poor guy. What I initially expected and could have gotten on board with, was something where both Uea and King had some kind of trauma which came to light as their FWB relationship developed into something more and they helped each other cope. Instead, everything falls on Uea. He's abused by his mother and sexually assaulted by his step-father, his ex AND his boss and those are just the big ones. How he's functional at all is beyond me. And King? Well, there's nothing really wrong with his family other than his parents wanting to arrange a marriage for him and his mother seeming a bit hard-headed. Again if the trauma had been shared between King and Uea, I think it could have created something interesting, but with it all belonging to Uea, it just feels like overkill. The sexual assault perpetuated by his boss, however, does open the door for two positives. First, the fact that even though Krit is related to the main boss, there is no leniency. It was gratifying to see someone higher up in the company taking care of his employees, to the point that he gives Uea information to see a psychologist. The second positive is the fact that Uea's deteriorating mental health is addressed at all. He talks about seeing the psychologist and he's on medication to help keep his mental health in a good place. With so many of these dramas you have characters that clearly need professional help, but their mental health is never addressed or is skimmed over and it's treated like having a hot boyfriend solves all your problems. No, it doesn't. It helps to have someone there to support you and love you, certainly, but they can't replace actual professional help.

The character's themselves don't make much sense. A good part of that is because they're so one dimensional, King in particular. And maybe I'm just forgetting, but I don't recall Uea's animosity towards King ever really being explained other than he just doesn't like the fact that he's a player. For the way he treats him initially, it felt like it should have been something much more personal. I understand not being a fan of a player, but his reaction felt over the top. There also wasn't enough background information to understand his relationship with his family. All that's shown is the trauma and nothing else. I know trauma affects everyone differently, but I wanted to know more about his state of mind. With the level of abuse he suffered, why did he maintain any kind of contact with his family aside from his sister? Why, as an adult, did he let his family continue to treat him the way they did until he finally just snapped? Same with Krit, he was clearly being sexually harassed, and yet, he didn't even try to report it? And his interactions with King showed that he could stand up for himself and speak his mind, so why didn't he with others? There's just so little to the character that it was impossible to even begin to try and understand his mindset and what he was thinking. Same with King, I don't have a good feel on why he loves Uea so much aside from physical attraction. And some of his reactions just don't make sense. His assumption that Uea was willingly with Krit the night Uea was assaulted was completely irrational. He knew Krit was harassing Uea, he knew Uea didn't like it, so where did that thinking come from? Furthermore, with the whole arranged marriage, why he didn't shut that down right off the bat didn't make sense either. Why was it so hard to tell his office mates that he had no interest in this girl, he loved someone else, this was being forced on him by his parents and he was looking for a way out? I'm aware that both these instances were likely included to fuel the drama and to create a rift between King and Uea, but if you're going to create drama, at least make it believable to some degree. I also took issue with Uea's treatment of King even after they were together. There were times where he was clearly baiting him, daring him to break the rules he had set in place. I didn't appreciate that, especially when it came down to refusing to let King touch him in any way there towards the end, even in a non-sexual manner. It was so clear that he was taunting King and enjoying himself doing it. It's one thing if it's mutually understood that this kind of behaviour is okay and desired by both parties, but I never got that impression from King so it just made it uncomfortable to watch.

The one positive with both these characters was the aspect of consent. Considering what he'd been through, consent was obviously a big deal to Uea and I liked the fact that they laid out rules before beginning their FWB relationship, although King didn't always strictly follow them. I also appreciated that King really did respect Uea and made a concerted effort to follow his rules for the most part and always made sure that he was okay. The one downside is that Uea was drunk their first time together and I'm guessing King was not fully sober either. However, this is somewhat addressed later on when Uea gets drunk again and comes onto a sober King who does not let the same thing happen twice. Uea even mentions afterwards when King asks for a reward for showing restraint that he behaved as he should have. It's something that's not often seen in a lot of BLs, certainly not repeatedly throughout the drama and I found it's inclusion to be a big positive.

The acting is hit or miss. Net and James are both attractive young men, there's no denying that, but to be an actor, you need to be more than just a pretty face. They are both old enough and have been in enough other dramas that I expected more from them. James' acting felt wooden at times and he is not good with emotional scenes. The crying with no tears got old fast. It feels fake and takes away from the emotional impact the scene could have had. Net is better, but his expressions got a bit monotonous after a while. He did have some great moments where he absolutely nails a scene, he has the ability to convey a lot of emotion with his eyes alone. Their chemistry was also hit or miss. There were times where they seemed to match really well and other times it felt forced. I liked Yim in Cutie Pie, his acting and character were two of the only things I liked in that drama, but here he just felt very one note. It doesn't help that Jade just isn't that interesting of a character, but I feel like he could have done more. He also suffered from the whole issue of crying without tears which seemed very fake. Honestly, the only actor that I felt gave a good performance thus far was Ya Janya as Uea's aunt. I know she's barely featured, but her emotions and reactions felt more raw and real than anyone else's.

The production value is a bit meh. There's some awkward editing, scenes that were just cut weird. Some of the cinematography got a bit repetitive. There were angles that just didn't work, odd lighting and in general it was just a hodge podge because there were some really beautifully shot scenes, it's just that none of it was consistent. The music was overall pretty forgettable. I gave it a 7.5 because while it wasn't memorable, I also didn't find it distracting.

As expected, the final episode didn't make much of a difference. It's basically forty minutes of fluff and not much else. I think this drama could have been a lot more than it is, I think it could have gone deeper and been more than just the sex scenes and trauma, but unfortunately that's not what happened. It has a few positives and I will say that I think they are major positives, but the negatives just far outweigh and overshadow them. Here's to hoping that Middleman's Love is better than this mess.

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A deeper story than FWB

If you read the reviews and discussions, you'll notice many people didn't get the storyline, doubted whether there a plot at all, or just skipped around to see NC scenes. And there are some like me who were thoroughly invested in the characters and the story, even though it may not have been what we were expecting, given the Bed Friends title. And there were some who were upset about having to deal with and to be triggered by Uea's trauma. As someone who can be triggered myself, I do ask on Reddit, check MDL Discussions and/or review the MDL Tags, so I have some idea of the content. Tags: Gay Romance, LGBTQ+, Trauma, Mean Mother, Adapted From A Novel, Child Abuse, Expressed Consent, Family Abuse, Sassy Male Lead, Workplace Setting

At first, I thought this would be just pure fluff, but given the MDL tags and the first couple of episodes, it started to become clear to me that it would be a much deeper story. Things that stood out to me:
- King was already fascinated by Uea the first time he set eyes on him at the club. And he made it his goal to get Uea's attention ever since, which only back-fired because Uea just thought King was a player.
- Uea's cold demeanor is his wall. Trauma survivors often need this, or some other survival mechanism, to function.
- Even though they had clearly spelled out FWB rules, they each acted more like boyfriends even from the beginning. True FWB don't necessarily check in that often with each other. Nor do they have meals together, text good night, text "I'm home safe."
- The mother-child relationship is complicated. As many times as your own mother abandons/uses/abuses you, you keep hoping she still somehow loves you. It's easy for people to judge Uea for returning home, but it's a really difficult boundary to set, esp. when you have siblings still at home.
- I felt powerless when Uea's boss Krit showed up on the screen. He was creepy and my relief was palpable when he was gone.
- Early childhood trauma have been shown to change brain chemistry. Instead of perpetuating the stigma against mental health, the producers and writers normalized therapy and prescription meds. We don't often see that in BL.

I highly recommend this series. The main leads' acting was great. Their NC scenes were incredible and their chemistry was scorching!

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I MISJUDGED THIS SO BAD

First of all: I think the title, trailer and synopsis of the series lead people to misunderstand what the series is about. It's more about coping with trauma and having someone help you heal than about them being friends with Benefits.

When I watched the first episode I the first time I fully stopped watching because of their first time since Uea was drunk and I thought this bl was just gonna be like others, I thought they'd just ignore the fact that it was a relation without consent (since drunk people CAN'T give any form of consent). HOWEVER after a couple months I went back to watch it because I saw a lot of people saying how good the series is, and I finished it in roughly 2 days, so here's a list to why this series was so amazing for me and thing I think they did REALLY well (slight spoilers ahead, nothing that I think it's major):

- Uea feeling guilty about their first night (since he was drunk and was thinking that he should've controlled himself when it happened) and King telling him that it wasn't his fault.

- (this refers more from the middle to end of the series, after King's character development) EVERY time King reassured Uea with words and respected his time and decisions, not asking why Uea didn't feel comfortable in certain situations. Also loved every time time King made sure to let Uea know that if he doesn't want/feel comfortable in trying some things he's fine with it and it's okay, cuz it was really important for Uea to not feel pressured to accept things.

- Depict how trauma always affects us. I think Uea's trauma with sa was really well depicted, specially when he was sometimes triggered by King's actions. It didn't matter that he trusted King, people with sa traumas can be triggered by anyone, even if it is their lover, best friend or family.

Now some things that I disliked:
- Every time they communicated like shit, since up to this point they always seemed to try and communicate.

Final Note: Loved how after they start dating we didn't have NSFW scenes as graphic as when they were just friends with benefits, that goes to show that now it is a meaningful and private thing between the couple and not just something periodic that they were doing just because.

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Shocked

I gave my rating and I wasn’t going to write a review but I am too shocked at some of the low ratings. I gave this 10/10 and it’s one of my favorite series. At the time of this writing, I have watched this series 3 times and I’m sure there will be more.

There are many reasons why I love this:
- Visuals - Net is gorgeous and James is beautiful. Put them together and, wow.
- Net and James can both ACT. Net has one of the most expressive faces I have ever seen. I could feel exactly what he was feeling.
- This series hits EVERY EMOTION.
- As the title alludes to, the bedroom scenes are plentiful and steamy. Episode 6 is especially great. Meow.
- The cinematography was outstanding. The beach scene with their silhouettes was absolutely stunning.
- True love triumphs over every obstacle.
- Loyal friends are invaluable.
- The bad guys get what they deserve.
- The music was spot on.

Don’t let the reviews dissuade you from watching. Decide for yourself.

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