Love Area honestly isn't as bad as the other reviews make it out to be.
It has a very generic plot and at times can be a bit slow, but there is something about it that makes you want to just keep watching.
That being said, Love Area's saving grace is that while all the actors are rookies, they can actually act!

STORY:

Kaitoon is a hardworking orphan struggling to get by and works multiple jobs to make end's meet. One day as he's walking home from work he gets robbed by man with a knife. The robbery gets botched by actual thugs that arrive leaving Kaitoon to call an ambulance for his would-be robber. The next day at work he meets the owner's brother, Valen, who also happens to be the robber from the night before. Kaitoon is surprised, but nevertheless has to work with and train Valen. At first they are awkward and can't stand each other, but as Kaitoon is forced to train Valen, they get to know each other more.

Meanwhile, Peat returns to try make amends with King. However, the 2 years they spent apart is taking a toll on King. He doesn't know if he should reconcile with Peat or move on with his life.

So yes, the plot is very generic. Poor, hard working orphan meets rich bad boy with money issues because he chooses not to work. It sounds like so many other manga story lines that it's so cliche. However, there is something about Love Area that does keep you wanting to see what happens next. For me, it's honestly the second couple, King and Peat. (I personally thing that they should have been the lead couple instead of Valen and Kaitoon, but I'll talk about them a bit later.)

Getting away from the fact that it has a generic plot, and looking at the story line itself, Love Area starts off great, but from around the second episode it starts to lose momentum. The first episode was well thought out and got the audience invested, by giving us glimpse of Kaitoon's backstory then dropping us into the middle of his life, however, this style of storytelling is how the series starts to lose it's audience. The film makers did amazing with Kaitoon's background, but Valen, King, Peat, Non, and every other character doesn't get the same treatment. We know nothing about any of them and are suddenly expected to care for them. For example, in the first scene we meet King we are introduced to him as Valen's friend. He's seen smiling and looking happy, but as soon as Peat walks in we see he has issues with him. We then are given a scene where they talk about Peat returning after 2 years and King explains that he's angry, which is great, but we don't know their relationship or how King was dealing with this separation, so it was awkward. We were just thrown into the middle of their drama with no backstory. While we do get some of our questions answered by Peat later in the story, there are many instances like this with many of the characters which leads to many plot holes. Most of the plot holes are irrelevant and can be ignored, like how did the Nisa know that Kaitoon needed money and she should give him his paycheck weekly. However, there are some bigger plot holes, like how did Valen become in debt when he's rich and could have asked his sister, why did he revert to robbing Kaitoon in the beginning of the series, and what happened to the thugs that were after him? Hopefully these questions will be answered in Part 2, but I don't think they will be. It's still a nice BL to watch though.

Kaitoon & Valen

Kaitoon is very hardworking and nice, while Valen is headstrong and naive in love. Their whole relationship is Valen pulling Kaitoon into doing something and Kaitoon is too nice to say no or put his foot down. That being said, Valen is whipped for Kaitoon and thinks about him 24/7. They have an interesting dynamic which compliments each other. While they aren't the most interesting BL couple out there, they somehow make the audience interested in their story and make us wonder what happens next.

Kaitoon & Non

Non's character is... How should I say this... While Non is set up as the perfect foil to Valen, aside from the first episode, his character is useless. In the first episode Non's character is made to be Kaitoon's perfect man. However, as soon as Valen is introduced it's like the film makers forgot about him. He only shows up to make dates with Kaitoon, only to get ditched on their date. It happens 3 times and we don't really get any reaction from Non. He's supposed to be in love with Kaitoon, but we don't see any of it. Kaitoon also seems not to care about his friendship with Non, so what's the point in keeping his character around? Unless Non really steps his game up and wreaks havoc on Valen and Kaitoon's relationship, I don't see a point in his character. I wouldn't even consider him as part of a love triangle.

King & Peat

We are literally dropped into the middle of King and Peat's relationship, so we don't really know the dynamics of their relationship until later in the series. Even then, we're still not sure how their relationship works. However, the reason I say that they should have been the leads of this series is that they were the first to get us invested in the series. We were curious about what happened between them from the beginning. (Even more than we were curious about why Valen robbed Kaitoon.) They also brought the drama to this Thai drama. Granted it's not that big of a drama as it could have been, it still is drama compared to the "will they, won't they" between Kaitoon and Valen because as I said earlier, the love triangle between Kaitoon, Valen, and Non is non-existent.

Also, on a personal note, the reason Peat left King is very unique in any drama, BL or not. If the story was about King and Peat, then Love Area would probably be the next Tale of a 1000 Stars or Until We Meet Again (If they could get even better actors to play the characters.) Hopefully part 2 won't sleep on King and Peat, but I don't have high hopes since King and Peat's drama seems to be wrapping up, although I don't know what the boy who volunteered to help King with his portrait will do to their relationship.


ACTING:

While the actors are all newbies, their acting is very decent. It's not the best, but at least they can act. I've seen way too many BLs with new actors that are just good faces. Here, all of the actors have the whole package. They just need to hone their skills and hopefully with a few more acting credits to their name, they'll get better roles.


OVERALL:

Love Area is a decent watch. There are some issues here and there, but it doesn't really effect the plot too much. The audience is also kept entertained enough to be curious about what happens next. Yes, there might be some times when we skip ahead, but it's usually because we want to know what happens next.

If you're looking for a masterpiece, then this isn't for you. But if you are looking for something to watch to fill your BL needs, Love Area has got it covered.