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.