I have very mixed feelings about this drama. There are some things it did really well and I respect the extent to which it stuck with the themes it was exploring, even when they resulted in outcomes that weren’t necessarily what the audience would have wanted. At the same time, it had several flaws and an inconsistent storyline that severely impacted the overall delivery.

First, the good things. I think I might be in the minority when I say, after sitting on it, I actually like that ending. Well… maybe “like” is too strong a word, but I respect it for what it is, and how it represents the message the drama was trying to impart. And what is that message exactly? Like the title says, it’s about being “sandwiched.” This is a drama that explores the effect our jobs can have on our lives, to what extent we should devote ourselves to our work, what limits we should set for ourselves regarding work vs. personal life — what value does work play in our overall happiness, and how much of ourselves we should tie up up work. The drama does a good job of exploring these questions through a variety of characters.

For example, to the female lead, Su Hsiao Ching, work is everything. She is unable to draw a line between her work and her self-worth, and thus any bad thing that happens at work is a direct reflection of her life’s value. This is something that she needs to fix and does so throughout the drama in a good show of character growth. On the other hand, to the male lead, Luo Cheng Kai, work is a means to an end. His sole focus is to be successful so he can help out his family, and in doing so, he throws himself and his personal needs away and becomes the embodiment of the Establishment, a “bad guy” whose job is only to make companies successful regardless of how it reflects on him as a person. He also needs to fix this and does so to a lesser extent than the female lead, but still had a pretty good character arc.

The side characters also all represent different degrees of workplace enthusiasm, from the people who put their careers above their families and then have to find a compromise somewhere in between, to the manager who always dumps all his work onto his subordinates and finding out the reason why he does so and which skills are necessary for surviving in a higher-level position for any prolonged amount of time. The friendships and workplace relationships were also a joy to watch. An ideal workplace for sure!

What I liked most about this drama, which took me a while to get used to and appreciate, is the level of reality they used to solve problems. There are no “magic solutions” here, no “hard work conquers all.” Sometimes, even though the main characters tried their best and did all the right things, their problems just didn’t get solved and they had to let go of things they wanted. I really appreciated that once I realized that was the approach the writing was taking. Just like in real life, things don’t always pan out and you have to start over or reassess the direction you’re going in regards to your work or personal life.

I also appreciated the progression of the love story, though I would warn going into this to not expect a typical love plot. The leads get together pretty early on, but they are inundated by a myriad of problems that have no obvious solutions. The drama also addresses these problems with a dose of reality and there are no quick solutions. As a result, their relationship’s evolution is quite natural, if not the way most people would expect/want. The female lead’s reason for some of her actions towards the male lead is something that I understood but didn’t necessarily agree with, but I think that’s also part of the overall message of the drama. The leads were portrayed as flawed individuals throughout, and being together isn’t some magic elixir that can solve all of those flaws in the span of eighteen episodes. Flaws take time to wrinkle out, and sometimes the result you want is not the one that is most realistic or attainable. Growing ourselves is a life-long process, after all; no one's personality stays stagnant.

As for the actors, I loved Marcus Chang in this. He portrayed both vulnerability and ruthlessness pretty flawlessly, easily bouncing between the two extremes as his character demanded. I also have a high fondness for Sean Lee and Tannie Huang, so it was great to see all of these three incredible actors and actresses come together for one drama, even if it wasn’t the best scripted or directed. Kelly Liao has also caught my attention as someone to look out for.

Now, onto the flaws. I think the biggest flaw this drama has is its inconsistent writing. There were way too many loose threads interspersed throughout the runtime of the drama, and while most of them got a conclusion eventually, it wasn’t as cohesive as it should have or could have been. Also, the directing of some scenes was a bit off-putting. There were several times where what they were showing should have been touching or really strong, climactic scenes, but instead, the flatness of the shots and the character’s output of emotions just didn’t hit right. It could have either been a combination of the writing and the directing or one or the other, but either way, it made the show hard to watch at times. It’s painful to watch scenes that you know could be super impactful and thought-provoking, only for them to fall flat.

The second flaw was the portrayal of the female lead and the second male lead. The female lead is a complicated one because while there were some things done very well with her character, and she did have a complete arc in the end, I didn’t really end the show feeling I knew her as well as I should have. It was hard to discern where her motivations and reasons for doing things came from until they were explicitly spelled out in the form of arguments, whereas it would have been better if they had built it up through her actions, and then the arguments were the cumulation of her thoughts and actions that we already understood. She definitely could have been written more strongly.

Furthermore, the “love triangle” / implementation of the second male lead was poorly done. He barely gets any screen time, and his overall story is just super weak. About a third way through the drama, he gets a much-needed background story and motivations for his actions, but it’s a bit too late to mean anything to the overall love story. He’s already out before he’s had a chance to begin, basically.

Overall, I have mixed feelings about this drama because while I enjoyed the directions it went once I understood its intentions, there are some parts I wish could have been done much better to deliver a more well-rounded and overall satisfactory conclusion. This drama had so much potential, but such poor overall execution. Many scenes stuck with me and were done wonderfully, but an equal amount had me low-key cringing.