This, this was a ride, an occasionally cute, fluffy one, but oftentimes headache inducing, eye rolling one that left me wishing for the magic that was MSP, because this did not have that magic. It tried, it really did, but the fact of the matter is, Gemini and Fourth are growing up and that combined with a lackluster script, inconsistent story, and incohesive characters just exacerbated the issue and it all just kind of snowballed.

I have never read the manga nor have I seen the original Japanese adaptation, so I have nothing to compare this to. My biggest issue with the story was all the inconsistencies. You have Mudmee who in the first half or so of the drama is seen as relatively weak and not great at sports and then suddenly she's The Hulk and an absolute beast. Um, excuse me, when did that happen? Then there's Atom who when faced with having to cook Kongthap's birthday meal suddenly says that he's afraid of cooking because he nearly burned the house down and his mother was severely burned as a result when he was a child. But we saw none of that when he was in the cooking club previously. He didn't seem tense, despite Sin's comment, and he was happily daydreaming about Kongthap while letting the chocolate burn. Atom's mom tells Kongthap during the school festival that Atom has abandonment issues and yet, we never see that. The drama also almost feels episodic in nature. Any issue or conflict that arises is conveniently wrapped up within a single episode which, while working in some cases, with some of the heavier themes, namely Atom coming to terms with his sexuality, figuring out what he wants to do with his life and he and Kongthap coming out to their mothers, those definitely could have used a couple of episodes to really explore them and give them the attention they deserved.

The characters were similarly inconsistent, morphing as needed to fit the story. They're supposed to be this close friend group and yet the only ones that truly felt convincing as friends were Atom and Mudmee. Atom and Half felt less cohesive as friends, particularly when Atom was ready to jump to Mudmee's side without even listening to Half. Their friendship felt stronger towards the beginning but then just started to dissipate as the drama progressed. The romance didn't quite work for me. For one, Atom got over Mudmee far too quickly. I can forgive that given time restrictions, but then I needed to understand why Atom and Kongthap fell for each other and that simply wasn't well developed. They spent time together, but it wasn't like they were having a lot of deep, meaningful conversations that would seem to foster the growth of romantic feelings. Frankly, Mudmee and Half's relationship felt better developed.
- Atom was the most consistent character, but he very much felt like a manga character with his dramatics and over the top behaviour. It got tiring after a while. He did mature to an extent and work to improve himself but the whininess could have been dialed back.
-Kongthap was one of the characters that really seemed to morph as the episode demanded. He would be intelligent one episode and emotionally inept the next. I understand that he was trying to figure out his feelings, but sweet child! I was also deeply unimpressed with his behaviour in Episode 12. He left Atom to fend for himself both times with his own mother (at least go stand next to your man!), and then forced his hand with Atom's mother by saying he wanted to tell her something. I simultaneously wanted to smack him and hug Atom.
-Mudmee was fun. I truly enjoyed her friendship with Atom and I also appreciated her courage to go after the person she liked despite fearing rejection and that she kept showing up despite the obstacles she/they faced. I really wanted her to tell her friends to shut up though with their stupid advice. Like come on, girl, their advice has never been right, stop listening to them!
-Half was simultaneously adorable and smackable. My girl Mudmee kept putting herself out there and he was either oblivious or too afraid to do anything. Thankfully he eventually got his head screwed on straight and became the man she deserved but it took a while. In all seriousness though, I think they could have done more with his character. It didn't feel like there was much to him other than Mudmee's love interest.

Gemini and Fourth are good actors. I liked them in MSP and I liked them in Moonlight Chicken. They're talented. They weren't bad here, but it also wasn't either of their strongest performance. A significant part of that I'm going to chalk up to what they had to work with. While I prefer Fourth in more dramatic roles like Moonlight Chicken that allow him to really showcase his talent, he does a good job playing the whiny high schooler here too. Gemini unfortunately fell into the trap that a number of actors do of thinking being reserved means you can't move your face so he came across as stiff at least initially. He did loosen up eventually thankfully, but it also felt a bit too late at that point to completely salvage things. Beyond their acting though, they're both looking older. They no longer have the baby faces that were so present and endearing in MSP and even Moonlight Chicken. They look like young adults now. It's harder for them to blend into that high school scene and bring that same feel. They still have fantastic chemistry, but I think a different genre would be beneficial for both of them.

The music is excellent. The opening song was overused, but I do like it and while the musical made no sense, I very much like the songs from it as well. The amount of product placement was absurd. I've gotten to a point where I can mostly ignore it, but my lord they were just going to town with it in such a way that I could not this time. Do they know what subtlety is? I mean, how many times did we need see Kongthap put in his contact? Also, sir, do you even know how to put in contacts because you're going to have issues when they're touching your eyelashes. Just saying. And I don't know whose brilliant (yes, I'm being very sarcastic) idea it was to run the credits during the last couple minutes of the episodes, but literally why? Was there some reason they couldn't be run at the end like normal so they wouldn't distract from what was happening? I would seriously love an explanation.

While I think GMM was trying desperately to recapture the magic of MSP, they failed dramatically. MLMU lacks that magic and it lacks it in spades. It's saying something when the straight couple is more compelling than the leads which is what I found half the time. I love Gemini and Fourth, they're talented young men, but even they couldn't save this mess. I can only hope that their next project is better than this.