I totally disagree that there's no drama, and I thought the characters had a lot of....potential. I don't think they were all dull, but they weren't fun vivacious characters like the Star Wars movies have. They were more dark bleak characters that have no real hope and live horrible lives. I think they should have been developed more, for sure, but lots of people are comparing them to the success of Rey, which I think is unfair.
I think people love Rey for two main reasons.
1. She is essentially a mixture of the best parts of Luke, Leia, and Han. So when we see her, all of their histories and development get evoked even though she has virtually none other than "had nothing, now have everything". So it's a bit cheap.
2. The actress has a crap ton of natural charisma. This is true. She was incredible and brought an otherwise generic character to new levels.
However, she was playing a character that was almost nothing but spunk, can-do attitude and hope (sound familiar?) so bringing charisma to it is not quite as hard as characters who are going on a suicide mission after living lives of horror.