The Middleman's Love

Middleman's Disgrace

It's hard to believe that Middleman's Love and Bed Friend are in any way connected. They're so completely different, it's almost jarring. While I wouldn't say that Middleman's Love was a series I was hotly anticipating, I was curious about it and looking forward to it to some degree. Bed Friend had a host of issues, but Jade was not one of them. I thought Yim's portrayal of him was a bit one note and there just wasn't a whole lot to the character, but with the focus on him and a proper storyline, there was potential. Unfortunately what we got was a complete disaster. Where Bed Friend tried to be darkly sexy with a healthy dose of trauma thrown in, Middleman's love went for a rom-com feel, heavy on the slapstick comedy. It doesn't work and it was almost physically painful to get through. If it was any more than the eight episodes it was, I would have bailed and I very nearly did within the first fifteen minutes, but clung on because of comments that it improved. And while there is some improvement in the last two episodes, it's far too little, too late to make a difference.

The story is a pretty generic office romance between an employee and his intern. It had the potential to be cute, but there's so much crap and unnecessary drama to bog it down that it's anything but. And sometimes that's redeemable if the characters are likeable, but they weren't. I guess there's the theme that there's someone for everyone, but it definitely could have been done better. I was put off almost immediately by the animation sequence that started things off. It was weird and unexpected and pointless. There were a couple more instances of that and they failed to add anything beneficial. They just continued to be weird and pointless. Equally off-putting was the abundance of comedic sound effects. Those were eventually toned down, but still very much overused. Given the title, I anticipated the fact that Jade always found himself in the middle would play a larger role than it did. In effect, it really played no role as it was mentioned a couple times, but that was about it. I think the drama could have been much more interesting if they had leaned into that concept and how always being in the middle really affected Jade. The NSFW scenes were...interesting to say the least. The scene between Gus and Tong felt abrupt. There had been the whole push and pull between them for a while, but when they finally got to the point where they were a couple, they immediately jumped into bed. To me, it felt out of character and out of place. Jade and Mai's scenes were even more out of character. Considering how Jade is Jade and that he was a virgin, the level of sensuality he gave was not believable to me. There needed to be some awkwardness and fumbling and not straight to sex god. Also going to say that the two of them eating the rose was just weird. There were, however, a couple things that I did appreciate like the theme of consent that continued over from Bed Friend. Gus actually verbally giving consent to Tong was nice to see. I also really liked both Jade's and Mai's families and how supportive and loving they were. With Jade's family, the conversation they had where they acknowledged his feelings was very well done and I wish we'd had more scenes like that.

The characters were pretty much irredeemable trash.
-Jade in Bed Friend was cute, a bit quirky and eccentric, but not in a bad or obnoxious way. He was a good, loyal friend who seemed to have a solid head on his shoulders. But with this series, it's like they took his eccentricities and magnified them a thousand times to the point where it didn't even seem to be the same character. And that was a major downfall because Jade ended up feeling more like a caricature than a character. He was loud, awkward, and painfully self-conscious, not at all cute. Other than getting over his fear of rejection to pursue Mai, there was very little character development. There was a lot of potential for Jade and if they had retained his original character, I think the romance between him and Mai could have been quite sweet.
-Mai was a besotted puppy who truly was essentially perfect. He was not one of those characters who seems perfect on the outside, but as things progress his flaws are shown. No, he was portrayed as being the perfect employee, the perfect boyfriend, the perfect son, everything. He lacked any kind of dimension or interest. He revolved around Jade and that was it.
-Ueau and King returned to serve as love advisors for Jade and Mai. We didn't get to see a whole lot of them outside that role, but the few moments we did revolved around petty drama. The fact that Ueau couldn't have a simple conversation with another man without King getting his hackles up was absurd. And while Ueau was still pretty much himself, they neutered King. In Bed Friend, he was confident and sexy, and while he pretty much always caved to Ueau, he had a personality and was his own man. Middleman's Love saw him turned into a simpering puppy whose most frequent line was calling Ueau Teerak (darling). Sort of cute the first time or two, but it quickly became redundant. He as a name, King, consider using it. Also, be done with the jealousy. It's not cute.
-Gus and Tong were a cute secondary couple, but their back and forth and where they stood got confusing at times. It would seem like they were getting somewhere and then next scene Gus would be sulking for some inexplicable reason. They needed more screen time to really build on their relationship. Also found Tong's comment that Gus never annoyed him and that he was just foul-mouthed to be utter BS. You were acting very annoyed a time or two there, sir, being foul-mouthed had nothing to do with it.

I'm not going to hate on the actors because they had garbage to work with. The script was a disaster and should have been shredded then burnt. Watching the behind the scenes, you can see how much effort they put into it, but there was just no saving it. As much as I couldn't stand Jade, I will give Yim all the kudos because I can only imagine how hard portraying him was. Playing high energy characters like that is exhausting, but he remained consistent. Tutor, again, just had nothing to work with. I know he's a good actor, but there were so many close ups that I don't think he had a chance to really spread his wings. He wasn't wooden though which he easily could have been and there was expression in his eyes so I'll give him that.

The production needs to be fired. How they looked at any of this and thought, yeah, this looks great is beyond me. They let down their actors who deserved so much better and they let down the fans who had been looking forward to this. There were a number of scene cuts that were very awkward and really killed the flow and tone as well as a few scene jumps that were equally awkward. In both cases, they made the story progression more confusing than it needed to be. The opening credits with the bobbleheads was not cute or funny. That was one of my first indications that this series was not going to be what I expected. And the music, particularly during the NSFW scenes was either forgettable or distracting. For the NSFW scenes, it didn't fit and I ended up muting eventually. I don't understand why they feel music is necessary for those kinds of scenes. If you have to have it, use instrumental pieces, it flows better.

To sum it up, Middleman's Love was a dumpster fire that should never have been made as is. The few cute or wholesome scenes are buried so deep, you have to sift through a mountain of garbage to find them. This is such a case of wasted potential and I hope Tutor, Yim and the other actors are given better opportunities to show their talents cause this was not it.

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Disappointing

Let’s start by saying that I read the book and loved it. my impression of the show began off with how disappointing the adaptation is. Imagine my shock when episode one they changed the entire timeline from the book. Which meant everyone’s motivations now had to be completely rewritten. Mai stayed pretty much the same but now he has a fellow intern magically show up to handle the plotline where Jade thinks Mai should pair up with Ae. and because Ae and King are no longer an integral part of the main plot they’re shunted to the side and all the friendship chemistry goes sideways.

Ae is supposed to be a quiet smart influence on Mai. Helping him along with wooing Jade. but since Jade no longer needs to misunderstand that relationship that meaning is lost.

Jade is supposed to be a “mid” character. quietly helping everyone around him yet he’s rewritten and (surely coached) to be loud and, let’s be honest, slightly annoying, instead of kind and self defeating. you get more incite into his character through his brothers conversation with Mai in the last episode than you do in the enitre series.

Honestly, I could go on for pages and pages so instead I’ll try to keep it short. I know this series suffered from a lot of changes and recasting in the beginning but instead of getting better due to the delays is seems like they ended up having too much time to make too many changes and they got lost somewhere in the middle and ended up lost out in the wilderness of story land.

in short, my suggestion is to go read the book, I enjoyed it. the adaptation should be enjoyed for purely seeing Tutor and Yim interactions. I’d suggest skipping episodes 2-4 though. Yim isn’t really allowed to have emotional range until that episode.

gosh. I’m still suffering from the disappointment.

if you want to see how adaptations should be done go watch the Thai adaptation of the Japanese BL manga Cherry Magic.

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Mosly unwatchable but with some nice moments

Perhaps there are viewers who enjoy this sort of romantic comedy/farce, but I find the main character just too pastiche in rather annoying sort of way. I couldn't take him seriously, couldn't empathize with him, and eventually just fast forwarded through a lot of his screen time. If only the character arcs had been as well defined as the abdomens on show the basic storyline might have yielded a decent series at this length, but instead we get a very jerky and episodic stream of comedic set pieces and mostly stiff dramatic acting from the support cast.
Mostly Jade needs to be more loveable. The basic story is reasonable: an otaku who is resigned to experiencing love vicariously through the friends he tries to mediate between finds someone who sees beneath the surface to find him much more attractive than he seems at first blush. But for that to work we need to see more of what actually makes Jade loveable, and we just don't see enough of that to empathize with them.
There are some nice moments and some decent acting here and there, e.g. some of the emotions shown as interactions are Rashomoned are well acted and work to some extent; or the moments Jade and Mai spend looking through Jade's sketch notebook of Jade's time with his new intern.

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PAINFUL

Absolutely terrible. This made me wanna poke my eyes out.
I was so excited to watch this. I was a fan of this couple in Cutie Pie and was hoping they would be SOMEWHAT similar to that in Middleman's Love. I really liked Jade in Bed Friend and I have no idea what happened to his character. He was the most annoying person on the planet and I hate to say that, because I like Yim very much. Tutor's character was nice as always, but I think this ship was ruined. I'm telling y'all, every minute of this was painful and cringy LOL I think I only watched till the end because I really love James. Everything about the show was poorly done. The script was terrible, the story didn't make sense, the side couple was very weak and I didn't like anyone but Uea. I like King but even he was annoying.

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only for romcom's fans, and that's mostly why is so underrated

I usually don't write reviews, but I think this is a pretty underrated drama as of now (6.4 rating!).
Honestly, I was expecting much worse given the comments and the ratings: it's a very classic romcom with exaggerated and nonsensical humour, BUT the actors did quite a good job with their roles.
It made me laugh a lot, smile, giggle and care for the main leads, especially Jade's character.

I think the main problem for many people is exactly Jade's characters, who's over the top BUT is clearly on the spectrum (English is not my first language, so pardon me if writing it like this might sound offensive): Yim gave it his all to act with the whole body, with his lips, his hands... I think it had to be a very challenging role.

I haven't read the novel nor I've seen the previous series (Bed Friends - but I will), so I don't know how Jade's character is in the novel... but I really really liked the fact that he was not "just a goofy nerd", and that Mai (and all the friends and coworkers) understood and embraced that.

That said: TutorYim were lovely, I liked NetJames too and their dynamics as an already established couple in this series (as I said, I don't know about their couple in BF so I understand this might not be good for BF's series fans).

It's a fun thai romcom but there are some very nice, heartwarming and deep scenes (ep5 coming out to family, ep7 coming out at work, ep8 honest dialogue about ex boyfriends...).

Nice songs for the OST, the direction and editing (and dialogues!) were pretty average even tho' it didn't look like a low-budget series... that's a pity because the idea perse was pretty nice (reminded me of "Kahogo no Kahoko", 2017 Jdrama) and I loved how Jade's character became braver and braver but still being himself.

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Perfect series to relax and have a good time

What can I say ?
I was super excited to see this serie from the trailer and because of the previous one Bed friend, who have watched know 😏.

For those that were bothered as me, because of the inner voices that we are able to hear almost all the time, in my opinion it smoothened throughout the episode.

Now about the serie... I think is mainly good and nice to watch, please keep on mind that it won't be the same as BF, as they try to explore and enlight different aspects.

I liked the performance of the character's pair portrayed by NetJames, TutorYim and LeoTai because it's presented a vision of both introverted and extroverted persons, their strugglings, behaviours and actions;

Also it's a challenge produce a serie with 8 episodes only and 3 couples, but I have to say that they made a good work, I doesn't feel like they were rushing the events ( I have seen the uncut version🙃) .

I got the feeling that this year Thai BL are taking to another level, challenging themselves more and more ... for the point I mentioned earlier they made a good job.

With this serie I had a really good time, a chill serie that leave a taste of happiness.

Hope that my review would be helpful😉

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a little better as it went on (watch suggestions)

Overall: unless you enjoy over the top humor with a ton of comedy sound effects follow my watch suggestions. 8 episodes about 45 minutes each. Aired on Mandee Channel's YouTube (cut), GagaOOLala (cut), iQIYI (uncut) and Viki (I assume cut). Mandee Channel/Domundi also produced Naughty Babe, Bed Friend, Cutie Pie and Why R U.

Watch Suggestion (watch the cut version & play at a faster speed unless noted)
- skip episodes 1, 2 & 3 (though shirtless Mai in ep 3 is nice)
- watch ep 4
- watch ep 5 to 48min/standing on the podium
- watch the uncut version of ep 6 15-18 minutes which includes a brief kiss with the side couple (this scene was totally removed from the cut versions for some bizarre reason)
- watch the uncut version of ep 7, can start at 27 minutes with Gus/Tong or to skip over something sad that happened in the past and start at 37 minutes and end at 43 minutes, then you can watch thru to the end with Mai/Jade or skip to 1hr 4min to see their final scene
- watch the uncut version of ep 8 which has a lot of sweet moments and NSFW scenes with Mai & Jade

Content Warnings: hits played as comedy, vomiting (in uncut ep 2), molestation off screen, past death/grief

What I Liked
- enjoyed some of Uea/King's moments (like in episode 5)
- Mai's flirting (wished they had shown why he liked Jade earlier than ep 5)
- Jade's and Mai's supportive family
- cute moments
- how Jade did have agency in episode 8 and initiated things
- good consent/communication in episode 8
- that it has a wide release on 4 different platforms

Room For Improvement
- the three minutes of cringey animation didn't hook me
- Jade's exaggerated/yelling was irritating especially in the beginning episodes
- cringey editing, voice overs and comedy sound effects that didn't make anything funny
- the side couple was oddly hot and cold (note, apparently the cut version removed several of their scenes which is contributing to their confusing interactions with each other)
- not happy with the Uea/King reluctant/violent dynamic, how King was jealous/retaliatory at Uea in ep 6 for just talking to another guy
- slow pacing/repetitive, in episode 6 as an example Mai had almost a duplicate conversation with his mom
- bad decisions with what they cut, I was happy they cut the vomiting scene in episode 2 but why on earth cut an entire scene including a kiss with the side couple in episode 6??? I normally would expect a cut version to reduce a NSFW scene but there wasn't anything to cut up to episode 7 (and then they did cut the NSFW scenes in ep 7 and 8)
- the NSFW scenes were kind of choppy, one of them oddly stopped and then re-started

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Ignore the hate

You will like this or you won’t and I’m a liker.
Reddit yelled about Yim’s acting being awful and over the top and yea he was ott as Jade but it wasn’t bad acting, it was purposeful. Jade is a very insecure, quite innocent, anime obsessive and this story is told wholly through his eyes. So to me it makes perfect sense that the series felt anime coded. I enjoyed Jade and Mal’s journey to love very much. Uea and King becoming number 1 Jade protectors was also delightful to see.

Overall it’s a really enjoyable journey. Watch the uncut if you can because it also has some really nicely done spice scenes.

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trash

jade acts like a 5 year old girl in this whole series. how in hell he cannot figure out mai is the one falling for him. even a blind person can tell mai is in love with jade. we wasted 5 to 6 episodes and jade please stop screaming like a girl in your next series. we don't like it. to be honest the side couples should be in the main roles cause they act like they are in their age range like a grown adult. and of course I love to see king and uea together. and production team, stop playing the ost every 5 seconds I hate the song cause I listened the ost for a billion times.
and for the family of mai, mai's mother is so fake. I can tell she does not want mai to be gay. I can see in her eyes. I love jade's family at least they can act they are supportive to jade.
and finally this series is trash

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