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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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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This review may contain spoilers
Excuse me... where's the real story
When I read the book, Jade was a kind naive young man. This series version makes him an idiotic simpleton. There's more depth to this story than is portrayed. Overall instead of giving this story a little more true content the series creates a frantic confusing portrayal of Jade. Bedfriends had a complex story line with character development and relationship building. This unfortunate redition is childish and has an undeveloped romantic relationship. Jade is so silly it's hard to imagine him being in love or sexually interested in anyone. Mai definitely has a swoony persona. The series doing a little more justice to his character. I'm going to perservere and watch all 8 episodes simply because I enjoyed "Bedfriends" so much.Was this review helpful to you?
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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Its So Cute!
Im honestly surprised with how low of a rating this show has gotten, it has such a cute story and i usually skip some parts of dramas that i think are too much or overdone or something, i didnt skip a bit in this show! I watched it from beginning to end, even skipping my college classes for the day. I would 100% rewatch this again, i dont know why it is being bashed on so badly, this is up there with Cherry Magic for me, would and will rewatch this again!Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
My Weekly Dose of Sweetness
I really loved how sweet and cute this series is! Tutor is the consummate straight man to Yim's funny man. I did not realize until this series just how angelic Tutor looks during his closeups. As Jade and Mai, they made a great acting team with great chemistry and the ability to be vulnerable when necessary. I also liked that both lead characters had warm and loving relationships with their families. I think that Asian families are often unfairly portrayed as very cold, homophobic and forcing ambition on their children. As an Asian, it's simply not true. Just as in other cultures and ethnicities, Asian families come in all varieties. It was nice to see two families where the parents and all of the siblings were close and loving.There are so many serious topic and intense supernatural series airing at this time (winter 2023) that I needed a ray of sunshine from behind the clouds. There was only one other series (a serious one) that I looked forward to watching every week, due to the acting and storyline. Yes, the sports day episode wasn't my thing, but I've worked for places where we have sports day (without uniforms) and they are super fun. Ym and Tutor has such great chemistry, and their love scenes were both hot and loving and the same time. No, I cannot gush enough about Jade, Mai, Tutor and Tim.
The second couple, Tong and Gus were a cute couple, but they never fully explained by Tong was so rude and mean in the beginning of the series. I would love to see Leo and Tai in another series.
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How sad
IQIYI and Mandee should be ashamed of themselves and the CEO's & script writers should have to give personal apologies to both Tutor & Yim. This was horrible!!!! I 1,000% percent watched it to the end because of Tutor and Yim. For fans to wait so long to be handed this pile of crap is aggravating. It has potential, especially if they hadn't made Yim's character and total freaking clueless idiot!! Had they left him the way he was in Bed Friends I feel like it would have been so much better. I'm hoping the novel isn't this bad. Anyway... It sucked and hopefully Tutor and Yim can bounce back because I freaking love them in everything else.
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Don't judge a book by its cover
Middleman's love is exactly like a lot of people described it. A typical office romance with a predictable storyline, obnoxious Thai humour, ridiculous characters and circumstances and a main character so extra it borders on annoying.Or at least that's what I thought for the first 4 episodes but, DAMN.
Jade starts out as a very outgoing, meddling and to some maybe even annoying character. He's high energy and his face and voice are all over the place. He very much feels like Thai humour was just poured into a character. That is what it seemed like and that's how I expected it to stay. I didn’t think this show would ever turn into anything more than just something I could laugh at. So colour me surprised when episode 5 rolls around and they actually get into Jade's backstory.
Without spoiling anything, this show spends 4 episodes focussing on humour and the crush Mai has on Jade. But when episode 5 rolls around it actually gives all of the characters much more depth than I initially expected.
Jade isn't just obnoxious and annoying, he's hurt, self conscious and afraid of getting hurt again. Mai isn't just an emotionless man that's endlessly chasing after his crush but a guy who's trying to stay determined and both do the right thing while still honouring his own feelings.
This show doesn't deal with the endless layers of trauma that Bed Friend does, but that's not the point. It's a show about Jade, the middleman, finally getting noticed by someone and how his past and own mind desperately try to deal with the attention.
So if you're a TutorYim fan, like (or don't get angered by) Thai humour and you're looking for an easy to watch bl that still has some depth but doesn't deal with the endless layers of angst that every bl seems to have nowadays. Than Middleman's love might be for you.
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If you can handle cringe and full comedy it may be for you
Actually I find it disappointing... why? because the story have a potential, its actually unique a middleman who finally can have his own love life but suddenly it turns out boring, cringe and and not that good. Yim did a great acting in the cutie pie the series so I had an expectation here but yeah his acting was not giving... its to much actually that some of the scene was hard to watch. But if we'll talk about what is good in this series... probably the character of Tutor which really gives me a butterfly in stomach. He's so soft to Jade^^The phasing of the story was to slow... I think the story got better in episode 6. I finished it because I really love tutoryim... but if you don't want to disappoint then maybe you can skip this series.
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If you liked Jade in the main story, you'll also warm to this series.
unfortunately, i could never really get on with jade and mai. both characters, like the story, are very flat in my opinion. king and uea's relationship is also different, more childish i would almost say, than in the main series. i think that's a shame, because i've always liked their energy a lot. But to mention a few positive aspects, I really liked the intimate conversations between king/mai and especially those between jade/uea, very believable with nice dialogue! The relationship between Tong and Gus is also great and I was surprised by the bed scenes at the end, beautifully staged, nice lighting.to summarise, i didn't really like the show but it wasn't really bad either. unfortunately i could never really warm up to jade's character so the whole series was exhausting to watch
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This review may contain spoilers
The Middleman’s Love was a deal breaker
As a fan of ‘Bed Friend’ and the character Jade, I wanted to love this. In fact, I did for a little while.Episode one was not a strong opener but I have a soft spot for cringy and slapstick comedy so it was bearable. I highly enjoyed episodes two to four, five started falling off but it was still tolerable. My biggest complaint would be the introduction of the second or even third couple if we count KingUea. This was a sequel/spin-off of the second couple from ‘Bed Friend’ so why introduce a new couple? It might be nitpicking and introducing new couples isn’t a crime but the new couple got so much screen time (I skipped most of their later parts because it was so repetitive and unattractive to watch). Their romantic relationship was also poorly developed and executed.
What the show did well:
- The comedy. It was my cup of tea and I enjoyed Yim as Jade. Some of the better execution would be when Jade was standing in front and middle while they were deciding what to eat as a group. He told everyone to come closer like he was ready to whisper, but he ended up shouting. I laughed so hard
- The consistency between Jade’s relationship with King and Uea. Jade and Uea being the lovey-dovey giggly besties is one of the better parts of the show. Jade’s constant butting heads with King was also great. I only wished his friendship with Gun was more apparent like in Bed Friends. They were inseparable at one point and in Middleman’s Love, they hardly hung out together unless it was a group/company hangout.
- Jade’s family is so precious. The introduction of his brother was funny and his sister is just a ray of sunshine.
- The shot of Jade’s family having dinner in episode 3. They shot it through the door to make it look like a live picture-perfect family. That was brilliant.
- Tutor covering Nunew’s song…OMG, can we get an official cover?
What the show didn’t do so well:
- As comedy was the baseline of this series, continuity errors and bad editing are bound to happen. But there’s only so much you can do before it becomes unforgivable. When Jade introduced the dog to Mai, there was a time when he was supposed to be squatting down beside the dog, but an editor decided to insert a blur, close up of the dog, and in the back, you can see Yim’s shoes as he walked by before they cut back to Jade still being next to the dog. That part stuck out like a sore thumb.
- I don’t know if perhaps Tutor can’t drive in real life or it was a lack of budget but every time Mai and Jade are in the car, they never move. Even when Tutor was ‘driving’ the scenery through the windows remained the same. That was awkward.
- The timeline wasn’t clear and the pacing didn’t seem to match it whatsoever
Jade’s fear of flickering lights in the daytime was never explained…
- Tong and Gus’ relationship shouldn’t have happened. Their amount of screen time didn’t contribute to the main storyline. Their personalities were also swapped halfway through the show. Gus went from a nice, friendly guy to a pouty kid who isn’t easily pleased. Tong wasn’t easily pleased or expressive but was all of a sudden very intimate and clingy. Gus’ relationship with his mother came out of nowhere and went nowhere.
- The NC scenes. Once Mai and Jade got together, they lost their spark and sweetness. The sexual tension heightened and the show attempted to become Bed Friend 2.0.
- Mai’s relationship with his family gave me mixed signals. Sometimes he'd be sweet on the phone with his mom. Other times, he seems annoyed with her. For some time it sounded like he had a falling out with his father and even brother but it was never clear. They also seemed like fine people by the finale episode.
- I'm not going to talk about Jade's uncalled-for, unexpected outburst at his family's lunch gathering because what was that? There was no build-up for that as far as I'm aware.
Though I’m happy to see Uea again, I’m glad this series only has eight episodes.
Unless you’re a fan of the actors, MaiJade, or clumsy comedy, I can’t imagine you’d enjoy this one very much.
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Just hop to episode 5
This is hard to review because I can see both what they were trying to do, and where they got lost along the way. Jade could be a bit of a buffoon who finds himself suddenly the leading man, but they went too broad and he's frequently clownish rather than a lovable fool. In the second half of the series you actually do get glimpses of what could have been - scenes where Jade is interacting with his family in particular. He's a lonely man who accepted his role as comic relief or a NPC in other people's stories. His struggle to start acknowledging he has needs and wants could be so much more. Yim did actually hit that emotional note several times, but quite late in the series.I did like seeing King and Uea as an established couple. Uea seems like he finally feels safe with King. That makes me happy.
I'd recommend Zettai BL ni Naru Sekai VS Zettai BL ni Naritakunai Otoko instead if you want to see a NPC get a story of his own.
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