The Middleman's Love: Uncut

Great Concept, Poor Execution

It's wild how completely opposite ML is to its prequel, Bed Friend, especially since ML is a direct continuation of BF just with a switch in the main couple. Same characters, same lore, same locations.

I saw someone state that ML feels like they tried to lessen the seriousness and angst of BF and decided it was somehow a great idea to crank the craziness up to damn near 100. It's a shame because I really enjoyed Jade's character in BF! He's a little skittish in that one, sure, but not as bad as here.

I don't mind a show that has a weird, cartoony feel to it. In my opinion, Secret Crush On You executes this aesthetic very well- despite how I feel about the story in general. I think a major part of the reason why it works so well in that story is because the main character wasn't the only weird one: his friends were weird too, just not as bad as him. The actors pulled off them off VERY well. The overexaggerated personalities extended to the clothes they were and the use of colors in the entire sets. It's my favorite thing about SCOY, and I found myself rewatching episodes for the aesthetic alone.

Unlike that story, Jade in ML is the only one who's so over the top. Him being so isolated in that really highlighted how uncomfortably weird he was. And I'll go ahead and spoil something for you real quick:

We learn waaaay later in the story that the reason why Jade keeps himself in the middleman role and is so self sacrificial to a fault is because he dated years prior and the guy who dumped him basically said he was boring and overbearing.

Oh how I WISH they gave us this info sooner. I wholeheartedly believe that if the audience learns of this in the first episode or two, then most of us would be willing to sympathize with Jade's character. We'd be more willing to pay more attention to his antics.

But instead we get a solid 5 or 6 episodes (out of 8!!!) where he's borderline unbearable most of the time. Some might argue the show isn't worth watching because of him alone an d I wouldn't blame them for that.

I'd say his actor yells more than he talks. His expressions are so weirdly forced. And like...I don't necessarily blame his actor. I blame the directors and writers for this. They could've had him dial it down a bit but no they thought this was a great idea.

What makes things worse is that Jade's love interest, Mai, is so chill compared to Jade that he comes off as very one note. Mai, if the story was written well, could've been a great way to balance out Jade's character. But because Jade is so...well, *Jade*, Mai is unfortunately quite boring.

Which is such a bummer because like I stated previously, I was so looking forward to Yim and Tutor together. A friend of mine told me to skip ML and watch the show they did a year later called Battle of Writers. I just started it and let me tell you, I love them here way more than in ML.

Another major issue with the show is the pacing. It's 8 episodes long and yet they could've- *should've* had it be 4 or 5 episodes. The slow burn works in theory for both pairings, but in execution it felt like the story dragged a lot of the time. I do love slow burns, but this was not it. By the way, if you want a good slow burn story, watch Monster Next Door!

Other bad things:
1) I really did not like how fly-on-the-wall Uea and King were in this show. They do next to nothing to the point where they might as well not have been in the story. A big reason why I hate this is because I loved how much Jade helped them with their relationship in BF. I loved how Jade constantly offered Uea help with dealing with gross men. So I was hoping they would, to some extent, help more with Jade, but they barely did anything.
2) The audio quality was bizarre at times. In one of the later episodes, the music kept cutting off instead of seamlessly transitioning.
3) The side couple was more interesting and I hate when that happens.

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Now some good stuff:

Unfortunately, this is yet another story where the side couple is more interesting than the main couple. Gus and Tong were very cute. Their actors also looked cute together and their chemistry was pretty good! I do love a good Extroverted Bottom x Introverted Top situation, so I was pretty hooked from the get go. Unlike the main pair, I'd say their story was fairly well paced and the tension was good. A lot of what happens with them simply makes sense. Bare minimum, I know, but with this show, it must be mentioned.

I thought the small reveal that Gus isn't actually all that extroverted worked very well. Even I found myself surprised by it. I don't necessarily think giving him Dead Mother Syndrome was needed, but eh there's worse in this show.

Also, I loved the bit of nuance with their sexual roles. Like, normally it's the top chancing after the bottom but it was opposite here. The bottom was the one openly flirting with the top. I was convinced that Gus was the top- which I would've loved. A cute top with a serious bottom is another one of my favorite tropes.

At the end of the story, one of the characters states something about the 3 couples (one of which is from BF). He said it in a way that almost implied a sequel? I really don't think this story needs one, but if they do have one and the main couple is Gus and Tong, then I may watch it just for them.

Other good things:
1) Casting was very well done. A lot of the actors that played family members legit looked related in some ways.
2) Despite the mistakes in audio quality at times, I thought the choice of music overall was okay.
3) Mai's actor looked so pretty in every scene.
4) There definitely isn't as many sex scenes in ML as in BF- which is fine! But the couple that are in this show were well done. I didn't expect Gus and Tong to have one, so that was a very pleasant surprise. Both couples did a great job.
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Summary:

I'd recommend watching this if and only if there's a pair of actors you wanna watch for. I stuck it out to the end simply because I like Yim and Tutor together. Otherwise, I would've stopped a long time ago.

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Less than Middling

I really do like Yim and Tutor as actors and their commitment to their parts, but the direction of the show and the characters leaves much to be desired. Jade's over the top cartoonish over reactions to everything needs to be taken down at least 5 notches. It's grating more than cute, which is disappointing since Yim has the natural cute look. Everything just drags and drags until the only development nearly towards the end where Jade rejects Mai because of his insecurity from being dumped by his first boyfriend. Mai rightfully puts some distance between the two, but the show doesn't do anything with it. The only result is Jade finally sorts out his feelings for Mai without showing any change in any significant way. Mai's family is very lovely though and models loving supportive family behavior. While Jade is a whole cartoon caricature, Mai is really flat as a character as well, just moony eyes and willing to enable Jade's every whim without anything else to his personality. The supporting couples have their petty misunderstanding plots. The intimate scenes are somehow both try hard and directionless secondhand cringe, but a step less cringey than Bed Friends with the lowest bar. This director is capable of filming competent intimate scenes, I don't know why he massively fluctuates in his direction of both those particular scenes and the overall series in every project. There is no consistency.

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It could have been so much better…

First of all. I love TutorYim. Love their chemistry and I loved them in Cutie Pie 1-2 although I didnt like the series they were my favourite, mine main reason I have watched it.

The Middleman’s love is just simply not good.
I gave it 5/10 just because TutorYim.
The plot is sooo boring and the main character is annoying over the top.
I love Yim but its hard to find the balance with an overthinker and loud character (For example Poon nailed it with Pun’s character in We are) but this time he didnt find the balance. They characteristic should have been changed because it was just not good at all and the overacting was really annoying.
Someone wrote that in the last episode we got some superior scenes but yes overall it was just not believeable and not because the chemistry was missing. The NC scenes were really good and hot but we spent 7 episode just with nothing happened between them.
I loved the side couple storyline though.

I defnitely not recommend to watch the whole series. If you love them just watch the last 2 episode and thats all.
But I cant wait TutorYim next series and I hopethat will be better!

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Disappointing

The only reason I'm giving The Middleman's Love any stars is for Tong/Gus (Leo/Tai) who are the only characters worth watching this for.

As another reviewer wrote, this series feels nothing like Bed Friend. King/Nuea (Net/James) characters have been decimated. Their relationship should be strong given this is set over a year after them being together, and they're engaged. Somehow the office has moved location (I guess it's cheap to film in your own offices), which I think might have been vaguely referenced once but otherwise ignored.

Mai/Jade (Tutor/Yim) appear to have no chemistry and I didn't realise they were Nuer/Syn from Cutie Pie as they were so awful in this. Jade is written as the most annoying character and not suited to be a leading part. Mai and Jade have no reason to like each other. Mai must have something seriously wrong with him to have fallen for Jade instantly.

The only characters that kept me watching were Tong and Gus. Can they have their own series? Actually, just Leo and Tai as different characters. I guess I need to look for Forever Friend to watch. The comments on MDL look like other series they've been linked to wrong be happening. Oh well.

My overall rating is 7.5/10 for the tertiary couple, 0.5/10 for everything else.

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This could’ve had so much potential

This drama was not one of the best ones of 2023, but we all were waiting for it all the way once it was announced and after bed friend finished, but it wasn’t too good. I’m only giving this a 3.5 just because of my favorite couple in this series which was TongGus. They were just so cute every single time they were on screen and had so much chemistry together. Every scene that they were in made me so happy from the very beginning of Gus falling for Tong right away saying he’s his type and made him a coffee while flirting, when they left the office all the time together, when they had hot pot together and Gus saying his sad past with his mom, telling Tong off saying that the listener always remembers what the speaker says, when it was songkran and Tong was trying to make Gus like him again, when it was the office event and Tong got injured and Gus told the medic that to take good care of his boyfriend, and let’s not forget their steamy scene it was so insane I was screaming the whole time.
I can’t really write too much about this show because I can’t really seem to find a lot of good things about the show because it was either to messy or to chaotic. I do love both Tutor and Yim and think their a good pair, but this show was not it for them and plus Jade was also super duper loud throughout the show. Their would also be some comedic parts, but didn’t really help make the show more enjoyable. I also feel robbed about their being barely any scenes of Uea and King, because I do think they would also would’ve helped make the show a little bit better, but we only had to scenes which were valentines and a wedding ring scene of them because I do think they would also have helped make the show a little bit better. I would recommend this show, but their might be a lot of non enjoyable parts of the show.

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Very slow burn romance

It’s not immediate satisfaction or even the same as Bed Buddy, but it touches on realistic elements at the beginning of a relationship.
I also suspect Jade is in the spectrum and that’s why he gets overwhelmed with emotions. Uea hints at it a few times and how he has to be eased into anything.
Loved watching the family dynamic this time around and the reason for their emotional hang ups.
Glad I went in blindly and stayed just for the everyday life events. I don’t know why some talked about the lack of chemistry between the secondary characters. There was no need for them to display more and overshadow the main characters.

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I feel a bit cheated

I enjoyed this series to an extent, I do feel we were cheated on many things with this series. The main ones (for me) being 1. Jade and Mai don't get together until the very last episode. That means everything between them and after they got together etc living together, meeting the parents etc was rushed extremely and not in a good way in my opinion. The 2nd thing I feel cheated about was the scene of Uea and King in the intro, we never got that scene! I understand this wasn't their series but why put that scene in and get people excited if you're not going to do it?!

I liked Jade in Bed Friends and I was excited to see his story unfold but I also won’t lie and say that, 90% of the reason I even watching this, was for the Uea and King content I’ve dearly missed. Bed Friends was the second BL I’ve ever watched so the characters hold a special place in my heart.

I feel like the humor was too much at times, the whole series is basically a bad rom-com which focuses on the comedic aspects of it more than anything. Multiple times throughout the series I paused and wondered, “Wtf am I watching.” Sometimes the humor made up for that feeling but when you have to ask yourself multiple times, what am I watching?, then something might need to change.

I did love the little callbacks from Bed Friends, especially between King and Uea, but I also was disappointed by them as well because, did King propose to Uea at the end of Bed Friend? Cause I specifically remember a proposal but it is never once mentioned in this series, they don't even refer to each other as fiancé, just boyfriends.

And why tf did Jade get sick when Mai took his shirt off?! WTF Some of the choices made were just ridiculous.

Jade is the definition of oblivious cinnamon roll who is blind with and without his glasses. And, while I like that to an extent, they really overplayed it. And that whole fight/argument between King and Uea made no sense to me, it was just added so that all the couples of the show were having issues at the same time. I also didn't like how the first spicy scene we get isn’t between the main couple but the 3rd side characters. Don’t get me wrong it was steamy but, what was the point in waiting til the very last episode for Mai and Jade to get together? Plus, maybe this was just me but Jade and Mai's steamy scenes were kinda odd.

Overall I really don't think Middleman's Love did Yim and Tutor justice. They are talented and have such good chemistry together I hope we get a chance to seem them in something better.

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Weighing the good and the bad

Weighing the good and the bad, I do believe this show was worth the watch.

The Bad :

Jade's Screaming. (Of course, I have to address this because it's probably the main reason why this show is disliked by a lot of people.) If you lower the volume whenever Jade starts screaming, it makes the show 10x better.

Lack of a plot. TBH, after watching Bed Friends, I was expecting deeper more complicated characters. This show definitely suffered from the departure of Jimmy and Tommy from the project, because scheduling was a affected and Bed Friend's was filmed before Middleman's Love, causing the main conflict in Middleman's Love source material to become obsolete. They tried to fix this problem with the addition of Ton and Gus, but it didn't quite work out, relegating King and Uea to minor roles.

The Good :

Unlike many shows that torture you until the last second, Middleman's Love gave us a whole episode of Jade and Mai together as a couple. Great NC scenes, great kissing scenes, cute couple moments and meeting each other's families. This episode alone was worth the shock Jade caused every time he screamed.

At the end of the day it was a cute short watch. If you can survive Jade, the first half, the second half gets better. I personally enjoyed episode 6 and on, the most.

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Tutor and Yim both sooo cute!

I really enjoyed this. The actors all got along well and did a good job. I suspect the director didn’t really control some of the cringy scenes- some could have been done better. I am hoping Tutor and Yom can do more dramas together. I’d like to see Yim get to be more himself- they seem to want him to be comic relief, which is ok, but not so much yelling. Thai dramas do tend to feature this. …………………..…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….:…………………………..

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Watch if you want something light with some steamy scenes.

This show has many flaws but is still worth watching for the light-heartedness and the wild scenes towards the end!

The directors made an odd choice to have the actor play Jade in the way he did as he was so loud and annoying. The actor still managed to keep the character cute and somewhat likable. The couple parings are great and omg they went crazy at the end with the NC scenes! I recon that was where most of the time filming the series went into!!

I enjoyed it for the most part but the story was weak and the directors missed the mark with Jade, they should have kept him being cute and less loud and annoying.

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Já vi fanfic no Wattpad com mais coerência… e ainda assisti esse no 2x

Prometeram um BL fofo, leve e divertido… e entregaram um fanficão mal escrito, cheio de situações absurdas e personagens que parecem estar em séries diferentes. Eu fui assistir Middleman’s Love com boa vontade, porque o Jade em Bed Friend tinha carisma de sobra. Ele merecia brilhar. E o Mhai? Misterioso, bonitão, do tipo calado que intriga. Tudo apontava pra um casal que poderia funcionar. Mas a série simplesmente não acerta o tom em momento nenhum.

O Jade passa a série inteira sofrendo. Só quer ser amado, mas recebe rejeição, silêncio e atitudes que beiram o absurdo, e tudo isso é tratado como se fosse engraçadinho. A série tenta fazer piada com a solidão dele, com o desespero dele, e acaba criando uma sensação esquisita de estar rindo do personagem, não com ele. Não dá pra saber se era pra ser cômico ou triste, e a falta de equilíbrio deixa tudo desconfortável de assistir.

O Mhai, por outro lado, parece que foi escrito por roteiristas que não se falaram. Uma hora ele é o cara misterioso e doce, na outra é um stalker estranho, depois vira romântico do nada… e nada disso é desenvolvido direito. A gente não entende de onde vem as atitudes dele, o que ele quer, o que sente. A série força a mão tentando fazer dele um “crush reservado”, mas o resultado é só um personagem incoerente e sem charme.

O romance entre os dois simplesmente não convence. Não tem construção, não tem tensão, não tem evolução. É um daqueles casos em que o roteiro decide que eles vão se apaixonar e pronto, não importa se isso faz sentido ou não. Do nada, estão juntos. Do nada, tem drama. Do nada, final feliz. Fica aquela sensação de que pularam capítulos inteiros e só entregaram o básico pra dizer que teve um casal.

O humor da série também não ajuda. A maioria das piadas são forçadas, exageradas ou mal encaixadas nas cenas. Parece que você tá vendo uma sketch do TikTok esticada pra dez episódios. O timing é estranho, os cortes são bruscos, e nada parece fluir naturalmente. Teve momentos em que eu fiquei com vergonha alheia real.

O único alívio é o casal secundário, que consegue ser mais interessante, mais carismático e mais divertido do que os protagonistas. Se você assistiu só por eles, eu te entendo. Em vários momentos, parece que até a própria série sabia que o casal principal não ia sustentar tudo, e tentou compensar com essa outra dupla. Quase conseguiu.

No fim, Middleman’s Love é uma daquelas séries que tinham tudo pra funcionar, mas se perdem em exageros, escolhas ruins de roteiro e uma completa falta de direção emocional. Funciona como passatempo se você não se importar com lógica, coerência ou desenvolvimento. Mas se você for esperando uma história de amor fofa e bem contada… pode ir tirando o cavalinho da chuva.

Nota sincerona: 3/10
Um ponto pela carinha fofa do Jade, um pelo casal secundário, e um porque a abertura é mais interessante que a trama inteira.

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IMPOSSÍVEL GOSTAR DO JADE E TODOS OS COADJUVANTES SÃO MAIS INTERESSANTES QUE ELE

Já avaliei essa série na versão normal e agora estou apenas agregando pontos dessa versão sem cortes.
Todos chegamos a conclusão que o Jade é insuportável e aqui infelizmente não é diferente, os acréscimos apenas adicionam uma cena ou outra com consistência.
As cenas sexuais são boas e é apenas isso, todo o resto continua igual ao que nós vimos na primeira versão.
Todos os coadjuvantes são mais interessantes que os protagonistas.
Amo minhas migalhas de King e Uea e gostaria de ver mais do Bas.
Essa série não faz jus a perfeição que é "Bed Friend".

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