winteraeon

I think ultimately they wound up with two separate things they didn’t know how to connect: the relationships they initially established and the plot they only recently began to delve into. Unable to find an elegant way to tie those two things together or they made up what comes off as some real BS conflict between the couples to create distrust. It is shoehorning characters into decisions and actions that are disingenuous but serve to put them where the writers needed them to be in order to facilitate the plot as they wished to tell it.

Quite frankly, there were other ways to handle it. There were other ways to get them where you needed them to be. You could have springboarded into the investigation with the characters in a different place than where you put them. But they didn’t know how, didn’t try or were just not competent enough to do it.

Ultimately, I think this almost would have been better in two seasons. Season one establishing and developing the relationships with the investigation frustratingly not getting far. Season two with the investigation getting into full swing. or they needed to be two different series with the missing person series being a spin off of Playboyy, which could have established all the sex work, illegal trading of materials, the sex workers trying to go out on their own, Captain being the horny narrow focused person pushing his friends into sex they aren’t ready for or comfortable with. That alone would have been a compelling show. Then give us the spinoff where Nant goes missing and his twin shows up to figure out what happened to him. Yes, you’d need to change up the order of events but I think they could have told the stories and done them justice that way.

I need to find the actors on TikTok apparently so I can get a fix for what the show doesn’t give me.

also, what if it turns out Zouey is a side (doesn’t like penetrative intercourse) but you never give him a chance to find anything he likes because you just are after the main event?! What if he’s demisexual (reads slightly this way to me) and all the reason he WANTED you was just destroyed because you ruined the trust between you? This relationship could have been so many things and so interesting but the writer was LAZY and didn’t want to give them the time for it to be what it looked like it was

I feel like, if I was dealing with someone like Zouey, the obvious thing is to start with more foreplay type things. You know, don’t make him have to do the work unless he takes that initiative, explore and figure out what feels good for him. Give. Him. Pleasure. Because the more pleasurable you make it (and a sex worker should know some ways to do that) the more he will associate physical intimacy with positive things. Feeling cherished. Feeling good. Feeling RESPECTED by not going beyond what he says he’s comfortable with. Start with manual and oral things. Plenty of guys know how to use other appendages other than just the one. And Teena had done everything he could to keep himself in check up until that point. Are we supposed to believe that because he got a faint sniff of being able to get laid that his whole personality (esp as the guy who no longer just wanted his virginity but genuinely liked him and told him they didn’t need sex to be together) went out the window? That does such a disservice to the person we’d seen Teena grow into just over the course of their relationship.

Per a statement Cheque put on his instagram, he has yet to receive a contract for the series. He didn’t drop out, but he may not wind up in it.

It sounds like he let the company due to poor treatment or other clashes with them in that vein.

Thai BL trailers and pilots aren’t a guarantee that the show will be made. They are done to garner interest and gauge if it’s worth producing. The cast can and does change from pilot/trailer to series (example: Middleman’s Love).

I’m just saying this as a point of clarification/education. This is not to endorse the anti-Cheque attitude around here. I actually happen to like Cheque

This articulated many of my issues with the series, and especially that Zooey-Teena scene, really well. a lot of the kinks feel like caricature especially between First and Soong. Zouey is the most interesting because he feels the most authentic but then it was completely mishandled. I think both of them were written out of character (Teena telling him he’d have to eventually felt as off as him not knowing how to prep Zouey correctly or opting for something that would help work him toward being able to comfortably bottom down the line).

Ongsa was very clearly in his last year of HS, got into uni and had a going away party with his friends because only two of the four were going to the same university. so while you can take issue with the 10 year age gap (and it was very clearly stated in the series that it was a ten year difference from the year older Soon came from to the year he traveled back to) let’s not make the age gap worse than it was by saying Ongsa could have been 14.

I agree it was a bit odd that everyone was totally okay with the teenager flirting with, clearly pursuing and eventually being involved with the man in his late 20s. Suansoon had a sort of childlike vulnerability to him that made him seem much younger than he was even if he looked his age (irl the actors are 37 and 26).

yes

All that fire, albeit bullshit that made you look like an idiot but fire nonetheless, but you can’t think of a single thing when it’s laid out in simple words for you. It’s okay, sweetheart, I can recognize the tail tucking when I see it. Next time think twice before saying something stupid publicly. Have a good day. kiss, kiss!

thought you could argue “til tomorrow” and that’s all you got? weak

I did say you were acting like an insensitive ass, because you were. You went out of your way to proclaim others deserved roles over those who had been cast.

Second, freedom to state your opinion is not freedom from consequence.

Third, you didn’t say anything “bad” just stated that people, who you don’t know nor whose struggles or hard work or accomplishment do you know, did not deserve a job that they earned. I suppose “bad” is subject, true, but it’s insensitive, unkind and unnecessary. Do you know what work they’ve put into their craft? Do you know if they are so hard to work with that directors can never get anything out of them so they are just stuck scraping by with the performances they have to pull out of them with extraordinary effort? Do you know that others objectively DESERVE these roles more than the people cast? Do you know that they were given these roles completely unfairly and undeservedly? I’m going to go out on a limb and say the answer to those questions is “no.” You just have a half cent opinion you feel like other people for some reason need to know.

Sit down and go think about how you’d feel if people said you shouldn’t have your job because others deserve it more.

Ah so you’re the type who responds with peak level immaturity when you’re called out for being unnecessarily unkind about people who do a difficult job. Noted. Sadly, unsurprising.

Are you SURE Frank is a terrible actor? Are you absolutely certain it’s not the writing? the directing? the editing? there are a lot of factors that affect a performance. It’s not all down to the actor himself.

It costs you nothing to not be an insensitive ass. If you don’t like them then just move along.

What on earth did they do to these characters?
King is no longer cool and slick while being a total simp for Uea, he’s like a whipped puppy whining at Uea’s heels.
Uea is no longer the cold and aloof person who subtly shows his affection for King, he’s more mean toward him and less friendly toward everyone else.

And Jade. Dear gods. He was always awkward and optimistically oblivious but now he’s just a caricature.

I know a lot of people had issues with Bed Friend, but I honestly loved it over all. It gave me a more mature and serious show that I am continually desperate for. There were some ridiculous and silly characters and things in it but overall it wasn’t over the top silly like so many bls tend toward.

Middleman’s Love threw out everything even remotely mature and more serious from Bed Friend and said “let’s ramp up the over the top ridiculously silly until these characters aren’t recognizable.”

I can’t stand Jade in this first episode. He isn’t even remotely the over stressed, weight of the world on his shoulders, loyal friend, friendly moment of levity he was before. He’s just an immature 12 yr old girl squealing over someone else’s potential love story and being extra af. He doesn’t come off as someone who should be in charge of a trainee in the least.

Every single actor in this show deserves better. Because they are ALL really good, capable actors and all the pairs have really great chemistry between them. If you don’t give them an atrocious script.

I’ll give it another episode or two if I can make it through but I’m not sure if I will. I almost never drop shows but this one is hard to get through for me. Especially as a spin off to Bed Friend

I hope his role in We Are is bigger than his role in Only Friends. I really wanted to see more of him.

I'd say it's much more like a shy, insecure person refusing to see what is in front of them due to their own low self-esteem so they convince themself that the situation is something other than what it actually is. I wouldn't say Mizuki is toxic exactly. Possessive? Yes. Easily jealous? Also yes. Attempts (but never really enforces or tries to) to be controlling due to possessiveness? Yes. Okay so maybe he's a little toxic. But he isn't taking advantage of Yoh. And Yoh seems to actually LIKE those bits of toxicity from Mizuki even though he doesn't want to admit it to himself or admit what Mizuki's behavior really is.

I'm so happy to see a review that actually watched this show the same way I did.

I know we are unlikely to get another season but I really want one. I hate miscommunication tropes but this series did it so well. Instead of just frustrating me it made things more interesting and added to that push and pull between the leads.

I think the character development for Mizuki was less about him changing over time (though he did) and more about the viewer understanding him. So much of the series is told through the lens of Yoh's interpretations, but Yoh has really low self-esteem and has Mizuki on a pedestal so he doesn't really see who Mizuki is or how he feels. In addition, Yoh generally won't even admit to himself how he feels about Mizuki. Mizuki sees Yoh more clearly than Yoh sees himself, but he still doesn't fully grasp how oblivious Yoh is about both of their feelings.

If you take everything at face value and only from Yoh's words it looks very abusive. While it's only implied to the viewer, this is 100% a 24/7 D/s dynamic. That already makes the situation less abusive than it appears through a vanilla lens. I'm not saying they don't both have problematic behavior (the tracker in Yoh's bag was too far for me personally) or that the relationship isn't unhealthy in some ways. But I think it's unhealthy mostly for the lack of communication and codependency. I suspect you'd list other reasons.

Given how loosely Thai adaptations are usually based on the source material, I would really like Ja to have departed from that. The childishness is so uncomfortable to watch. It's at least better once they get together but it also comes and goes in really weird ways. It's almost like they can't endure or justify that level of childishness and immaturity in a 20 year old so they weave in and out of the lane.