The Middleman's Love: Uncut (2023)

7 Episodes of chase

This show makes me so angry... I enjoyed watching it to an extent, because I like Yim & Tutor, have since Cutie Pie and I liked Yim's character in Bed Friends but their chemistry in this one felt a little off to me, I'm not sure If the characters are supposed to be a little awkward (i haven't read the novel) but Jade didn't seem like this in Bed Friends.

-The spicy scene between Jade and Mai was so good, they were holding out on us, and Mai doing everything with his tongue made me feel things I shouldn't, personally its right under King and Uea's scenes, Mai's tongue, and lips and the rose was a paid actor.. Also Jade knew exactly what he was doing, he wasn't shy during the bed scenes

Jade & Mai - These two made me mad, for 7 episodes They were playing chase with each other, and then of course on the last episode we saw them being cute and cuddly and it just made me upset because I like these two together and would've like to see them in love more than one episode - I hope they get another series together soon- also the beginning of Ep 8 when they kiss, Toturs big lips devor Yim and i needed more of that.

Uea & King - I will forever love these two, I know that this show isn't about them and they were just the side helping BUT I needed more of them, just like a little more. Their spicy chemistry is next level and I wish we could've seen just a smidge more of them.

Tong & Gus - Same for these two, I have loved them together since Friends Forever but we didn't get to see much of them, I hope they can have another show together. I think what we got of them was so good and they have great chemistry

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Redemption?

I wish this series had just continued Jade's character from Bed Friend. In BF, Jade was cute, ditsy, sometimes over the top, but when he needed to be, he was serious and of course, the best friend Uea could have. Unfortunately, and I'm guessing that due to the negative impact BF had on some viewers due to it's triggering and very serious content, a decision was made to amp up Jade's character, to ridiculous levels, in an attempt to give us a more lighthearted and comedic series, but it didn't work. Most obvious was the volume at which he spoke, not only OTT loud to the point he spends most of the series yelling, (how the hell did Yim not lose his voice?), but it was downright painful to experience. It totally ruined the first 3 episodes for me. The best scenes were the serious ones, and of course the nsfw ones, which were just beautiful, and nothing less than what we've come to expect from DMD boys. I've had enough of grown ass men acting like 2 year olds, and we've had plenty in 2023 - I truly hope we've seen the last of that particular trope. I want to make it clear, and I say this all the time, that I will never, ever blame actors for their acting, or how they play their characters. What is released, is exactly what the people behind the cameras want us to see, especially the directors, screenwriters, and acting coaches. The behind the scenes videos show exactly how much these people are involved in telling the actors what they want, sometimes to the point that they are extremely 'hands on' when showing them... I've seen bts videos where acting coaches, in particular, and directors are constantly touching the actors, and are so close to them, that I get extremely uncomfortable seeing it. Had Jade been allowed to continue as he was portrayed in BF, it would still have shown us his cute, clueless, childish, and ditsy side, without being so cringeworthy. It was an automatic -2 stars for Jade's OTT character, and -2 for the constant yelling.
Yim played his sad/serious scenes beautifully, and he really tugged at my heartstrings - it's just a shame that the character generated so much secondhand embarrassment throughout the series. Tutor was perfect, as usual, as were King and Uea. I love Pete, who is such a role model as the perfect LGBTQI+ parent - I love everything he does. Not having seen Ngern for so long, I was so happy to see him playing Man, and have to say that he just seems to get more handsome with time. I'd love to see him in a lead role again. I would have liked to have seen more development of Gus and Tong's story, and a little more of Gun too.
The series clawed back 2 points for the long-awaited nsfw scenes. First with TongGus, though it felt that just as it started to get serious, the scene was cut off, which was disappointing. It always amazes me after the first kiss, the top's shirt is off and they're ready to get down to business, but just how often his partner still has his shirt on as the scene ends. (Not just this series.)
MaiJade's nsfw scenes were beautifully acted, as I said before, and well worth the wait. Another point was gained back simply because, when it counted, Jade and Mai were wearing nice underwear, instead of the stupid boxers we see all the time. I guess they tend to have actors wear boxers... just in case, but absolutely hate them! I've seen a couple of series now where the dreaded boxers have been replaced by fitted underwear, and I have to say, it looks so much better - I don't even understand how Thai actors can put on their jeans, or pants and feel comfortable with 2 layers of underwear on, and most especially those awful boxers!
I just have to add that the biggest bugbear I personally have with Thai series - any series, is the lack of proper continuity. It's not even as if I deliberately look for mistakes - they're usually glaringly obvious, like Uea wearing white boots in one scene, and black ones in the continuing scene - BF was pretty bad for lack of continuity too. I understand that scenes are shot out of sequence, but honestly, doesn't anyone ever check the rushes? Like Pavel's neck tattoo in 2Moons2, which he was having removed in real life - it was dark in one scene, then much paler in the next, and then back to dark again... and it's was not even as if you could miss it, when it was right in shot. The same with Boy For Rent, where a lead actress's hair changed constantly throughout the series, from long to shorter, and back to long, and even changed colour. And how many series have we seen where the drinks on the table change levels with every new camera angle? In the West we have a dedicated person known as the script supervisor, or continuity supervisor, who is responsible for checking wardrobe, props, set dressing, hair, makeup, etc. I don't read Thai, so I don't know if such a person is used in Thai productions, but if they are, from what I've seen, they all need to get the boot!
I will definitely re-watch the series again, maybe starting from episode 4, or at least with eps 1-3 muted! My criticisms of TML, are born out of frustration, yes, but more importantly, I include them in the hope that those behind the camera, will learn to understand what viewers want, and importantly, what they don't want.
If there is any chance, I'd love to see a third series, which would show more of TongGus, KingUea's wedding, (bringing back some of the character's from the first series, and Gun finally finding a partner, plus of course, more of MaiJade. I might be asking too much, but I'll keep my fingers crossed, just in case.

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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 some awkward scene cuts as well as a few scene jumps that didn't help matters and made the story progression more confusing than it needed to be. The opening credits with the bobbleheads was not cute or funny, just bad. 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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Painful to watch, I had moderate expectations and was still very disappointed and annoyed

This BL series is a sequel of Bed Friend but focusing on the side character of "Jade" and his romance with his new intern "Mai". Unfortunately it was super disappointing, Bed Friend was full of flaws but rather entertaining. But here it is really catastrophic, I was pretty annoyed during my watch.

The biggest issue with the drama is coming from the shift in tone vs its parent series. The director has chosen to make The Middleman's love a really over-the-top comedy. The story feel simply empty and the main character "Jade" is written as very dumb and not likeable at all. The character just does not feel like a real human but rather a caricature.

I was really not impressed by the acting of Yim... In the role of Jade, he is overacting a lot and screaming most of the time, making his character properly insufferable...To his defense, he was not as bad in other dramas I saw him playing side characters in (even when playing the exact same one in the prequel of this), so a lot of it might have to do with the director choice. To be honest, I'm not sure if another actor would have done a better job given the material to play and the overall tone of the series for which the director seemed to want to go for. The other characters felt a bit transparent compared to him and are not interesting. The main couple of Bed Friend has almost nothing in the scenario to play with, which makes them unfortunately kind of purposeless.

The series remain very platonic with almost no advancement for the main relationship during almost 7 episodes. The two main male leads are just running in circle...There are some hot scenes in the last episode but even though they were well filmed and that the chemistry between the actors Yim and Tutor is pretty good, I did not manage to be invested and believe in it. It did not feel organic or in line with the characterization done so far...

I would not recommend this to people as there are much much better BL series out there. Unless you really like one of the actor and/or over-the-top comedy as well as you do not mind overacting, I would suggest to do yourself a favor and avoid this at all cost.

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Too Much Silliness

I'm right there with every other review I read.

The whole show is silly and BORING!!! If you liked bed friends ... this is as far away from that series as you can get.

It's cringy, there is nothing of substance, the acting is not very good and the characters are nothing like they were in Bed Friends. Even the main characters from Bed Friends have almost totally different personalities. I was kind of sad how so much changed. Some scenes didn't even make much sense.

If you must watch speed it up, you won't miss anything. Honestly, I think the industry should stop making spin off shows.

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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. I wanted to rate the uncut version higher since it had more intimate scenes and included Gus/Tong scenes, but the story dragged even more in the uncut version. 8 episodes about 1 hour 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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If I could I would have given zero!

The story is stupid, trashy and cringe to an extreme degree. The protagonist with glasses is so stupid that he becomes obnoxious and annoying. There is nothing salvageable, nothing beautiful or decent in this series. But how do you come up with such rubbish? It's a shame, with this series they missed an excellent opportunity to not make a bad impression.
The story is stupid, trashy and cringe to an extreme degree. The protagonist with glasses is so stupid that he becomes obnoxious and annoying. There is nothing salvageable, nothing beautiful or decent in this series. But how do you come up with such rubbish? It's a shame, with this series they missed an excellent opportunity to not make a bad impression.

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It COULD have been a just simple and cute love story, BUT....

What is up with the ridiculous and over-exaggerated acting by Yim (Jade)???? Why can’t he act normal like all the other characters?? It was so over-the-top that it was unbearable for almost the entirety of the show. Yim looks so handsome and normal in the special interview episode. I would have dropped this drama within the first 5 minutes if I weren’t watching this for a clown watch challenge.

I was confused when the show started. Was I watching the right show or was I watching an anime? Three to four minutes in, I realized I was in for a very bumpy ride. The acting is ROUGH.

The plot is very simple. Mai is adorable and is a super green flag. Thank god for supportive parents and family. It was cute following Mai's attempt to court Jade, who has no idea Mai is in love with him. As a rom-com lover, I love it and it’s my jam. But…. Did I mention I hate Jade (Yim’s overacting)?

The secondary romance between the other two interns is boring. I forgot about them after they left my screen. The writing and the acting are not good. What a waste of time.

The saving grace is Uea and King. They are so pretty to look at, and so fun to watch. They have great chemistry and almost make me want to check out “Bed Friend”. Uea (James) is so pretty and I love his aloof sassiness, and he knows he has King at his fingertips. King (Net) is such a good-looking guy. I love that he’s tall, DARK and handsome, and totally smitten. The two of them are also great friends to Jade. They are supportive yet never cross the lines in exposing Jade’s secrets/feelings/history to Mai.

The second half of the drama drags. There isn’t a lot going on aside from Mai’s internal conflict and indecisiveness. I understand why he feels this way, given his upbringing and failed relationship. But that lasted too long and I became very bored in ep 5-7. There’s a lot of filler in this short drama. Do we really need to spend so much time at the sports day, which has no sports but a bunch of party games like a fraternity party?

Once Mai and Jade finally get together, it’s full-on cringey, sweet, fluffiness. This is a little hard to tolerate, but at least I expected this much. The drama jam packs all the kisses, skinship and sexy scenes all in one episode to make up for lost time. However, I can’t say I did not enjoy Mai’s (Tutor’s) enthusiasm in those kisses. LOL

Unfortunately, I cannot recommend this show, unless you REALLY love Yim and can tolerate that exaggerated acting. Don’t waste your time.



Completed: 7/3/2024 - Review #456

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you WILL have a headache watching this

The story had so much potential, but the constant yelling gave me a headache. I managed to keep watching simply because the story was good, but I definitely screamed at my laptop nearly every time the main character (the screaming one) appeared. I liked the story, but I will go out of my way to avoid rewatching this.

Personally, I wouldn't rewatch this series despite liking the storyline simply because of the screaming. Even if a million dollars were offered to rewatch this, I wouldn't accept it because it would mean losing my sanity.

THE PROBLEM: THE SCREAMING, THE SCREAMING, THE SCREAMING.

I cannot believe any sane and grown adult would approve of this kind of screaming. I have no idea what the writer or director was thinking, but I personally feel really mad about this because the storyline is really, really good and the screaming actor could have really levelled up the story simply by his acting (acting is good when he is not screaming and is calmer).

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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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