While this sounds like a run-of-the-mill office romance, Middleman’s Love is, in fact, the most over-the-top show I’ve seen recently. Typical of Mandee BLs, expect off-kilter humour, absolutely ridiculous visuals and wonky sound effects all around.

I love Tutor and Yim’s cute dynamic (and great visuals!) but Mandee’s over-the-top scripting makes the story a little cringey. Some people see it as a way to evoke laughter, but this is just not really my thing.

The side couples, King and Uea (from Bed Friend) and Tong and Gus (new pairing) bring some variety but also predictability to the cadence of the show since Jade can get a little over-the-top as a character.

The censored YouTube cut, which is shorter, gives you the minimum info you would require to understand the story, but the quality of the story and the depth of the relationship development suffers quite a bit from the edit. Spicy scenes are left out (understandably so, since it’s a censored version) and some extended emotional scenes are truncated, which makes the show seem even more shallow than it actually is.

Speaking of which, the spicy scene between Mai and Jade was WACK. I wanted to bury my face in the ground from the secondhand embarrassment. Just, um, sorry, no.

Full review: https://asianblreviews.wordpress.com/2024/01/07/middlemans-love-2023-bl-review/