woof, that was ruff
Such a hard drama to watch. The last episode just came out, and man did I struggle to get here. The writing is shit, the acting is way overdone, the characters are terrible, why am I even here? ..honestly it's because I couldn't pass up a series with TutorYim as the MLs-- those poor babies-- boy did they do them dirty with this show.Starting with the basics, nothing really wrong with the story except for the fact that there isn't much of one, just a sweet office romance between a mentor and intern, cute right? Not so much, the story itself is fine but has weird unnecessary drama points that don't make sense, creating drama just for the sake of it, which honestly is nothing new to Thai dramas in general. Except for the fact that the cute characters that are supposed to make the show are just trash.
These poor poor actors, after watching this group in Bed Friends and Cutie Pie, you know the extent of their acting skills, and you cast them in this??? This is a slapstick comedy, overexaggerated reactions, with dull shallow characters, and no redeeming story to save it. Jade (Yim) is a super weird and awkward character, and no not in a cute loveable way but in a wtf is wrong with your face way, on top of that he's insecure to a fault. His overdramatic reactions are even more emphasized with the slow motion scenes and awkward sound effects, seriously who wrote this? In comes our boy Mai (Tutor) who's this gorgeous little thing and he basically puppy dog follows Jade around and adores him to death. He has zero flaws and confidently pursues Jade who literally can't stop making trouble for himself and those around him. It's like a mess of a princess saved by the heroic prince, but even the prince is a shallow characters with zero depth, and as adorable as both of these actors are in real life and other shows, this one was almost impossible to enjoy. There were some scenes that were cute of course, but the amount of trash you have to dig through to get there.... not worth it at all.
Good lord why in the world would I keep watching this??? Only because I think Tutor & Yim are adorable and I can't help myself, but if you haven't watched the show, I'd say just look up a cute moments fanmade video and skip all the ridiculousness. If you're obsessed with TutorYim, then you might be able to push through otherwise, just skip to the next one. Feel free to find recs in my other reviews!
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It's for you only if you do like comedy
first of all it's not actor's fault, I'm sure they're doing their best, but this idea was bad since the start.Is not easy to scream 99% time, but Yim has to do that for this role, what a waist!
I love the cast, but I also think they're ready for a serious story, with drama, maybe sensual scenes, I don't really know.
Unfortunally I'm sure I am not the only one disapointed with the choice to still in Bed Friends universe, because the production made it poorly.
Uea was sofiticaded and his boyfriend was warm and savage, we loved that, but now they are not interesting anymore, a truly shame.
Again, I loved the cast, even the two new ones, hopefully they got more elaborated roles in future, so I can have a great time watching them unshowed skills.
Give it a try, if you was able to giggle in the first episode, I think you can watch it without any problem <3
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tutoryim tried their best
the thing about this is that the script was just not good from the very first episode. and it sucks to see, because i really do think both tutor and yim have the potential to do something great with a good script.yim really tried his best to make do with his character, but by episode 2 i literally just could not stand the failed comedy attempts and the silly goofy faces. although you can simpathize with jade, it gets to a point where it's just too over-the-top. literally no one is like that. by episode 5 the plot has NOT advanced one bit. there's just nothing going on at all. the goofy faces and the silly noises get old pretty quickly. tutor and yim deserved better and can do better, imo.
you might like this if you're looking for something extremely light and superficial, plus the comedy might be for you.
as for me, i'm just incredibly disappointed.
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Remove quick time
Nothing happened between the characters and Jade was the only one holding the show together that made me keep trying but I gave up in the end. I preferred Bed Friend on so many levels but I wish Middleman Love come off as it is giving me a bad taste of the genre. The acting was terrible the only one giving it all to was Jade King and Urea but the others made me cry. I could've done better with no acting experience whatsoever how did they get picked? They need to be retrained over again quicklyWas this review helpful to you?
Disappointing, not worth the time nor the effort
What happened? No, seriously, what were they thinking?! Jade was definitely a favorite of mine in Bed Friend – he was friendly, loyal, helpful, knew when to stick his nose into things and when not. He was an extremely likeable character. The Jade we see in this, is nothing like that. They turned him into a caricature, a cartoon-like character.The plot was kind of boring. They were playing a game of cat and mouse with nothing much going on. Except for those awful comedic sound effects and Jade screaming half the time. They did tone it down a bit as the series progressed though. At least I think so. It could have been so much better if that just tried. Not the actors, but the writers and the team behind the production. That’s where the faults lie.
And then there were the plot holes that were never addressed. The weird scene cuts and jumps between the scenes. It made the drama hard to follow and understand at times.
Jade & Mai: Jade was a screaming mess half of the time. I really disliked what they did with his character, because he became this clueless mess who couldn’t string two normal sentences together. Why go to this effort to ruin a character? He had no real personality. And to be honest, neither did Mai. He was hot, and he liked Jade. That was his whole personality. Nothing more. It felt like very lazy writing, almost like they didn’t really gave any though to their characters. Yim and Tutor did okay, I guess. But with how exaggerated Jade was and how little we saw of Mai doing anything (except bright close ups because he’s just so perfect), it’s hard to tell. They just didn’t have a chance to display their talents.
King & Uea were also reduced to almost cartoon-like selves. I honestly found their “little” arguments annoying. Can you imagine how tiring it is to be in a relationship with someone who is constantly sulking with you? The lack of communication also left a lot to be desired.
Tong & Gus: I actually liked the two of them as a couple a lot more than I did Jade and Mai. They felt like a better match, I also liked that there was no authority / power struggle between the two. Their communications skills could use some work though. But I really liked the chemistry between the two characters, Leo and Tai did great here.
Even giving it a 4.0 rating seems extremely generous. All I know is, that this might be my last Domundi series if they continue going down this road.
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They did TutorYim Fans wrong.
i waited for this series to air because i was happy that TutorYim will finally have their own series but the story was kind of disappointing, at first it was fun but as I keep watching the episodes, I started to get bored because not only it was hard to watch because of Jade's goofyness but also the plot was boring, Also, everytime when yim is smiling, it's kind of awkward, as if he's just really forcing himself to smile... but I still kept watching this series for Gus and Tong, i like them more than the main couple:Dbut my real opinion is that the characters are really not well written, except for Mai and the others, they should have re-written the characters first before producing this series so in that way, we can all see how matured Jade is, Yim doesn't fit Jade's goofyness, in fact, Yim deserves a more better character, he deserve a matured character imo, also tutor!! like come one bro, mandee should have given them a better series, They didn't deserve this :'(
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That was painful to watch....
While the actors did the job, they were asked to... the overacting, overfunny stuff was just painful to watch.In some of the serene moments the show would have been ok to watch and you see a glimpse of what the actors are capable of. But the direction/exectution/writing was the worst.
And why do they need stupid noises for any comedy style show in Thailand? That's sooooooo annoying.
If the show has true comedy no noises are neccessary to convey it. And why do they need to recycle the "comedy" music all the time? Is there no reason to do something new?
This show feels like a advertisment spot with some story around without seperation compared for example to "Last Twilight" where the spot is on the end and you can skip it. Also extremly annoying.
The writing of the main couple is very shallow, giving the side couple the much more interesting story arc.
Overall the second worst show of this year which you could skip without any worries.
And why can't I vote a 0 or at least 0.5? So my 1 should be a 0.
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please give TutorYim better projects
I will repeat what's already been said, I waited months to see them again, I absolutely love Tutor and Yim but boi how they did them wrong.I'm ok with over the top comedy and acting but there's absolutely nothing else behind, this is honestly a waste of good actors on a bad scenario
Even if the last episode was cute it was all over the place, I couldn't even tell if some scenes were in the right order (I'm sure you can tell what I'm talking about if you've seen it), WE KNOW they have chemistry and act great together but that was just confusing, I do hope they will get another show because they deserve so much more !
on a positive note Gus & Tong was a really cute storyline with a lot of chemistry, nice suprise, I hope we'll see them again soon!
Also one more thing, I don't usually mind repetitive OST but that was too much I absolutely hate this song
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Well… it is what it is
Look, I only watch this for TutorYim. I love them as a couple, but I feel like Yim is always getting the same roles. I like the storyline so far, but I do get why people‘s ratings are pretty low. I hoped for this show not to be cringe, like Bed Friend, but yeah…The acting they deliver is great. I mean, I couldn’t play Yim‘s role at all or Tutor‘s role either. (I loved them in Cutie Pie). I feel like the storyline is pretty classic, but it still has something yk what I mean?
I currently am watching it on youtube but i had it on hold after 2/4 parts bc of the cringeness. (If you like comedy it definitely is sth for you). Still, I must say I‘m pretty excited for the next few episodes to see if the series gets more mature and how it evolves. I am hoping for more mature progress!
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Loved it......
Ok so if we talk about this series the story plot is very typical and unique and I saw many negative comments about this series but for me Middleman's love is an adorable cute rom-com.Well about the acting and cast most of them from bed friend and I was so happy to see many familiar faces and the office atmosphere. Everyone did a great job and did their roles perfectly specially tutorYim their chemistry is amazing. When we talk about TutorYim I must say that I've seen many people telling that their lacking chemistry. About that it's absolutely wrong because Yim's character is a person who is weird and sulking and easily getting shy and he did his role perfectly because in Cutiepie he did a total oppsite character than this one so P'Jade is someone who is shy so there is many awakward situations between them until he get used to Mai and Mai is a person who is very extrovert and perfect man so he's doing everything to impress P'Jade. Well about the NC scense damn that was on fire. I was blushing like an idiot while watching them.
Anyways overall I really enjoyed the whole series and I loved it and for me it's not a waste of time. So I'm reccomending this series to those who prefer watching comedy and romance.
A cute sweet story. I loved it.
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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 a number of scene cuts that were very awkward and really killed the flow and tone as well as a few scene jumps that were equally awkward. In both cases, they made the story progression more confusing than it needed to be. The opening credits with the bobbleheads was not cute or funny. 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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Disappointing
Let’s start by saying that I read the book and loved it. my impression of the show began off with how disappointing the adaptation is. Imagine my shock when episode one they changed the entire timeline from the book. Which meant everyone’s motivations now had to be completely rewritten. Mai stayed pretty much the same but now he has a fellow intern magically show up to handle the plotline where Jade thinks Mai should pair up with Ae. and because Ae and King are no longer an integral part of the main plot they’re shunted to the side and all the friendship chemistry goes sideways.Ae is supposed to be a quiet smart influence on Mai. Helping him along with wooing Jade. but since Jade no longer needs to misunderstand that relationship that meaning is lost.
Jade is supposed to be a “mid” character. quietly helping everyone around him yet he’s rewritten and (surely coached) to be loud and, let’s be honest, slightly annoying, instead of kind and self defeating. you get more incite into his character through his brothers conversation with Mai in the last episode than you do in the enitre series.
Honestly, I could go on for pages and pages so instead I’ll try to keep it short. I know this series suffered from a lot of changes and recasting in the beginning but instead of getting better due to the delays is seems like they ended up having too much time to make too many changes and they got lost somewhere in the middle and ended up lost out in the wilderness of story land.
in short, my suggestion is to go read the book, I enjoyed it. the adaptation should be enjoyed for purely seeing Tutor and Yim interactions. I’d suggest skipping episodes 2-4 though. Yim isn’t really allowed to have emotional range until that episode.
gosh. I’m still suffering from the disappointment.
if you want to see how adaptations should be done go watch the Thai adaptation of the Japanese BL manga Cherry Magic.
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