Is love enough when you don’t know the person your heart chooses? That’s the question Mandee’s new Boys’ Love series “Naughty Babe” asks. Does the show answer?

Featuring popular BL ship MaxNat: the show has Max Kornthas (Hia Yi) & Nat Nattasitt (Kon Diao) playing the lead characters in the Yaoi-esque adaptation of “Naughty Babe”, the novel written by author Bam-Bam. The series is shot extravagantly as it follows the lives of the rich and powerful people who surround these two men. Kon Diao is best friends with Kuea (NuNew Chawarin); who joins the cast with his husband Lian played by Zee Pruk. The two alongside Aon (Est Supha), who is Hia Yi’s secretary & Hia Yi’s father Makorn (Jab Penpetch), keep a watchful eye on Kon Diao.

The series is a bright and colorful. On the surface it tells the tale of a young man who feels that the love and adoration that his cold seme once held is coming to an end. That opinion spurs him to leave Hia Yi at an opportune moment. He says goodbye to his beloved dog and leaves for a one- way trip to a secret house in Switzerland. When Hia Yi discovers this, he tries to catch him but gets into a car accident. With a selective memory loss, he befuddles everyone as he only remembers Diao as a 7-year-old kid. Something that Diao doesn’t remember about himself. Soon Hia Yi does regain his memory, but with Lian and Aon’s help plans to keep it secret. He believes someone is out to get Diao, and he wants to catch the would-be assassin. More than that, he doesn’t want Diao to abandon him, as he once mentioned that if Hia Yi gets well, he would leave.

This as the summary of the first two episodes it is easy formula for a hit. In a lot of ways, the series does succeed in holding my interest as we watch most of the series from Diao’s perspective. As a young man who is engaged to a powerful businessman like Hia Yi, he doesn’t seem to have a real grasp of himself. Lacking that sense of self, it is not out of the realm of logic for him to be impressionable. Bear in mind I have never watched “Cutie Pie” which this series seems to be a sequel to. But it’s clear that Lian/Kuea has the sort of marriage that Diao wants. But as he and Hia Yi go through years of dating and engagement, he finds himself unfulfilled in every way. From a lack of conversations with Hia Yi to no sex whatsoever, he feels he is failing as a lover. Something Kuea points out he should speak to Hia Yi about. I love the way the actors portray the Kuea & Diao’s friendship. It’s close, and it is this friendship that motivates Diao’s decision making.

This is very much a series that relies on Diao’s inability to think things through to move the story along. With his adorably messy friend’s help, he comes to believe he is being cheated on. It is this belief that causes him to confront his fiancé while he’s working in a car dealership selling a car to an attractive woman. There is literally nothing else to substantiate the claim of infidelity. But this motivation makes his insecurities deeper. He decides to run to another country. The series does four information dumps to add emotional weight to the moments leading up to him at the airport. They do provide the backstory for the characters but also flood me with so much information I don’t remember it all. But one thing stood out to me. This is purely my opinion. Makorn takes a very personal interest in raising Diao and making him a part of the family. Showing numerous times in front of Diao & Hia Yi; promising if his son hurts Diao in any way, he will take care of him. If Makorn tries anything on Diao, I won’t be surprised. The music for Makorn’s scenes have a bit of a darker than most other scenes.

Hia Yi being a good son often takes these embarrassing moments in stride out of respect for his father. Max plays the stoic Hia Yi well throughout those moments. Like Makorn’s surprise gift for Diao’s birthday, which is a brand new sports car (despite the fact that Diao doesn’t know how to drive). Hia Yi smiles stiffly as he watches his father with Diao. I very much appreciated the slight change of tone in the second episode, as Hia Yi now hospitalized with amnesia, acts colder and more standoffish. Max blew me away with the different roles he played for the time he had amnesia versus when he got his memory back. Hia Yi didn’t have much to do in the first episode, as it was mostly Diao getting up the courage to leave.

The chemistry between Max and Zee is as good as their on screen lovers. The two bicker like friends, having small arguments with Yi being standoff-ish while Lian just watches him. When he’s done, Yi quietly demands an apology for being kicked by Hia Yi while Yi was remembering things. The scene when he says he accepts apologies in crypto currency was hilarious. Yi revealing that he has regained his memory and the backstory of how he shattered Diao’s childhood memories would have been great drama if done properly. But all the information dump did was provide me with more questions. Like how did the tiger attack that got a side character blinded was Hia Yi’s fault? The sight of a man being mauled by a tiger was traumatic for Diao, but how did he go from being a living doll to be a normal, love sick adult? Was Diao groomed to be Hia Yi’s husband based on Makorn’s financial support while in the inebriated state?

Then there was the final information dump showing that Diao’s family are basically evil and using their marriage as a way to manipulate Yi’s family out of their famous race track if & when the marriage fails. Like I get it; shows don’t usually get a lot of episodes to tell stories and this is based on a novel. But these odd flashback dumps of information got pretty draining. More names and characters than I could keep up with as it was set up with Hia Yi’s declaration that he is going to find the one who tampered with Diao’s car (I’m leaning toward the evil family).

This looks like it will be an interesting and messy BL drama. At the same time I hope the pacing is better because I think four info dumps in two episodes are too much to handle. Also, the dubbing for the emotional scenes was absolutely terrible. The scene in episode one where Diao rushes back to Hia Yi; I don’t know where he thought he was going, upon learning about the wreck. It was abhorrent and too distorted. Coupled with Nat’s over acting and the emotional temper tantrum that followed, I felt it was horrible. That scene should have been edited in a better way, at least.

Zee and NuNew as Lian and Kuea are absolutely perfect. Their chemistry is pure and their characters were well written. Est as the secretary, Aon is a surprising scene stealer. His facial expressions and one liners are spot on. On the whole, the series is well crafted so far and I hope the pacing is sorted for the rest.

Rating- 4 out of 5

Streaming on- IQIYI/Mandee YouTube Channel