Head Empty, No Thoughts, Only Bad Buddy Remains

Hey, everyone, remember how I’m the Queen of Getting into Fandoms Late? I’ve gone and done it again. After bingeing the Thai BL A Tale of Thousand Stars, I next dived into the Thai BL comedy series Bad Buddy. And I don’t think I’ll ever come back. I live here now. Please have my mail redirected to this show.

Ok. Ok ok ok ok. I don’t think I can be coherent about Bad Buddy. I just finished it last night (and then I watched the Our Skyy 2 episodes, including the crossover with A Tale of Thousand Stars, and honestly gifsets from these episodes is what prompted me to binge the series in the first place I’ll stop talking now) and I want to watch it again. It’s not unheard of for me to do that, but it’s pretty rare. I have a long list of shows I want to watch, so something coming along and having immediate rewatch value is something to take notice of.

Pat and Pran are next-door neighbors whose parents hate each other. I’m talking full-on, blood feud hatred. (It’s justified on one party’s side, but that’s not important.) As such, they are forbidden from being friends with each other. When they end up at the same college, Pat in Engineering and Pran in Architecture, it turns out that their faculties are bitter rivals and their friends can’t go ten seconds without devolving into a brawl. Then they learn that their groups are basically one fight away from serious repercussions, so Pat and Pran team up to prevent their friends from ever running into each other. Naturally, this means that Pat and Pran grow closer in the process.

First, let me just say that this show may be my gold standard for the future. It won’t just be BL series, either. I will likely compare every show I watch in the future to Bad Buddy because it really was that good. This show is equal parts comedy, romance, and drama and it balances these three things to perfection.

Pat and Pran have an amazing relationship. I hesitate to call it “perfect”, but it’s pretty close. These two are #couplegoals for sure. They are open and honest in their communication (with each other, at least, they’re still lying to basically everyone they know). They know when to push and when to back off, and they know each other so well. It’s obvious that even though they were told to hate each other, they never really did. The entire series is littered with tiny, sweet moments that they have – Pat making Pran a new guitar pick when he lost his, Pran writing (at least) two songs for and about Pat.

One of the things that I love is how their relationship comes about. Pran, we learn pretty early on, has had feelings for Pat for years. Pat, however, only realizes that he has feelings for Pran when he discovers that he doesn’t have feelings for the girl he thinks he’s crushing on. I just adore how they handled that entire situation. Pat enlists his sister, Pa, to help him figure out if Ink likes him back, and Pa gives him a list of four things to look for. He figures out quickly that none of those apply to Ink, yet all of them apply to Pran.

And once Pat realizes that he likes Pran (and Pran maybe likes him back), he doesn’t waste any time freaking out about his sexuality because it’s completely irrelevant. He basically immediately goes to confront Pran. And that scene with their first kiss? Y’all, I’m ace and that thing gave me GOOSEBUMPS. It has no right to be as good as it was. It’s everything – the music, the framing, the single tear rolling down their cheeks, the way Pran pulls Pat back in, the way Pat grips Pran’s hair… Watch it and see for yourselves:

These two are well-balanced as a pairing. They are very different people, but I don’t think it can just be boiled down to an “opposites attract” situation. Pran is a very anxious person and needs everything to be a certain way (it’s confirmed in the Our Skyy 2 episodes that he has OCD), and it’s not so much a sense of Pat pulling him out of his comfort zone as it is Pat being allowed into Pran’s comfort zone. Likewise, Pat is loud and brash and while you would think that wouldn’t mesh well with Pran’s personality, they actually work very well together. 

It’s not that they have to change to be with each other. It’s that they love each other enough to want to make these small alterations to their lives, so that the other can be in it.

I also really loved how disagreements didn’t linger. Each episode has a central conflict that is mostly resolved either by the end, or early in the following episode. Even something that you would expect to be dragged out – like Pran icing Pat out after their kiss – is wrapped up in a fairly timely manner. Each situation gets the opportunity to breathe, yet nothing goes stale. It gives our characters the chance to grow and adapt.

And it is really, truly funny. I had some genuine laugh-out-loud moments (Pran drinking with his friends but tossing his own drinks over his shoulder was one of my favorites) while I was watching. Pat and Pran may have some romantic moments, but these are two guys who have been raised to be competitive with each other, and that is something they take very seriously. Except when they don’t.

Can I be honest with you for a second? I was honestly sold on this show from the opening credits. It’s so reminiscent of a 1980s sitcom, from the synth-pop music to the use of freeze frames. Actually, the entire show very much gives off ’80s rom-com vibes. There is a scene where Pat’s dad shows up to his dorm and Pran has to hide under the bed, and this is before they’re even dating.

I legitimately haven’t been able to think about much else since I started watching this series. I kept smiling to myself like an idiot at my desk on Thursday and had to hide it from my coworkers. If you haven’t seen this show yet, I can’t recommend it enough. I really think people will enjoy it.

Bad Buddy is 12 episodes and can be streamed for free in its entirety on GMMTV’s official YouTube channel.

Author: Jamie Sugah

Jamie has a BA in English with a focus in creative writing from The Ohio State University. She self-published her first novel, The Perils of Long Hair on a Windy Day, which is available through Amazon. She is currently an archivist and lives in New York City with her demon ninja vampire cat. She covers television, books, movies, anime, and conventions in the NYC area.

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