Are we just friends or are we more
You make me feel butterflies in my core
If you don’t mean it, don’t act that way
This is not what a friend would do or say
Just read somewhere that the entire printer repairing scene was a parody of a viral thai porn wherein a guy comes in to repair something and the girl teases him by saying he has a small "thing" and the guy replies that he has a big "thing". That was why Pat was like I am a big boy.
12 Reasons Why Bad Buddy Broke The World With 12 Episodes
(Updated) I made a list of my favorite things that this drama gifted us to remember and cherish forever. In no particular order:
1. It's a Romantic Comedy (With a Twist!)
Romcom is a genre you cannot go wrong with and the world of queer media needs more of. Bad Buddy is filled with smiles and laughter and just the right amount of melodrama that doesn't let it turn too depressing anywhere (in retrospect even episode 11 was brilliantly written and served the purpose). It has become the comfort show that lifted our spirits for 12 weeks and will continue to have a high rewatch value. That’s what any good show must be like, easy on the heart to return to. By injecting the story with the star-crossed trope in the background, they have achieved a flawless balance between fluff and angst. It is a relatable love story that you smile, yearn and weep for, a true masterpiece whichever angle you see it from.
2. OhmNanon's Acting
Ngl I did not see this coming even after the trailer. With every episode that came out, I was shocked by their natural chemistry that climbed to the stratosphere of romance and how they felt more like a real couple than any couple we've ever seen in a queer drama. Whichever show nails the casual touches and kisses has already won the lottery and OhmNanon served us the entire range. From childhood friends to rivals to lovers who gave us the bickering dynamics of an eternally married couple, the effortlessness with which two people who have known each other their entire lives fall in love, the passionate lovers who grow up to take a stand and everything in between. This casting was godsent.
3. PatPran's Partnership
In my opinion, this is Bad Buddy's greatest strength for why it is the best BL drama we’ve ever seen and closest to true love we’ve ever gotten in a modern day queer love story. We rarely see a couple like PatPran who are partners in everything and fight the world together all while being entirely wholesome, utterly positive and totally unproblematic. At the heart of it, Bad Buddy is about two people being in love and the extents they will go for their love to survive. We see both of them being there for each other, communicating with each other, taking care of each other, sweeping each other off their feet & fighting for each other- that's love! Love is partnership and no one is more than the other. Love thrives in equality. Majority of shows fail to understand that and only focus on one character's love for the other. But Pat and Pran are two sides of the same coin and we are so lucky to witness such a well-written story come to life.
4. PatPran are a Power Couple
No story understood the assignment like Bad Buddy did that we like to see stories where both the protagonists are on an equal standing in every sense; where they are equally badass, equally obsessed with each other, equally devoted in love and supportive of each other. They're also leaders of their respective faculties, super smart, music lovers, rugby players and rivals in life and love. They radiate the magnetism of two yin yang personalities and soulmates inevitably attracting. The story itself was structured in a way where them being equal was pivotal to the romance and the whole competition is an exciting ploy on the surface because there are only winners in love. (This equal dynamics in characterization is something I've only seen so far in Chinese BL dramas like SHL/CQL so I am absolutely giddy to see it in a modern day setup!) These 2 reasons are why they are being hailed as the healthiest couple in BL history.
5. It Successfully Captured The Queer Experience
This show really nails the fact that queer people have entirely unique experiences in love and there is zero need to base it on/reference straight romance in the process of telling that story. BL so far hasn't been able to ditch outdated tropes that were carried over from het romance. You simply cannot change the female lead's role to a male one and call it a brand new gay/sapphic love story when it still feels like the characters are operating on het dynamics of the pursuer and the pursued.
Bad Buddy hammers in that there are no fixed husband/wife roles or top/bottom dynamics in a queer relationship (there shouldn't be in a straight relationship either but that's not my fight lol) and that you can't apply straight models of storytelling to a queer romance without rendering it inauthentic in some way. We have different experiences in navigating love which needs to be explored more. (Just ask Pa who thought Ink didn't like her back after listening to her straight friends complaining about their het love lives.)
6. InkPa
This is self-explanatory but I was so impressed that a BL drama had passed the Bechdel test when I saw 2 female characters interacting at first. I didn't in my wildest imagination think they will become the secondary couple in the show and the first ever side couple in a BL drama whose scenes I didn't want to skip over! Ink & Pa's love story has been a magnificent leap for sapphic representation especially for what it did within the limited screen time. All because Aof knew he wanted to kill the cliche of female characters only existing to cause problems in a BL story. You see, they have much more important things to do like falling in love with another girl!! Mad respect.
7. Queerness as a Spectrum
To me, this is where this show broke out of the genre of BL and ascended to something more universal, when I realized it was using every resource possible to tell a queer love story where their queerness is completely incidental to the fact that they love a certain person. I lost my mind when 4 characters, who all happen to be queer, sat down together to casually discuss how sexuality can be fluid over dinner. It is a ground-breaking scene that defies all expectations you might have had about their romantic labels. It celebrates love unconditionally, as we always should.
8. Domestic Boyfriends
The chokehold PatPran have had over us all this while is partly due to the fact that they are so endearingly in love with each other and we got to see so many moments of their sweet domesticity, that for some reason, Bad Buddy's predecessors have not given enough screen time to. Because sometimes you just want to watch a dumb love story about two boyfriends basically being partners in life, going on dates, grocery shopping together, cooking food for each other, consoling each other after a bad day without being slapped in the face by homophobic reality. And Bad Buddy is exactly that type of show.
9. Grand Gestures of Love
What Bad Buddy has done and done right is it has used the the template of fake enemies to lovers to tell a love story that shows you the extraordinary through the vehicle of ordinary. It stays true to romcom genre with abundant swoonworthy moments, like Pat showing up to save the day in episode 7 and uttering beautifully cheesy lines like the real life romantic hero that he is, or confessing his love to Pran in front of the entire faculty who hold witness to their mock engagement. Or more subdued moments that are still stunningly soaked in romance like the classic balcony phone call, the idyllic honeymoon getaway and Pran serenading Pat with the most romantic song about their life in episode 11. These are all epic moments that celebrate love and have been achingly missing from queer romance.
10. Absence of Homophobia
One of my favorite things about this show, is the fact that it takes place in a universe where homophobia, and thereby the queerness of the characters is not the ultimate conflict they have to overcome. Fleshing out the the family feud and emotional trauma while also spinning it as a metaphor for homophobia was very well done. We still get inherently queer dialogues like, "What can we do? We were just born this way," and "We just like each other, does anyone have a problem?" without the usually triggering drama. The fake family reunion montage in episode 11 made all of us sob because we know, "What if our families weren't enemies?" is a direct echo of "What if our families weren't homophobic?" Congrats to PatPran on fooling everyone from their parents to the audience and proclaiming that their love is a force that bows to nothing in this world. It proves queer stories can come across as being rooted in serious reality while still prioritizing the romance above everything.
11. P'Aof and BBS team
This goes without saying but as the audience, I could really feel the love, sincerity and commitment with which a queer person helmed the BBS team to create such a pathbreaking love story that made the future of BL genre look brighter, healthier and happier with just 12 episodes. They knew what they were doing from the very beginning when they sought to create a love story that shatters stereotypes and simply gives the gays everything we want. It is evident he has listened to our feedback from the previous projects and wanted to do better for all of BL. (I distinctly remember the fandom begging him to make EarnPear canon when we found out he's directing Still 2gether and look where we are with InkPa now!) Thank you indeed, legend. This proves we need more queer people behind queer storytelling to change the game.
12. A Complete Series with Complete Subversion
To make note of all the ways in which Bad Buddy has challenged the expectations of queer and casual watchers alike deserves its own post. The show has risen beyond the confines of BL to essentially set everything right that was fundamentally wrong in queer storytelling so far. To name a few, this includes everything from watering down the enemies to lovers trope to support the romance better, highlighting the ambiguous fluidity of PatPran's relationship, the best kiss we've ever seen happening already in episode 5 instead of the finale, to doing away with the episode 11 curse, subverting the hiding your relationship trope to an emboldened choice you make and ending the series with PatPran's astronomical chemistry that is the first of its kind to walk the gay romcom genre anywhere in this world. You can rewatch the show and still find something new in these 12 beautiful episodes that contradicts contemporary queer storylines for good reason.
It is truly a complete series like they told us it'll be because how often do you get to see a romance bloom from childhood to young adolescence to adulthood without inventing more troubles for a new season? When every episode is considered chronologically, you can see the careful planning and pacing that went into documenting every stage of their evolving relationship. When viewed it its entirety, Bad Buddy becomes an astounding history-making love story that sends the message love will always find a way.
So where does that leave us? All of it is of course owing to the fact that this show had its queer audience in mind every step of the way. It came into existence to remind us happy endings do exist for queer people and we can become the protagonists we want to be.
Thank you PatPran for changing our world with your love story. I don't ever want to forget how inspired and invincible you made me feel and I'm so relieved this show now belongs to us to rewatch, smile, cry over and hold on to for dear life.
I hope we all remember it for what it was, a reminder that sure, maybe the queer life will always be a fight against many aspects of the world but we can still rewrite our stars and it need not always be a nightmare. Because surely, if PatPran can find a way to create their happy ending against all odds, you can do it too!
May we watch and scream about this gay masterpiece for the rest of our lives!
