At first, the concept of the show looks very much like a cliché, it’s Romeo and Juliet (minus the deaths) in the 21st century, but with 2 guys. The team behind Bad Buddy was very smart in quickly resolving the win they/won’t they dynamics. Everybody knows that they would be together, so, by having them kiss on episode 4 and being a couple by episode 6, the show could explore the relationship way better.

It’s obvious, to anybody that has seen a series or movie with either Nanon or Ohm, that they’re both fantastic actors. Nanon had never been in a BL before, while Ohm has been part of the BL world for years by now. It’s not a fluke that Bad Buddy became a phenomenon from the first episode. GMM has had many successful couples before, from classic pairings like TayNew and OffGun, to recent powerhouses like BrightWin and EarthMix. But all those couples have something in common, the actors were pretty new faces in acting would. That’s a major difference when compared to Bad Buddy, where you have two actors that, despite their young ages, have been loved by critics and fans for years. I believe that a major part of the success of this series comes from the fact that the main couples REALLY works. The characters have chemistry and so do the the actors.

The side characters also work. They don’t really fall into major BL troupes. We didn’t get the homophobic family; we don’t get the best friend that’s secretly in love with the protagonist; nor the protagonist that pretends that he doesn’t like guys, he just likes THAT specific guy. And most importantly, we don’t have a couple that obeys by the ridiculous power dynamics for the top x bottom / big x small guy. Bad Buddy somewhat plays with all those tropes as jokes at some time. We learn that Plan’s family has no issue with him being with a guy, it just cannot be the neighbors son. We think that Wai has a crush on Iran, but that turns out not to be the case. Ink was not a character from their past brought it to delay the main couple being together, and she has her own agenda and A LOT of personality. We also got a official GL couple out of this show, and InkPa could not be a cuter couple!

Like every show, Bad Buddy also has a few small problems. There’s not real resolution for the fight between the families. though they appear to be okay with Pat and Pran being together, by the end. I actually think there would have been hard to try to fix the issue, since we only knew the reason for the fight quite late in the season. We also didn’t get the secondary couple that everybody was waiting for: WaiKorn. From a strategic business point of view, it makes sense. Drake is part of a famous couple, with Frank, while Jimmy will start in his own BL later in 2022. It would not be a very smart business move to “sabotage” the Vice Versa couple by making JimmyDrake a reality. But at least the show gives the public a few glimpses of moments between them, specially in the finally. They obviously knew that people would ship them together.

I don’t dislike the last episode, but I also don’t love it either. I think the episode wastes a bit too much time trying to make it look like Pran and Pat are not together anymore. That’s obviously way better than breaking them up or having them fighting and make up in a single episode, but still. I wish we got more moments of adult Pat and Pran together, on their own.I also think that we should have had at least a small kiss from InkPa, they’ve been together for 4 years by the end. At least the last sequence was fun and took advantage of that amazing chemistry.

Bad Buddy also shines in the way it uses music and the OST. Not since ITSAY and IPYTM have I enjoyed a soundtrack so much and felt like it perfectly complements the series.