When I watched the first episode, my heart sank. Not because it failed to live up to the hype after the wildly anticipated trailer, but because it was too good. How could any series sustain this quality for 12 glorious episodes? Somehow, Bad Buddy managed.

While the trailer made the series seem like a typical rivalry-turned-romance kind of story (which is fine), the show delivered so much more nuance.

Pat and Pran are forced to compete only because of rivalry between their families and faculties. From two people who can’t openly be friends, they have become two people who realise they can’t just be friends. What drives the series wasn’t so much the competition between Pat and Pran, but them navigating their friends’ and families’ expectations of who they should associate with – a particularly relatable theme for those of us living in Asian societies. To what extent should we accommodate others when it comes to love? This question is also the crux of what made the last two episodes even more heartbreaking and realistic.

A joy of watching Bad Buddy is that it feels like you are rooting for two of your good friends as they fall in love with each other. Expect Tier A acting (I won’t belabour the point on how Ohm and Nanon expertly use their eyes to communicate deeper emotions), explosive chemistry and best of all, no cringey moments. Ohm and Nanon were simply the most natural fit for their characters. Bad Buddy is an experiment gone right for Ohm and Nanon – (just) friend, acting partner and soulmate – who not only excelled as their characters individually but are also definitely better together.

Read my full review here: https://asianblreviews.wordpress.com/2022/01/21/bad-buddy-2021-review/
Why I'll never get enough of Pat and Pran in the series: https://asianblreviews.wordpress.com/2022/01/24/why-ill-never-get-enough-of-pat-pran-in-bad-buddy/