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Bad Buddy thai drama review
Dropped 7/12
Bad Buddy
8 people found this review helpful
by Stefania
Oct 5, 2022
7 of 12 episodes seen
Dropped
Overall 6.5
Story 4.5
Acting/Cast 8.5
Music 8.5
Rewatch Value 2.5

Romeo and Romeo, Almost

Bad Buddy should have been a great enemies to lovers story, but it fell way too short of its potential, turning into a predictable college romance that does not stand out much from other college BLs. What went wrong?

When I complained that this series was a cliché, another user pointed out that this is expected because the story is based on Romeo and Juliet. I disagree. Romeo and Juliet has been called the greatest love story of all time for a reason. Although we know how it goes, we still root for the fated lovers. Their romance does not get old. Every generation reads it and creates its own adaptations of it – and what can be more fitting for our time than a queer adaptation of the timeless classic?
This is why I believe that not the story itself, bu the way in which it was presented spoiled this series.

Two families whose houses are next to each other have been feuding for years. Their sons, Pat and Pran, build a forbidden friendship that eventually blossoms into something more. Their friend groups also have beef with each other, though, and this complicates things for the two boys.
This premise is great comedy material. I do not understand why it was so underutilized. We got only snippets of the two families fighting, although such fights could have created many hilarious moments in the first half of the series. But no, the production team went back to the campus cliché, forgetting that an essential part of Romeo and Juliet is the pointless, long rivalry between two households.
Pat and Pran, and their friends also did not bicker nearly as much as they should have. The transition from enemies to lovers happened too quickly.
As if this was not enough, the mood of the series was spoiled by product placements that looked annoyingly out of place in the scenes.

I would have dropped this series earlier if not for Ohm and Nanon's acting. Although I consider their pairing to be more of a bromance than a romance, they were a delight to watch.
However, Jimmy, whose character is important to the story, was one of the main reasons why I did not get past episode seven. To say that his performance was unconvincing would be generous. The production team should have chosen a more experienced actor – casting a newbie alongside veterans is not a great idea.

Overall, this series did not manage to keep me interested in Pat and Pran's story. If you have decided to watch it, my advice is not to expect much. This is a forgettable story.
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