Did everything that mattered right

The thing I liked the most about this show was how it grabbed our expectations of already known cliches and turned them into something slightly different, but that made a lot of difference in the end. Bad Buddy is a character based show, so the plot is not really the main focus here, but rather how the characters and their actions influence in how the situations play out. And the way the writers built these characters was perfect. Pat and Pran had depth, they had their own personalities that were never brushed aside to fit any desired plot development. This is what makes this show so refreshing, despite it not being unique in plot, concept and ambientation.

I'd also like to praise the structure of this series. Each episode was built on a different process of the overall plot and each of these "arcs" started and ended in a single episode. There were never pieces of a diagram that we felt like they were missing at the end of each episode. It was satisfying. And each episode ended in a way that introduced a minor narrative for the next one. That's certainly the case with many other shows out there, but compared to other GMMTV BL shows that take several episodes to get to some point of a specific narrative, I found this a very good choice. It made the experience of following the show every week more exciting.

There's nothing left to say about Ohm and Nanon that hasn't been said by other people at this point. They were amazing. Their performances were intense, their chemistry together was perfect and they delivered those goddamn KISSES that no one was expecting them to deliver. What a blessing it is to have these two as a BL ship. Idk what the future holds for them but I'd really love to see them in another BL show, playing as a couple. Maybe something more serious than Bad Buddy.

Love that this show introduced a GL couple. InkPa were lovely and the only thing missing was a kiss, I guess. But I only noticed that after I saw someone mentioning the lack of it so maybe it wasn't really missing to me. Baby steps.

Don't have anything to say about the music, I barely paid attention to that. I know I really loved the BGMs playing in the last part of episode 5 (the best BL episode of all time) and I know I didn't really like the amount of sound effects they used throughout the series.

THE LAST EPISODE. I have seen many opinions of people who loved it and who didn't love it, but my opinion is that it was what made the most sense for those characters in that point of their lives. Of course this or that might have seemed a bit forced and whatnot, but it didn't bother me too much. What I think is that when we watch a show with characters as rich as Pat and Pran, we need to look at the given situations with their eyes, not with ours. They are their own characters after all. They have their own personalities, their own vision of the world, their own life history. What might feel right in our perspective might not be what feels right for the characters perspective. This is the case for any other show too.

Overall, I'm really happy because I anticipated this show since it was announced and I believe this is the first time something I anticipated so much for so long has me completely satisfied. Congrats to Aof, Ohm and Nanon because they truly delivered here.

Rewatch value? Lol Idk, but I will probably never watch this again as a whole. It's TOO LONG! I'm an impatient person. But this show will stay in my heart as a really great drama that did everything that mattered right.

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Disjointed and flavorless

It’s hard to make your story engaging when the main plot is so weak and has so little impact on the characters’ lives and relationships. I mean, Akk and Theo’s conflicts at the end of the series had absolutely nothing to do with “enchanté”. That arc was resolved by episode 7 or 8 and then they just threw in some random conflics so they could reach the 10-episodes mark. The finale revolved around Theo’s parents divorcing!!! That’s peak boring. At least if they made each “enchanté” side-character interesting with their own plotlines with some depth to them, then it could’ve been more engaging. An actual side-romance would do wonders here to distract us from the lukewarm Akk/Theo romance too. The thing between Natee and his studio assistant, while remaining open, felt like it had potential to become some torrid romance.

Theo and Akk (their actors) had good chemistry together, but it didn’t help that their lovey-dovey scenes were so forced and cringey. Takes away from what could have been a nice and warm romance between the two. They had some good moments tho, but like meh I couldn’t care that much because the story was bland.

Not everything is lost tho!! The two OST’s were super good and this was a great oportunity for me to take several screenshots of Fluke Pusit, Fluke Gawin and shirtless Force. Oh and it served a few comedic moments too, like when Akk, in the final episode, said “I don’t deserve him”, when it’s clearly the opposite.

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Interesting premise, weak execution

This show had a lot of potential considering its premise, but the actual storytelling felt short and ended up falling into several predictable cliches that said little to nothing about its characters. Firstly, the only character with any depth here was Tian, and even then, his only motif seemed to be reduced to turning into Torfun 2.0. All he wanted to do was do the things Torfun used to do to feel better about being a not so nice person in the past and receiving a second chance to live at the price of her death. The romance was weak, it revolved too much around pining and sexual tension moments that lead to nothing. Phupha's character being so bland didn't help at all. Tian and Phupha didn't really have the usual aspects that we have in romantic pairings, which is one part complementing the other. If Phupha didn't exist, Tian's arc would have been nearly the same. It felt like this was Tian's show and the romance was just an occasional side story... and this is a BL, so it shouldn't have been that way. I personally couldn't see what made Tian fall in love with Phupha and vice versa, so to me the romance was not engaging enough to endure the slow burn they presented. And it also didn't help that outside of the main plot, there were no side stories to engage. As I said, the side characters and their struggles only served to develop Tian's character and at some point it became boring because like, "yes, we understand Tian is trying to be a better person, can you show us something else?"

All of this led us to slow 7 episodes and when we reached episode 8, every single conflict seemed to hit us all at once and it became a melodramatic fest. Several implausible (but somehow predictable!) or just downright laughable occasions that made the show go from a chill slow burn that wasn't really offering much, but wasn't really anything close to being bad, to a trainwreck. Then episode 9 came and suddenly things are so much clearer between the main leads, it makes you feel like they had some sort of epic romance before everything went south, but they didn't! Their connection was there, but they hadn't come to the point of admiting their feelings yet. And then more and more and more drama. Felt like a cheap attempt of collecting easy tears out of your audience.

Acting was good, Mix especially. Earth didn't have too much to work with anyways, so it's even hard to judge. Chemistry was good enough, but the way the romance was developed made it hard for me to buy into the couple. Scenery was nice, who doesn't love seeing green and calm colors! But overall, this show seemed to work more on the ideia that it's just so epic and deep and emotional due to its premise, but the actual storytelling couldn't be drier.

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Big waste of money, time and Joong

Lazy, uninspired, lame. I think there'll always be space for the so-called "cliche" storylines to shine because we do deserve a break from the KinnPorsche's and Not Me's of the world (I love those!!!) But come on, that doesn't mean you don't have to put any effort in it. Some charm, some individuality, some uniqueness, anything to differentiate your show from the others. But this show neglects all of that to offer some of the most unimaginative stuff I've ever seen. GMM should know way better than to put out stuff like this, as the BL powerhouse that they are. We've seen this many times before, with the same conflicts, with the same dialogues, same resolutions. Incredibly boring! To make it worse, the whole "miscommunication is our only agent of conflict" trope only gave us two insufferable leads who couldn't do anything about their feelings. This type of situation might be realistic, if we think about it, but we're watching a TV show and things need to happen and be exciting. For that, they decide to add a 3rd wheel who will end up being an asshole and a fool. Then the ex girlfriend who's like "oh I was just being domestically assaulted! If I knew my ex was with you I wouldn't have bothered the two lovebirds uwu." Embarrassing.

I see something good in Joong. Love the power he conveys with his eyes. He can use them to emote well. But the other lead was like eeerrmm. It's crazy that I was supposed to believe that half of the cast was in love with his character when the character itself doesn't have any special charms and the actor doesn't necessarily stand out in any way, visually. His friends are as cute as he is. I won't say he was a terrible casting choice, though, cuz he and Joong do have some cute chemistry. If he improves with time, maybe they will deliver something better together (with better writers and a better director, obviously).

I don't know if I missed the star symbolism in the beginning, but as the one thing that apparently names the show, they could have made it more of a theme throughout the series (like 1000 Stars or To My Star did, for example). Would've brought something special to the story, perhaps? The way it was, it felt like just a very generic title combining words that are commonly used to name BL shows. Maybe that's where the lines overlap? Generic title for a generic series. Their minds!!

But nothing was more offensive than having the displeasure of seeing people calling this "a good well done cliche". That would be stuff like Bad Buddy, Crossing the Line, Kieta Hatsukoi. This is just crap.

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Not perfect, but a very promising path for GMMTV BL shows

I’ll try to be straight to the point, because with a show like this you can end up extending yourself too much cuz there’s so many things to talk about. But I think this one was pretty much almost impeccable in a few aspects, especially regarding its production quality. Well, if we ignore a few special effects here and there, where it felt a bit too amateurish. But it’s easy to ignore that when the rest is so on point. Art direction, music, acting by pretty much all the cast. The fact that we could finally see skin that looks like skin!!! That’s important too.

The social commentary theme is also a breath of fresh air in BL shows (and it’s brave too considering the political context in Thailand!!). It’s often too on the nose, but I think as a show that’s targeted at younger audiences they have to uncomplicate things for better and broader understanding. There’s also the writing conveniences which are mostly done by making the boys’ gang act clueless. Their plans are a mess! But I also think that it’s important to show those characters as far-from-mastermind individuals. They’re super young, after all, and they’re mostly moved by their emotions. Especially Sean. But honestly, all of them with the exception of maybe White, who seems to be the most rational character.

As far as the actual BL parts go, I must admit I was never that into SeanWhite as a couple, despite me thinking that the OffGun chemistry is perfect. What I was invested in, though, was the side couple DanYok, which kinda pulled me in even before I started watching the show (just from seeing Twitter/IG clips). There was something that felt magical in how the storyline began and proceeded to develop for majority of the episodes. Chemistry was fire. But then I don’t understand why the writers/director decided to make them so chaste? Like, Yok looked like he wanted to eat Dan with his eyes. And Dan looked like he was willing to be eaten. And then those two guys end the series with a hug? I’m not saying they should be having wild sex on screen (but I wouldn’t complain if they had)!! Not at all! But they barely kiss. And kissing is not a problem in this show, clearly. See, in the one scene they had in episode 13 they are there having a moment, a heartfelt conversation. The intimacy is visible just by the way they talked and looked at each other. Then Yok looks into Dan’s eyes and gently touches his face. His eyes move to Dan’s lips and that alone was sexy as hell. And then Yok proceeds to touch his lips on Dan’s for about half a second. And then sexy time is over. I don’t know whose decision it was to “nerf” this pairing like this, but it was very tasteless.

Anyways, despite the underwhelming finale (not just because of the DanYok hug, but as a whole), this show was a pleasure to watch and follow weekly. I hope other thai BL directors feel inspired by the work done here because after this the standards are gonna be high.

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Something a 15-yo would come up with

I feel bad for saying this cuz I can see this show had good intentions and the finale was pretty cute, but it's still so stupid! Do they want me to believe in the emotions and situations they are presenting? There is no depth or nuance. The characters are all adults, yet they all behave like pre-teens with the exception of maybe Mork. Maybe. Tawan is too naive. I understand being relatively young and having not a lot of emotional baggage, especially with relationships, but they could use some sensibility with that trait. Some complexity. But there is none. If a character is naive, then they’re too naive; if a character is helpful and considerate, then they’re too helpful and too considerate; if a character is too immoral, then they’re too immoral. It’s something a 15-yo would come up with.

I admit the main couple is very cute, mostly due to Mork being adorable and very pleasing on the eyes (that man is beautiful from head to toe), and there was some cute chemistry there too. I also liked the older gay couple. It’s something we don't often see in these BLs and the characters were fun. Didn't care about the rest. The cheating storyline? No words! The show got significantly better after they resolved that (it only took eight episodes out of ten!), but that was not enough to save the whole thing.

I understand the need for not so thoughtful entertainment for whenever we feel like just consuming something easy and pleasing to watch. But then again, I think the BL audience deserves better than this vapid stuff full of nonsensical plotlines and irrational characters. They had the chance to approach some strong themes and concepts, but it seems like they just chose to go for the cheapest options with all of them. For a show that took so long to get made and to be released, this feels like a waste of money and effort. Could’ve stayed in the drafts.

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All around a good, romantic and entertaining series!

I think this show gave the audience everything they wanted to see. There was a lot of romance, a lot of fluff, a lot of drama and some comedy, of course. It also delivered some direct criticism towards the BL industry and also BL fans, as well as dealing with struggles regarding sexuality and acceptance.

We saw the universe of the main characters, we saw their personality, their conflicts. We saw where their story started and how it developed. They knew better to have a solid foundation between Gene and Nubsib before introducing the harshest conflicts and they knew how to separate each conflict from one another, letting the audience immerse into the narratives. And I liked that those conflicts were rather agile, things got resolved sometimes much faster than expected , which might be a problem for some, but I personally want things to just happen instead of just dragging stuff forever and ever. It's a tv show after all.

What wasn't agile, unfortunally, was the scenes themselves. Many of them dragged for way too long to a point where they started feeling like filler. I think making your script as lean as possible without losing the essencial message is a must, most of the time. Unless your show/film is some experimental, deep and very nuanced piece of work, which isn't really the case of Lovely Writer. Another thing I didn't like was when they tried to force emotions onto the audience, which happened in episode 6, when Gene realised who Nubsib was and reacted in a way we all thought was exaggerated, but then it felt like such a big conflict with all the crying and the sad background music, but the show refused to let us know what was going on. How am I supposed to feel something if I don't even understand the situation? Only thing I felt was anger.

Secondary characters felt somewhat underused, some thing started but seemed to never go anywhere. Honestly, I never cared about any of them. Maybe the straight couple because they were both hot, but not enough to make me want to see them more than I did. I thought the Gene/Sib plots were enough to keep the show moving.

Actors were good! Yeah, Kao was kinda robotic, especially at the beginning, but I think his chemistry with Up elevated his performance by a lot and at the end of the day, I probably got used to him. They were great together, whether it was in spicy or dramatic scenes. Not much to say about music, but the KISS KISS KISS song will keep playing in my head for a while lol (not because I want it to, but that's fine).

Bottom line, the show was good, entertaining, made me feel impatient sometimes, but also had a lot of great moments. I wouldn't rewatch this because it's TOO long for me and I'm an impatient person, but I suppose that for people who have the patience, the rewatch value must be good enough.

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Technically it is "perfect", but why do I feel like it lacks something?...

Look I know this show is very loved and regarded as the best BL ever made by so many people, but maybe it really isn't for me, despite me liking many things here. It's definitely a very well made series, it has good acting (sometimes very good), great cinematography, great music!!! (that was a plus for me), but I feel some sort of emptiness when I watch it and when I think of it, it's like it lacks warmth, like it lacks heart. But I don't think it generally lacks heart, it's just that it is so formulaic that it feels like I'm watching a to-do tutorial rather than a depiction of fictional people's lives. What I mean with it is that the characters feel shallow, more like archetypes to make the plot move than like people I would feel something for. And it shouldn't be like that cuz in theory these characters pack a lot of punch! But the way the story unfolds strips them down of their potential to be felt and they become mere acessories (except for the protagonist, Day). I'll take Mhok as an example, as I consider him the best character here both for his background and for Jimmy's ability to make me feel for him. There was a moment in the series (pretty early on I must say) where Mhok stopped becoming his own character and became an extension of Day. His function was to be there for Day and like that he loses his depth and becomes an acessory, a charming love interest. Sure he has his own worries by the latter part of the series but even then he's still in Day's shadow. But at least he's not devoid of personality like Chief Phupa in 1000 Stars. We also have very interesting side characters here like Porjai (Namtan is so great, my first time seeing her in anything) and Night, but they're even more relegated to acessories with very little time to flesh out their own struggles, which are rich. And their development as a couple all happens off-screen, which is a waste of potentially good chemistry there. Now speaking of Day, the protagonist, he is the only one that we get to see the struggles of first hand and while I personally did not enjoy the character cuz I found him unecessarily arrogant and childish through and through, his motif is very rich! But he spends the whole series dealing with his blindess, with self acceptance, with the desire to gain independence... and then at the end it was all in... vain?

So overall it's a nice series for whoever is into very formulaic stuff with tearjerker moments (that didn't make me tear up but oh well) and the happiest endings, but it kinda failed to make me feel much. It's weird cuz I feel heartless by saying this. I just keep on thinking about Moonlight Chicken and how it was so rich with so many nuances and powerful stories being told about a vast diversity of human relationships that felt close to home even when I didn't go through them in my personal life and then I think of this... there's an abyss of difference. I think Aof should do more ensemble series.

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Surely super entertaining, though a little bit superficial

This was a fun series to watch. Production value and cast were great. Everything was competent. It’s the type of thing that just feels right when you’re watching cuz there’s nothing that feels out of place. It’s like, perfect. The plot is alright. It’s not something incredible and innovative, but it’s well written. It feels like a perfectly executed recipe.

Now, what I think was missing that could make it more heartfelt and special was depth. It kind of feels hollow. Yes, Jaeyeong is charming, expansive, determinated. Yes, Sangwoo is cold and robotic with a bit of fluff inside of him. But there’s nearly nothing we know about them other than these traits and some information that don’t really add much to their eventual emotional connection. They definitely have specific personalities, but those traits don’t make me immerse into their minds to feel what they’re feeling. Therefore, I don’t understand why Sangwoo is so closed off to the world. I don’t understand what made Jaeyeong fall in love with Sangwoo and vice-versa. Well, I think people fall for any reason, which means it still works, but I think something deeper could bring a bigger emotional punch. The chemistry between the actors is great and electric, which is what seems to count the most for some and it might make up for anything that might be missing in the writing department.

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Visually pleasing but lacks substance

Majorly boring series that shows people will act like anything with an ITSAYesque aesthetic and a moody atmosphere is good. For a series about sports, this lacks energy. I did like some moments though, especially from DomeVee in the beginning, when they showed potential for an interesting storyline before the show decided they would never dive deeper into their plot and give them more than one or two very short scenes per episode. AiiSaen were also cute and had great chemistry, but the storyline was also lacking. The main couple I felt had very weak chemistry (if any) and didn't get my attention. Their scenes were hard to watch with the slow dialogues and monotonous vibes. That was the vibe of the entire show, but at least with the other two couples you had some contrast and charm (AiiSaen) and tension (DomeVee) to break the ice.

Acting-wise this was ok at best. No standouts. Maybe Porsche in Vee's most intense scenes. See, the actors don't even have the opportunity to attempt showing range.

One thing I liked though was the OSTs. At least two of them that I can remember. I just don't understand why not put those songs on Spotify.

So overall, this was a very visually pleasing series, but lacked energy and substance. Not everyone can make an ITSAY girlies. Remember that.

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