Series / Bad Buddy

Pat and Pran

Bad Buddy is a 2021 Thai live-action drama series based on the Thai novel Behind the Scenes by Afterday. It stars “Nanon” Korapat Kirdpan as Pran and “Ohm” Pawat Chittsawangdee as Pat and was directed by “Aof” Noppharnach Chaiyahwimhon. It is available in many countries from GMMTV’s YouTube channel.

Born into neighboring families with a deep rivalry, Pran and Pat grow up inheriting their parents’ feud, competing with each other for achievements and popularity. They start to become friends instead in high school, even writing and performing a song together, which enrages Pran’s mother, who sends Pran off to another school.

As fate would have it, Pran and Pat reunite when they attend the same university, but they’re now in rival faculties, and so their feud extends to their respective gangs of friends, much to their school’s chagrin. After destroying a bus stop in a brawl, the two faculties are forced to work together to build a new one, and Pran and Pat start seeing a lot more of each other.

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Bad Buddy contains examples of the following tropes:

• Adaptation Title Change: The novel the show is based on is titled Behind the Scenes.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: Played with; Pat initially Cannot Spit It Out but once he confesses that he doesn’t want to just be friends with Pran, he feels happy and relieved. Though Pran kisses him back, he knows their troubles have only begun, and walks away from the kiss visibly distraught.
• Bar Brawl: Pran’s best friend Wai is harassed and threatened by a rival rugby team at the bar where he works. Pat, still not getting along with Wai, nevertheless sees him as a teammate and sticks up for him, leading to a confrontation which spills out onto the street.
• Beach Kiss: On the second-to-last day of their “honeymoon” together, Pran takes the initiative and starts making out with Pat on a jetty.
• Best Friend: Wai for Pran and Korn for Pat. The former pair are especially close, and it is implied that their relationship stems from when Pran’s mother forced Pran to change schools. Their closeness and circumstances create problems later, when Pran and Pat start dating but don't tell Wai, who gets suspicious then feels jealous and spurned non-romantically by Pran.
• Beta Couple: Pa, Pat’s sister, and Ink, Pat’s love interest from high school, end up courting each other and getting together.
• Big Damn Kiss: And how. After getting jealous, getting drunk, picking a fight, and then sobering up, Pat finally has a heart-to-heart with Pran on the dorm’s rooftop, confessing that he hates seeing Pran perform their song with someone else, and doesn’t want to be just a friend. He leans in to kiss Pran, who then returns the kiss much more passionately.
• Boys' Love: A male-male romance is the center of the plot, and the show is typically labeled BL, but many of the tropes which often make BLs into unrealistic portrayals of gay relationships are avoided. Various bits of dialogue poke fun at the more common of these.
• Brother–Sister Team: Pa and Pat get along really well, support each other, and even end up sharing a dorm once Pa gets into university. They team up to love test Pat with Ink, though it doesn't work out. At least, not for Pat.
• Can't Live with Them, Can't Live Without Them: Pat was happier when Pran wasn’t in his life, because he didn’t have to compete just to keep his parents happy, but he also finds Pran’s absence from his life very lonely.
• Cast Full of Gay: A common trope in BL media, but played with: Pat and Pran get together, and so do Ink and Pa.
• Childhood Friend Romance: Pran and Pat were close frenemies since they were kids, well before they get together as a couple.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Pat does not like seeing Pran perform “their” song with other people.
• Creator Cameo: The director Aof briefly appears as a pharmacist.
• Crossover: A two-episode crossover with A Tale of Thousand Stars was aired as part of the Our Skyy 2 anthology a year later, giving us more of Pat, Pran, Tian, and Phupha's stories.
• Distant Finale: The last episode is set a couple years after Pran and Pat graduate from university. Pran is working in Singapore and Pat is working for his dad in Thailand.
• Duet Bonding: Writing and performing a song together brings out Pran’s feelings for Pat; years later, the same song plays a big part in Pat reciprocating those feelings.
• Electric Love: One of the steps of Pa’s love test; the test fails if touching the other person doesn’t elicit any feeling.
• Escalating Brawl: After the brawl with the rival rugby team spills onto the street, one of the opposing players pulls out a gun. Pat tries to take it from him and gets shot for his trouble, then the perpetrator drops the gun and flees.
• Feuding Families: Pat and Pran’s families have been feuding since before they were born, tracing back to a business dispute, since their dads own competing construction supply companies. It turns out that the real reason is that Pat’s dad was in a relationship with Pran’s mom in high school, but he stole her scholarship from her. She’s understandably resented him ever since.
• First Love: Pat has had other crushes, but Pran is never shown to have fallen for anyone else.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: From their parents’ perspective, Pat is more foolish and Pa is more responsible. Subverted though as Pat isn’t really irresponsible, he just loves Pran, whom his parents don’t approve of, and places his relationship with Pran above his relationship with his parents.
• Frame-Up: After the bar brawl where Pat gets shot, the police find a gun on the scene with Pat’s prints on it and assume it belongs to Pat.
• Friendly Rivalry: Unlike their parents, Pran and Pat don’t hate each other, but they often compete.
• Friendly Tickle Torture: While practicing for the play, and while (mostly) staying in character, Pat teases Pran by trapping him against a xylophone, reciting lines close to his ear, and playing the xylophone with Pran’s hands. Pran is barely able to hold his composure throughout, especially since they’re rehearsing in front of someone.
• Gender-Equal Ensemble: Unusually for BL, the four most prominent characters are two guys and two girls who also make for Coupled Couples.
• Green-Eyed Epiphany: Pat getting jealous watching Pran perform the song that the two wrote together, but with a different band this time, confirms his feelings for Pran and motivates him to do something about it. This trope is also part of Pa’s love test; if you like someone, you don’t want them to be with someone else.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Though not in the romantic sense: Pran’s best friend Wai is jealous that Pran is close with Pat but won’t tell him why. This leads to Wai revealing Pran and Pat’s relationship to the whole school.
• Grouped for Your Convenience: Pat and his friends are all in the Faculty of Engineering while Pran and his friends are all in the Faculty of Architecture. The groups are even represented in the opening credits, where characters from the same group are billed at the same time.
• Held Gaze: One of Pat’s sister Pa’s techniques to figure out if you have a romantic connection with someone is to see if you feel something when you share a look in the eyes with them.
• Hopeless Suitor: Pat has not had much luck with his love interests before Pran, at least according to his sister Pa.
• Idealist vs. Pragmatist: Pat is more idealistic and Pran is more pragmatic. This is succinctly illustrated after their Big Damn Kiss: Pat is smitten and hopeful while Pran is forlorn and worried. Later, on their “honeymoon”, Pat wants to take up a job at a bar and live at the beach, while Pran is concerned about their families and futures.
• Inconvenient Attraction: Pran fell in love with Pat despite their two families being bitter rivals and his mother especially being against the idea.
• In-Universe Soundtrack: The songs “Just Friend?” and “Our Song”, both performed by Nanon, are used in the show and have plot relevance, but were also released by GMMTV Records. “Just Friend?” is, in-story, the song that Pat and Pran wrote and performed in high school together, while Pran spends much of the series working on what becomes “Our Song” until finishing and singing it for Pat at the end of their “honeymoon”.
• Literally Loving Thy Neighbor: Pran and Pat have lived in adjacent houses since before they were born and end up falling in love with each other. While they're attending university, they also end up in dorms directly across from each other, though they don't realize it at first.
• Long-Distance Relationship: In the final episode, Pran goes to work in Singapore for awhile, while Pat stays in Thailand.
• Love Across Battlelines: Pat and Pran are from rival families and end up falling in love with each other.
• Love Epiphany: Pat realizes he may have feelings for Pran when he inadvertently applies Pa’s love test, after it failed with Ink. Later, when Pran performs the song the two wrote together in high school, Pat pays closer attention to the lyrics and realizes Pran has liked him for a long time.
• Masculine–Feminine Gay Couple: Pointedly and intentionally averted. The show’s director, who’s gay himself, wanted to portray two men who fall in love with each other but don’t have such a strong gender-role disparity. Neither main character is portrayed as more masculine or feminine than the other, and their sexual roles are subtly hinted to be “versatile”.
• My Own Private "I Do": Though they don’t get married, Pat and Pran basically elope to the beach, and even refer to their time there as a “honeymoon”. Instead of explicitly saying “I Do”, they renew their commitment to each other and hatch a plan to deceive their parents.
• Never Trust a Trailer: The preview for the last episode shows Pat and Pran breaking up to please their parents and acting cold to each other at their high school reunion. The breakup is fake, though only Wai, Korn, Pa, and Ink are in on the secret.
• Noble Male, Roguish Male: Downplayed; Pran is more noble while Pat is more roguish, but both of them enjoy a good fight and also know when to make peace.
• Oblivious to Love: Initially Pat has no idea that Pran likes him, and has for a while, but starts to figure it out over time.
• Odd Couple: Shades of this with Pat and Pran: the latter prefers things neat and tidy while the former is more easy-going. Best illustrated when a sweaty Pat sits nonchalantly on Pran’s couch, much to Pran’s annoyance.
• Offscreen Breakup: The last episode begins with Pat and Pran apart, having broken up to please their parents, but they actually faked the breakup and have been together ever since.
• Opposites Attract: Pat plays the drums and the xylophone, and is carefree and openly expressive; Pran sings and plays guitar, and is neat and reserved. They end up falling for each other.
• Power of Love: It is implied towards the very end that the family rivalry may be softening, albeit very slowly, due to Pat and Pran’s relationship.
• Relationship Reveal: The relationship has already been revealed to the viewers, but not to anyone in the story, until Wai drops the curtain at rehearsal and boosts the mic gain to reveal Pat and Pran are boyfriends.
• Rivalry as Courtship: One of the main tropes of the show. Pat and Pran start out as rivals, evolve to friends, and then become lovers. Their relationship is filled with competition, some stemming from their parents and some that they challenge themselves with.
• Rivals Team Up: After Pat gets shot while sticking up for Pran’s best friend Wai, then framed for gun possession, Wai provides evidence to the police which clears Pat’s name. This cooperation under fire finally ends the rivalry between the faculties, and even Pat’s father seems genuinely thankful to Pran. In the final episode, Wai and Pat’s best friend Korn have gone from rivals to business partners, jointly owning the bar they used to frequent.
• Romantic False Lead: Pat is initially interested in Ink, and has been since they were in high school. However, she doesn’t like him back, and once he realizes that Pran likes him, his feelings for Ink fade.
• Secret-Keeper: When Pat and Pran’s relationship is a secret for the second time, they tell only their best friends the truth to avoid a repeat of what happened before.
• Secret Relationship: When they first get together, Pran and Pat don’t tell anyone, which leads to Wai’s jealousy. Inverted later, when they fake a break-up to keep their parents happy, though they let Wai and Korn in on the secret this time.
• Serenade Your Lover: On the second-to-last day of their “honeymoon”, Pran finally sings the song he’s been working on for awhile, which is about his relationship with Pat.
• Show Within a Show: Pran’s faculty is putting on a rendition of Plae Kao (also known as Kwan Riam), a Thai story about Star-Crossed Lovers, albeit turned into a BL by casting two male leads. Pat auditions for a main part, but is rejected in casting by Pran who suspects the former is only there to cause trouble. When the actor they chose walks off the set in a huff, Pat returns to fill in the role.
• The Tease: After Pat and Pran challenge each other to a competition where the first one to confess their love for the other loses, Pran escalates the competition by licking a snack off Pat’s fingers and saying it’s delicious. Pat’s look afterward all but says “I’ve already lost”.
• Through His Stomach: Played with; Pran wants to cook a meal for his lover, and Pat wants to be his lover, but they have a bet to see who will admit he loves the other first, so Pran won’t feed Pat until the latter confesses.
• Uncovering Relationship Status: While still just friends after meeting again, when Pat gets locked out of his room, Pran reluctantly lets him spend the night. While they’re chatting before bed, Pran challenges the both of them to reveal whether each likes Ink at the same time. Pran says no, Pat says yes. For Pat, this clears the way for him to date Ink. For Pran, this means Pat isn’t interested in him.
• With This Ring: Played with. After their relationship has been revealed to the whole university, one of Pran’s seniors demands Pat get his approval to date Pran. Pat loudly and publicly confesses his love to Pran, who holds his hand up as if to receive a ring. Pat gives him a fist-bump instead.

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