#OhmNanon

This is severely overdue, but I wanted to distance myself from these episodes to make sure that 1) regency bias didn’t seep through and 2) my thoughts don’t get clouded by the cute, swoony moments (all the kissing!) in an attempt to mask deeper plot and characterization issues, and 3) with some difficulty, I try to set aside how desperately I wanted OhmNanon’s reunion with PatPran to live up to the OG series.

So, to address the last item, for the most part OhmNanon’s chemistry was still alive and well, save for a few hiccups. This is a testament to two very experienced professionals. That said, my biggest gripe with these special episodes was the treatment of the Pat and Pran characters that has nothing to do with the actors.

It didn’t feel like a true crossover of two beloved series but instead felt like Pat and Pran’s presence were more like afterthoughts thrown into an ATOTS script. Pat and Pran were merely there to serve Phupha and Tian’s story and that is were I take great issue. In this case, Ohm and Nanon should not have been billed as main leads but rather supporting characters that have extended guest arcs in an ATOTS sequel.

Maybe setting plays a larger role here. I’ve asked myself if I would feel this way if Phupha and Tian got thrown into Pat and Pran’s university life instead. But I can’t imagine a storyline where the inverse of what we got makes sense since PatPran are the more established couple and PhuTian have no reason to leave PPD.

My wish was that instead of a crossover, P’Aof would have let BBS stand on its own even if it meant we got two fewer episodes out of it. While we did get glimpses of Pat and Pran’s life three-years into their relationship, it felt watered down because they weren’t in their own environment but a borrowed one. So, really, more like seeing them while on vacation than anything truly concrete. A lot of ‘what have Pat and Pran been up to and where are they in their relationship’ was left to viewer interpretation, which is all fine and well if what P’Aof had to say about the state of their relationship made any sense.

Why is this giving me major PatPran vibes? The best part is it could be either of them saying this. All aboard this one-way trip on my headcanon train. We shall take many detours so sit back and enjoy the ride to crack-town.

Scenario 1:

What if in EP4, Pran didn’t hurt his shoulder from rugby practice but was a victim of mistaken identity and got jumped on his way home. He doesn’t know his assailants personally but recognizes that one of the burlier guys is from the physical education department by his faculty jacket/uniform and that he’s wearing a unique skull ear cuff that connects to a stud in his left earlobe.

All things remaining the same, Pat comes to his door that night bringing dinner after the awkward run-in with Ink at Wai’s bar and notices his bum shoulder. “Who did this to you?” Pat demands with his fist clenched at his side. Pran plays it off that it’s fine and looks worse than it feels, not wanting Pat to run off and do anything impulsive and reckless and get himself hurt, but he does let slip that one of the guys did seem familiar.

Pat takes care of Pran’s shoulder that night and pokes at his dimples, telling him how could their rugby match in a few days be any fun if Pran isn’t playing? And all seems well in Pran’s world for the brief moment that he got Pat all to himself.

Only the next day, Pran hears from his friends that some lunatic is going around challenging the entire physical education faculty to a fight looking for some meat head who sports a skull ear cuff, because he doesn’t want to kill the wrong guy.

If Pran didn’t already fall as hard as he has for this idiot. His idiot. This would be the moment that pushes him over the edge. And Pat still has NO IDEA. He only knows that Pran is hurt, and he doesn’t like to see Pran hurt. It bothers him.

Scenario 2:

We kinda got this with the Pat got shot! storyline but this was such a ridiculous ploy to get the parents involved and to ‘try’ to redeem Wai that I’ll forever side-eye this whole over-the-top plot point from here to eternity. While true that Pran would be more contemplative and withdrawn than impulsive, we did see Pran get physical when backed into a corner. Take a look at EP1 when he runs to Wai’s rescue and dropkicks Pat in the chest. Or EP2 when Korn and his stooges corner Pran and he takes them on all at once. Pran can, and will, fight if you leave him no other choice. But for Pran, fighting doesn’t necessarily mean getting physical.

Let’s say Pat doesn’t get shot but instead is badly beaten up by those rugby guys for defending Wai. (Side note: why is Wai at the center of all conflict? Why is it always Pran or Pat who has to pay for Wai running his mouth or his poor choices?) Pat had been a bystander to Wai’s bullying once before and suffered Pran’s disappointment for it, he’s not making that mistake again. And let’s face it, Pat getting beat up is more realistic and believable than struggling over a tiny gun and getting shot in the process?

So, Pat ends up in the hospital and Pran gets a frantic text from Korn saying Pat hurt, in hospital, come quick. He reaches Pat’s bedside, assesses all the injuries and something deep and primal awakens within him. And with a quiet fury in his eyes (because we KNOW Nanon can sell silent rage) asks “Who did this to you?” followed by an unspoken: I will end them.

Pran finds out the rugby guys from the rival team are responsible for Pat’s injuries and exacts payback a la Liam Neeson from Taken. You don’t know me, but I have a very specific skill set…

For weeks, Pran nurses Pat back to health and on the day Pat is discharged, he pulls on Pran’s hand to get his attention and sincerely thanks him for being the person he wants to get out of the hospital for — not knowing that BAMF Pran had single-handedly avenged those who wronged Pat in between fetching him more pillows and feeding him jello.

I know I literally just sent you an ask like ten minutes ago… but I’m gonna send you another one so hello

I think you perhaps said something about taking requests (or like you see the requests you just don’t do them til ✨inspiration✨ strikes) so here I am

I remember seeing your soundwin art a little while ago (WHICH I FREAKING LOVED, I LOVE YOUR ART STYLE SO MUCH FHEHRJFJDHDHHD), and I was perhaps wondering if you could do some kind of patpran/soundwin thingy? like maybe pran has a sprained wrist and pat offers him a ride on his motorbike, or maybe win declaring his love for sound in front of the entire school (like pat in episode 10), or maybe patpran bickering about needing to play a couple in a music video, or maybe soundwin going to pha phun dao village, or maybe patpran hugging under some bleachers after having an argument, or maybe soundwin kissing on the rooftop, or maybe something else entirely, idk

sorry if those ideas are horrible, I just love soundwin and patpran so much and there are so many parallels between them and in my mind they’re the same ship different fonts and I love them so much and I love your art so much

ANYWAY sorry to bother you I hope you have a great day and also I love your art

okay bye

Hii! <3 Sorry I'm a bit late, I hope the forcing his way under the other's umbrella counts!

I loved Our Skyy x Bad Buddy x A Tale of Thousand Stars from start to finish. Yes, even the third episode. In fact, especially the third episode. And that's because Aof may have a flair for the dramatic, and he and his room might sometimes write themselves a little bit into a corner, but it's always in service of a point that he feels compelled to make. Aof doesn't go in for 'right' he goes in for 'real' and it can be hard to accept sometimes the ideas he treats with optimism vs the ones he treats with realism. Aof is very deliberate and specific in the stories he wants to tell, and they're not always satisfying. And nowhere has he leaned into that dissatisfaction more than in Bad Buddy. Pat and Pran are caught in a frustrating situation, and Aof has consistently refused to shy away from that for the sake of a traditional happy ending. Aof's major thesis with these two has always been 'love, despite everything'.

The big 'everything' in the Bad Buddy story refers to the parents, but things with the parents have offshoots and consequences for how Pat and Pran's relationship functions, both in the macro sense, in the continued need to hide, and in the micro sense, in the fact that really, truly, only one of them is hiding. Because Pat? Does not give a shit about Ming. Like TRULY. We see here that Ming is not one of his considerations, and even when asked to consider him, the distance that has grown in their relationship is such that where Ming previously was all up in Pat's business, now he doesn't even look because he doesn't want to know. In a way, Ming has accepted Pat and Pran's relationship by resolutely looking away from them. He has lost face entirely and the only solution to that is to pretend it isn't happening, which suits Pat just fine.

Dissaya though...well that's different isn't it. They are really in this closet, Pat is really in this closet for the sake of Pran's relationship with his mother. Pat and Pran's relationship is inherently unbalanced, because the compromise that Pat has made, the sacrifice he has made, is something Pran can never really make up to him. As I said to the clowns: Pran could give in to Pat every day, on everything, for the rest of their lives, and those scales would still never balance out. All Pran can do is accept Pat's sacrifice for the love it is, and love Pat back as hard as he can and hope they never regret it. And so, are they really going to fight about this? Is this really going to be an issue for them? Well...no. Are they going to get into their feelings about it from time to time? Absolutely. And then they're gonna fuck their way through that, because they're them, and they decided when they got into this that it was going to be for life, and there's really nothing else to be done in this situation but get over it.

Also I consider that this particular spat that Pat and Pran are having is only notionally about their relationship, but largely about Pran coming to a resolution about how large he wants to let Dissaya loom in his life, and thus will only scratch the surface because it's the beginning of a story we won't really see that ends up with Pran in Singapore. Pran is deeply contemplating Pat's oddly piercing words about his ability to stand on his own. Because one of the reasons that Pat has to make this compromise and stay in the closet is that Pran depends, in so many ways, on his mom. Dissaya is at the centre of his life. And I think this trip, and this fight, gets Pran to start the process of moving Pat into that spot instead. In the fourth episode, him saying that Dissaya is ok with the play because she knows it's just a play... I highly doubt that, but really, what is she going to do about it at this point? What can she do? Pran's too grown to send him away, and she knows what happened last time she tried to intervene, she nearly lost her kid. She'll tell herself what she needs to, and Pran will continue to shift the balance of his priorities from her needs to Pat's. It's that thing about leaving your parents and cleaving to your partner. If Pran can get to a place where he is independent, then he can give Pat back the openness that makes him happy, and maybe that can finally bring some balance. But we know that day is far off for them, beyond even what we've seen. All Pran can give Pat now is the promise that 'I can't live without you either'.

When it comes to these two, Aof is never going to give us the ease in the heart that we crave, because they don't have that ease either. Instead, we will get snatched moments, because that's what they get. We will get uncomfortable compromises, because that's what they get. We will get occasionally hurt feelings, because that's what they get. And we will get love, despite everything, because that's what they do. Yes it's unsatisfying. But I'd argue it's meant to be. The thing is here again: are you here for a ship or a story? And if you're here for a story, are you prepared for it to be an inherently sad and frustrating one, but that still has joy threaded throughout?

This post steps away from the original BBS to look at filming locations for the Bad Buddy episodes of Our Skyy 2 (overlapping with ATOTS as well), that aired in May/June 2023.

I think the fandom was so overjoyed at getting PatPran and the rest of the gang back in Our Skyy 2 that we were willing to overlook any inconsistencies (Pat's Baseball Mom hair included 😂), and this applies to the locations too. 🥰

Anyway, OS2 x BBS x ATOTS didn't use Rangsit University to represent South Technology U, and instead filmed the gang's academia-set scenes in King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang (KMITL).

KMITL is about 30km east of central Bangkok in Nonthaburi province, not far from Suvarnabhumi Airport:

The auditorium scenes were filmed at the KMITL Main Auditorium:

(top) Our Skyy 2 x Bad Buddy x A Tale of Thousand Stars Ep.1 [1I4] 6.06 – the Archi and Engine boys watch as PatPran appear to fight in silhouette backstage; (bottom) this photograph dated 24 March 2023 is of the KMITL Main Auditorium, located at the Faculty of Engineering (posted on Facebook at this link here) – the seats, acoustic paneling at the rear wall, white parapet around one exit to the right and what looks like a timber lectern with yellow, pyramid-topped pilasters a few rows down from the control room are all a match

(top) Our Skyy 2 x Bad Buddy x A Tale of Thousand Stars Ep.1 [1I4] 7.07 – the Archi and Engine boys rush to separate Pat and Pran after the curtain falls; (bottom) this view of the stage in the KMITL Main Auditorium (from a post at the School of Engineering's Facebook, linked here) is a match, with the yellow-brown brick walls, red-brown steps, black-edged projection screen and stage doors all corroborating details

(top) Our Skyy 2 x Bad Buddy x A Tale of Thousand Stars Ep.4 [3I4] 0.42; (bottom) this image from KMITL's School of Engineering Facebook (dated 24 March 2023 and linked here) shows the KMITL auditorium lobby – note the light fittings and black window frames

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PatPran's discussion regarding preparation and sponsorship of their respective plays was at KMITL's School of Architecture, Art and Design:

(above) Our Skyy 2 x Bad Buddy x A Tale of Thousand Stars Ep.1 [1I4] 13.22 – Pat and Pran discuss their level of preparedness and sponsorship of their faculty plays; (bottom) this photograph dated 10 December 2022 was taken at the KMITL School of Architecture, Art and Design – the timber platform, gravel base and garden furniture (at the top left of the image) are a match (image from the school's Facebook, linked here)

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The location of the Archi-Engine charity sweep was outside the ceramic workshop of KMITL's School of Architecture, Art and Design:

(top) Our Skyy 2 x Bad Buddy x A Tale of Thousand Stars Ep.1 [1I4] 1.49; (middle) Our Skyy 2 x Bad Buddy x A Tale of Thousand Stars Ep.1 [1I4] 2.36; (bottom) this image, dating to March 2013 is from Google Maps Street View, and shows the ceramic workshop at the KMITL School of Architecture, Art and Design (map coordinates 13°43'30.8"N 100°46'38.5"E) – corroborating details include the concrete bench and brown vertical bars (behind Mo in the image at the top), the palm tree to the right, the gray corrugated metal roof, and (the biggest tell) the mural made up of clay tiles above the corrugated roof (the image is from 10 years ago though, so some minor details are different)

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The location of the Engine boys' drinking party was in the adjacent furniture workshop of KMITL's School of Architecture, Art and Design:

(top) Our Skyy 2 x Bad Buddy x A Tale of Thousand Stars Ep.1 [4/4] 1.07 – Korn, Mo and Chang the morning after their drinking party; (bottom) a view of the furniture workshop at KMITL's School of Architecture, Art and Design (from the Department of Industrial Design's 360° virtual tour website, linked here)

The corridor where Ajahn Pichai told Pran to get permission to use PhuTian's story for the Architecture play was opposite the Design Studio of the School of Architectural and Design Intelligence:

(top) Location of the walkway on the KMITL campus (from the School of Architecture, Art and Design's 360° aerial tour, linked here); (middle) Our Skyy 2 x Bad Buddy x A Tale of Thousand Stars Ep.1 [2/4] 12.01; (bottom) photo from Google Maps, dated November 2022 and taken by Anusorn P. (linked here) – note the bridge at the right

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In Our Skyy 2, Pat/Pran's student apartment moved away from Tinidee Hotel Bangkok Golf Club and was represented instead by the Executive 2-Bedroom Suite (Type 5) at Northgate Ratchayothin Hotel/Serviced Residence (248 Ratchadapisek Road, Ladyao, Chatuchak, Bangkok 10900; map coordinates are 13°49'46.7"N 100°33'47.9"E):

The following are some images of Northgate Ratchayothin, with matching images from OS2 x BBS x ATOTS:

(top) An image from the hotel's website, linked here; (middle) Our Skyy 2 x Bad Buddy x A Tale of Thousand Stars Ep.1 [1I4] 8.47; (bottom left) entrance door to the unit, extracted from the hotel's website; (bottom right) Our Skyy 2 x Bad Buddy x A Tale of Thousand Stars Ep.1 [1I4] 10.12 – Ink and Pa drop by with sukiyaki

Northgate Ratchayothin was also the location for Tinn and Gun's tuition safehouse in My School President, although there they used a different 2-bedroom unit (Type 3) – see this link here and write-up here for more info. 😉

The Hightem office, where Pat and Pran go to seek sponsorship for their faculty plays, was also represented by Northgate Ratchayothin (which is why the reception looks more like a hotel lobby than an office one):

(top) Our Skyy 2 x Bad Buddy x A Tale of Thousand Stars Ep.1 [2/4] 0.41 – PatPran at the Hightem reception; (bottom) the Northgate Ratchayothin reception counter

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The Hightem meeting room was also at the same location (naturally):

(top) Our Skyy 2 x Bad Buddy x A Tale of Thousand Stars Ep.1 [2/4] 4.49 – Pran presents his proposal to the people of Hightem while Pat pesters Korn for the Engineering version; (bottom) an image of the boardroom from Northgate Ratchayothin's website, that can be rented for meetings (and filming)

The bus station where Pran departed for Chiang Mai and left Pat behind is the Sahaphan Roi Et Tour Company bus terminal. (Map coordinates are 13°49'38.5"N 100°33'23.6"E – the official address is 8/36 ซอย วิภาวดี 17 ถนน วิภาวดีรังสิต Lat Yao, Chatuchak, Bangkok 10900, but Google Maps will take you to a different location if you input this address.)

(top) An image of the Sahaphan Roi Et Tour Company bus terminal, extracted from Google Street View ; (bottom left) an image extracted from a photo on Google Maps (linked here), taken by พรรษชนม์ กุตัน and dated August 2016 – note the yellow hexagons behind the glass in the background, visible briefly at Ep.1 [4/4] 2.26 and 2.29; (bottom right) Our Skyy 2 x Bad Buddy x A Tale of Thousand Stars Ep.1 [4/4] 2.30 – Pat buys a ticket to Chiang Mai

Once the action moved up to Pha Pun Dao, I did remember enough about ATOTS to know that OS2 x BBS x ATOTS re-used the same buildings up in the mountains. Most of these – unlike settings in other BLs – had been purpose-built for the show, and it was cool to see them still standing, looking good three years or so after they were first erected.

With a bit of searching, I can confirm that the Pha Pun Dao village buildings (Tian's house, the Pha Pun Dao school, etc.) are located at The Union of Hill Tribe Villages and Long Neck Karen in Nang Lae, Chiang Rai province. Due to the popularity of ATOTS, the set buildings can be visited as a tourist attraction in their own right, and are marked on Google Maps as such:

(above) The location of Tian's house (and other Pha Pun Dao buildings) on Google Maps, also linked here (the approximate map coordinates are 20°01'18.6"N 99°53'36.4"E)

There are in fact thousands of photographs posted on Google Maps for this location and I haven't been through all of them. The following is a sampling, with some matching scenes from ATOTS and/or Our Skyy 2.

Here's Tian's home in both ATOTS and OS2 x BBS x ATOTS. Three years later it's looking much more lush with planting everywhere, but it's definitely the same house:

(top) A Tale of Thousand Stars Ep.4 [4/4] 3.27; (middle) Our Skyy 2 x Bad Buddy x A Tale of Thousand Stars Ep.2 [1I4] 3.46; (bottom left) this photograph of Tian's house dated January 2023 was taken by Bogdan Ion and linked here; (bottom right) this photograph dated April 2021 was taken by Rachen Tananchai and linked here

(top) Our Skyy 2 x Bad Buddy x A Tale of Thousand Stars Ep.2 [1I4] 3.19; (bottom) this photograph partially showing Tian's dining area (the bedroom is also behind that window) was posted by mayu minnie in September 2022 on Google Maps (linked here)– the potted Dieffenbachia (dumb cane) is also a match

(top) Our Skyy 2 x Bad Buddy x A Tale of Thousand Stars Ep.2 [1I4] 12.35; (bottom) this photograph of Tian's kitchen was posted by mayu minnie on Google Maps (linked here) and dates to September 2022

(top) Our Skyy 2 x Bad Buddy x A Tale of Thousand Stars Ep.4 [1I4] 15.36; (bottom) this photograph dated September 2022 was posted to Google Maps by mayu minnie (linked here) and shows the dining area at the front of Tian's House

(top) Our Skyy 2 x Bad Buddy x A Tale of Thousand Stars Ep.2 [1I4] 21.36; (bottom) this photograph of the bedroom in Tian's house is dated September 2022 and was posted on Google Maps by mayu minnie (linked here) – the proportions and details (especially the blue mosquito net, but also the posts and the wall panels of bark/fronds/bamboo) are a match

(top) Our Skyy 2 x Bad Buddy x A Tale of Thousand Stars Ep.2 [2/4] 3.20; (bottom) this photograph of the Pha Pun Dao schoolroom (with part of its back wall missing) is dated February 2023 and was posted on Google Maps by でんいちタイ語塾 (linked here)

The iconic waterfall that PatPran visit is Huai Mae Sai Waterfall, also in Chiang Rai:

(top) Our Skyy 2 x Bad Buddy x A Tale of Thousand Stars Ep.2 [2/4] 7.13; (bottom) this photograph of Huai Mae Sai waterfall is dated January 2021 and was posted on Google Maps by  เชียวชาญ ปานข่อยงาม (linked here)

Filming also took place within the Union of Hill Tribe Villages and Long Neck Karen compound:

(top) Our Skyy 2 x Bad Buddy x A Tale of Thousand Stars Ep.2 [2/4] 1.47; (bottom) this photograph of the corresponding location at The Union of Hill Tribe Villages and Long Neck Karen dated June 2019 was posted on Google Maps by Ruben Torres and linked here

This is a Bad Buddy blog so I'm not going into the Ep.4 PhuTian locations in detail; they're easy enough to find because they were mostly at Emquartier Mall and the Buddy Oriental Riverside Hotel.

Emquartier Mall was also where Ice Paris and Pearwah's music video for the boppy theme song รักติดไซเรน to My Ambulance was set. 😍

But here's just one PhuTian location to close things off for good measure:

(top) Our Skyy 2 x Bad Buddy x A Tale of Thousand Stars Ep.4 [2/4] 10.16; (bottom) image from Drop By Dough Café's Facebook dated 19 March 2023, linked here

[P.S. – here are the links to all the BBS filming location posts so far:

Part 1 – The legendary rooftop, PatPran’s student apartments, their high school, the white arches behind the Engineering Canteen, the Zero Waste Village and various seaside scenes, their honeymoon suite, the hospital where Pat was treated for his gunshot graze, and the high school reunion.

Part 2 – Pat and Pran’s family homes, the Flagpole Bar, the car park fight location, and the Jae Si Curry House.

Part 3 – Various locations at and around the rugby field, including Pat’s photoshoot with Ink, the rugby bleachers, the iced milk tea (and green tea wave) picnic table, InkPa’s photography picnic, the old bus stop and the new bus stop. Also Khun Noppharnach’s pharmacy.

Part 4 – Pat’s Engineering Faculty (in and around Rangsit University’s College of Engineering).

Part 5 – Pran’s Architecture Faculty (Rangsity University’s School of Architecture).

Part 6 – Various F&B and commercial locations (eateries, shops, malls and a market).

Part 7 – Pat’s post-graduation apartment and Pran’s residence in Singapore.

Part 8 – Various campus locations filmed within Rangsit University’s Digital Multimedia Complex, including the auditorium and the Freshy Day Song Contest.

Part 9 – The LogTech Building and Pran’s architectural office in Singapore.

Part 10 – Locations for the Our Skyy 2 x Bad Buddy special episodes.

Korn knocks. “Paaaaattt!! Open up! I’ve got beer! Ai’Pat! You better climb off your boyfriend. Nobody wants to see you two in a porno!” 

Pat gives Pran a cheeky grin.

Pran: “No way, don’t even think about it, chief.”

My first watch of Bad Buddy kind of smacked me upside the head. I know this is not a unique experience. I was left reeling for a bit. Watching Bad Buddy was the first thing I did in 2023 and I watched all 12 episodes in one sitting like a glutton and I stayed up til 1am even though I had to get up at 4am the next day (I haven't done stupid shit like that since college). Then I started my rewatch the next day. Then I put it aside for months because it was actually a physical ache in my chest when I thought about it. I just...never?? encountered such a fulfilling narrative that followed through on all its promises. Even with its deliberate deceptions and twists and uncertainties - I put my trust in Bad Buddy's narrative and was rewarded for doing so like never before.

It got me from the first episode - the first episode did what I think almost every first episode should do: tell you exactly what the story is going to be, without telling you exactly what the story is going to be. Fantastic writing, deliberate pacing, satisfying character development, pitch-perfect acting, all top-notch. It kept the energy up all throughout even as it got heavier, and stuck the landing in such a profound and bittersweet way. This was the first Thai BL I've ever watched, and probably the third BL I've ever watched period. One of my first impressions after finishing it even for the first time was that it was, maybe above all else, self aware.

My initial impression was also not a unique one: so far this is funny, charming, an exciting premise. And by episode 4 I was starting to get hit with it: this story is all those things and a knife in your gut, a lump in your throat. And it's queer, and it's tragic. Like, from the jump we see the two households both alike in dignity, we know what this is: it's Romeo and Juliet (or Kwan and Riam). We know how it ends. Pran knows how it ends. They teased us the whole show with Pran's decor, his doorknob hanger, like this show's version of a comedy and tragedy mask - what's it going to be? How's it going to end? Everyone watching knows how romcoms typically end. But everyone also knows how Romeo and Juliet ends.

In a move that can really only be described as revolutionary, Bad Buddy decided that queering the Romeo and Juliet narrative meant a happy ending. With caveats, but happy and alive and together. It was as simple as two characters finding their agency in a world trying to deprive them of it, seeing every path around them that led to tragedy, and instead trailblazing a new one that led to happiness. (everything that could be said about this has already been said; I look to this essay by @chickenstrangers often!! helped me make sense of pat gets shot lol. MK I hope you're not sick of people linking this left and right). It's a narrative choice that resounds.

I was personally struck by that specific pain Pat and Pran experience, the pain of having to lie to your parents and keep love a secret from them - is there a queer person out there who doesn't relate to that in a bone-achingly deep way? Regardless of your relationship with your family. Having to partition yourself like this is part of the queer experience. And it's exhausting because you just have to live like this. It's exhausting because the people who are supposed to love you have made a liar of you instead. You can be surviving and thriving and happy, but your parents will still ask your siblings about their love lives and ask you about the weather (too real??? oops). There's a hint at a possible thawing in the final episode that gives hope, but Bad Buddy does not magically make the parents realize they were wrong and accept their sons' love - I mean, that just doesn't happen. It would have made for a disingenuous ending, it would have been a disservice to the narrative and to the viewers and to the metaphor. If you're lucky enough to have parents who would, you're lucky. It's a sad truth. "We can't change the world...but the world can't change us either."

At first glance, Bad Buddy plays in the "BL bubble". Upon a slightly closer examination Bad Buddy says there can never really be a bubble--stories aren't crafted in a vacuum, the dominant ideology that is homophobia traumatizes and endangers and oppresses all who do not align with it, still there are happy endings for us here. We find each other and carve them out ourselves. To say all this, and to not veer into heavy-handed "yeah okay we get it" territory is a feat honestly! Seldom accomplished in such a riveting and sexy way! How refreshing! Bad Buddy reminded me of reading a good poem - upon first read, a good poem is about "a thing," and it's evocative as is and you don't even have to read it again to enjoy it. But you can also consider it carefully and unearth "the other thing," a deeper meaning, the answer to "why was this written?". Bad Buddy trusts its viewers to get there. I mean I know it's really not much of a hidden message, but again, they are subtle with it, iykyk etc. BB doesn't hold our hand, but it takes our trust and respects it and doesn't break it (though it shakes the jar, like quite a bit, lol. All good stories should tbh).

I think a lot about the form, too. In a less capable storyteller's hands 12 one-hour-long episodes can drag (I'm thinking of some recent gmmtv BLs lol), or even not be enough (I feel like I personally see that in a lot of western shows whose fanbases are out here begging for second seasons to tie up loose ends). P'Aof (and co.) knew exactly what to do with 12 episodes. Has anyone in the entire history of TeleVision ever known what to do with 12 one-hour-long episodes as undeniably as P'Aof and co in making Bad Buddy??

The thing with Ohm is that he is very present when he is interacting in a scene. It's like...Meisner technique plus an extra secret sauce. He is so engaged with what the other actors are doing, no matter how small. I've talked before about how Ohm wears his characters instead of becoming them like a Method actor would do. He understands his characters deeply and then puts them on like a suit. It's why all of his characters are distinct but still have an essential Ohm-ness to them, and after having watched him in like 7 roles at this point, it feels like the charm and the romantic/sexual intensity is part of the Ohm-ness, and he has learned to channel that and direct it wherever it needs to be directed. It doesn't really leak out, he does it intentionally and he CAN turn it off. And because he can dial it up, dial it back and direct it where he wants, because he can 'send' as @airenyah says, he can kind of dazzle his screen partner into some things.

Ohm tends to act against other very good actors, but I think this quality could help pull even a weaker actor into a scene. So he's not just good on his own, but he provides an anchor for other actors in a scene to hold onto, he can ground. I was talking about this in the clown server, specifically about the scene in which Nanon breaks because Ohm is tickling his neck. Ohm rides that break, he keeps going in the scene by using the break for some improv that has the double effect of deepening the feeling being portrayed and also regrounding and refocusing Nanon in the scene. He not only saves the take, but makes it so good it's the one they end up using, obvious break and all. It's such good acting from a technical standpoint.