Welcome Back, Pat and Pran, by Rich Paschall
Pat (Ohm Pawat) and Pran (Nanon Korapat) have finally come home. At the end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022, Bad Buddy Series (BBS) became an international hit. It is the story of two boys whose families tried to teach them that they should hate one another. Pran explains in Episode Eleven, “From two people who can’t be friends, without knowing it, we become two people who can’t be just friends.” The journey from hate to love was a tough one, but they made it with both laughs and tears along the way.
The cast with Director Aof Noppharnach (front row, 2nd from left)
Since the conclusion of the popular series, fans were hoping for more. A desire for a Season Two was frequently mentioned on social media, but no second season was forthcoming. At the announcement for the upcoming series for 2023, fans learned that Pat and Pran would return in the anthology series Our Skyy2. Each story in the anthology was to get two episodes. The team that brought the Bad Buddy series and A Tale of Thousand Stars (ATOTS) to TV and YouTube in 2021, however, planned a surprise for the last two stories of the season. They put the two together allowing for a four-episode story arc for Pat and Pran.
As the dates drew near for the final episodes of Our Skyy2 for the season, fans started filling social media with Welcome Back #PatPran and Welcome Home #PatPran. The lead-up to the first episode saw Bad Buddy rewatch parties and plenty of posts with pictures of the Bad Buddy gang. Fans were more than ready for their guys to return.
Just how were they going to marry these two stories together? If Bad Buddy already had its happy ending, as Ohm Pawat (Pat) had said, then they had to be giving us an adventure from that 4-year time gap between Episode 11 and Episode 12 of the original series.
The Bad Buddy team served up to the fans everything they were hoping for. Not only were the characters and storylines true to the original series but there were also plenty of parallel moments to remind us of where we had been. The opening of Episode One showed us highlights from the original series. There was no chance we forgot any of those iconic moments. Hardcore fans had already seen Bad Buddy multiple times. Each episode has been viewed millions of times on YouTube and other streaming platforms.
What was happening to Pat, Pran, and their friends while they were third-year students? At the start, the Architecture and Engineering students were about to face off again, but the twist in this opening was that the groups were actually teaming up to do service for the school. Pat and Pran were pretending to still be enemies and about to fight in the auditorium when the other students came charging in. What were Pat and Pran arguing about?
Pat (Ohm Pawat) and Pran (Nanon Korapat)
Both groups of students wanted the auditorium for their play, but they were double booked for the same dates. This is just the beginning of moments meant to be like some we had seen in BBS. Pat and Pran go behind the curtain to solve the problem. Backlighting makes the silhouettes on the curtains look like Pat and Pran are fighting (rather than hugging). Still, when the curtain drops, surprising the students in the auditorium, Pran decides to hit Pat to keep the enemies’ illusion alive.
Later, Pat told Pran, “We’ve been fighting for three years. How could we screw up? I signaled you to punch on the left, but you punched on the right.” Sound familiar?
Pa and Ink arrive at Pran’s room at a most inopportune moment. It will look like every opportunity for the guys to give us a kissing scene gets interrupted, but fans need not worry. Pat and Pran will have their “lovey-dovey” moment before we get to the end.
Ink suggests the boys have someone solve their dispute that all can accept, so they go to the professor who had to deal with them in the original series. He says the one who is most ready in a week will get the auditorium for their play. Once again the boys will have to compete against one another.
Pat learns about the sponsorship available and when he goes to make a presentation, his “Friend” (Pran) is right behind. This is the opposite of BBS where Pat followed Pran in. This gives us the opportunity for a combination of two original elevator scenes. First, the doors close on Pat as Pran did to him when looking for a new dorm room. Then the elevator gets crowded allowing Pat to press up against Pran…again.
Pran: “There’s no need to push against me.”
Pat: “You think I want to push against you so much?”
Pran: “Admit it. You also did it on purpose last time because I smelled good.”
Pran is more prepared and it looks like he will get the sponsorship. This causes Pat to go back to the auditorium to try to think of a way to lower the cost of the Engineering students’ stage set-up. He holds up the designs to look at them, and when he lowers them there is Pran. This harkens back to Pat showing up to help Pran imagine the bus stop design in BBS. Again they will almost get to a kiss when a guard comes in and they must hide.
Deal!
When Pat decides to let Pran have the auditorium, the professor noticed that the Architecture play is based on a true story (A Tale of Thousand Stars) and he does not see any permissions. Pat tells Pran they should go to the mountain village in Chiang Mai to get the signatures of Chief and Teacher Tian. Just like in Episode 1 of BBS, Pran reluctantly says “Deal” and we get the first of several fist bumps between the two.
After some misadventures, Pran manages to leave Pat behind. He sends him to the wrong bus to go to the village, telling Pat that he can get the signatures himself.
On the trip, Pran is far from the village when he is picked up by Yod (ATOTS). While riding in the jeep, he puts his hand out the window to ride along the air like Tian and Torfun did in the original ATOTS. Does this add to the confusion that Pran is coming as a volunteer teacher?
The jeep breaks down and Yod and Pran finally arrive on foot. They are met by the Chief who faints and is caught by Pran who asks everyone to back off. One rushes in instead. If you saw ATOTS you know Tian fainted when he arrived and was caught by Chief Phupha.
Pran: “Are you a doctor or what?”
Tian: “My name is Tian. I am a volunteer teacher here. Who are you?”
The introduction of the leads of ATOTS in the final minute of Bad Buddy sets up the crossover episodes to follow. And where is Pat? We will look for him in Part 2 of our review.
Be sure to turn on Closed Captions (CC) for English or other language, unless you already speak Thai.
See also: “The Bad Buddy Phenomenon,” SERENDIPITY, September 2, 2022.
“Crossing the Parental Boundary,” Bad Buddy Series Revisited, SERENDIPITY, May 21, 2023.
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Categories: Entertainment, Rich Paschall, Television, Television Review
THE CHARACTER OF BAD BUDDY 
NOT ME 
SERENDIPITY - SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
As far as I an tell, I have no access to this on TV. Maybe on the computer, but I don’t usually watch stuff on the computer unless it’s the ONLY way to do it. This may be one of those times.
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The entire anthology series is on YouTube. That is where I watched it. Bad Buddy episodes are good comedy / drama giving a new adventure for Pat and Pran and an ending to A Tale of Thousand Stars. The later sort of left you hanging. Pat and Pran were able to push Chief and teacher Tien along while learning something important about themselves. I really enjoyed it.
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