Television series
Bad Buddy
A Thai BL slow-burn built on a very old joke: two feuding hardware-store families produce two boys who are told from birth to hate each other, and instead fall in love in the gaps between rivalry. It's gentle, funny, unhurried, and more interested in the ache of not-quite-confessing than in melodrama. Best for anyone who wants a romance that takes its time and means it.
If you liked this
2gether The Series2020
The show that made Thai BL a global phenomenon — brighter, sillier, and more overtly fan-service than Bad Buddy, but with the same warmth underneath the teasing.
But Broader comedy and a fake-dating premise that's less emotionally patient than Bad Buddy's slow burn.
Heartstopper2022
The British cousin — gentle, sincere, allergic to cynicism, with the same interest in small gestures mattering enormously.
But Younger, sweeter, and even more conflict-averse; if you liked Bad Buddy's edges, this sands them off.
Love, Victor2020
An American take on quiet queer longing and family pressure, with real stakes around coming out that Bad Buddy mostly sidesteps.
But More earnest teen-drama tone, less playful bickering, less of that specific rivals-to-lovers structure.
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Romeo and Juliet1968
Bad Buddy is literally built on the warring-families premise, just aimed at comedy instead of catastrophe — watching the tragic original makes the choice to make it funny and hopeful feel deliberate, even a little defiant.
Zeffirelli's lush, teenage-feeling version of the story Bad Buddy is quietly remixing — two feuding households, two kids who won't cooperate with the hatred they inherited.
But It's a tragedy, played straight, with none of the comfort of a modern rom-com ending.
More like this (4)
Crash Landing on You2019no page yet
Korean melodrama scaled way up — enemies by circumstance, families and worlds against them, but with the same secret-alliance-turns-to-love engine.
But Sixteen hour-plus episodes and much higher stakes; it's a different, bigger commitment.
Fire Island2022no page yet
A sharp, funny modern gay rom-com if you want the same warmth and banter in two hours instead of a season, with real class commentary underneath the jokes.
But Raunchier and more adult in humor; none of Bad Buddy's slow-build innocence.
You've Got Mail1998
Same structural trick as Bad Buddy's information-swapping pact: two people supposed to be enemies quietly building something real in the space where nobody's watching, until the secret becomes the relationship.
A big glossy American rom-com about two business rivals — their families' shops locked in the same kind of petty competition as Pat and Pran's parents — who form a secret, tender alliance behind the scenes.
But Straight, older, and thoroughly mainstream Hollywood; none of the queerness or slow-burn ambiguity is present.
Call Me by Your Name2017
It's Bad Buddy's tone turned all the way up in seriousness — same DNA of unspoken longing and stolen glances, but shown as something weightier and more physically alive, a useful contrast in how the same story can be told.
The same slow, unbearable proximity of two boys circling a feeling neither will name first, but filmed as sun-drenched literary drama instead of a sitcom-paced series.
But Far more sensual and melancholic, with an ending that offers ache instead of resolution.
