Love Next Door

Good watch, beware it is very long, but good watch nonetheless

This drama is very good - it is of quality and the cast is absolutely perfect. I'd like to say though, i would class this drama as more of a quintessential slice of life drama than a romance, as the subplots take up a very significant portion of time. EVERYTHING about this drama is perfect, except for the amount of side plots. I would argue the old lady side plot is very unnecessary, and whilst i enjoyed the two sets of parent's subplots i think it was too long and time consuming especially towards the end - this was too ambitious and took up too much orecious time which could be used to craft a good ending. LOVE LOVE LOVE the Mo-eum and Dan-ho subplot, love seung-hyos parents subplot also, as well as seok-ryu's brothers subplot. Id say this drama is pretty good at everything it does but towards the end it becomes too overcrowded with plots going on at the same time, diluting and distracting from the main plot. One thing i will say is that i appreciate each drama having an extra 20 minutes than the usual hour - atleast the director has made the time for all of these differing plots. Overall - watch this drama if you enjoy a slice of life, romance, family and community kind of drama, that is long (around 20 hours) and emotional. I enjoyed it, it is of high quality.

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would recommend for a cute romance watch with amazing actors, but not for the most clean story!

i really enjoyed this drama!

it was an extremely easy watch for me, as i felt it had no dull moments. i really enjoyed the vibe between the ML and FL, the first few episodes getting introduced to their dynamic were GOLD and got me hooked right away. the humor in this show was super enjoyable and altogether i enjoyed how there was never any strong misunderstandings between the two leads. they seemed to communicate most problems really well!

it was also SOOOOO enjoyable to see their childhood/teen years, it really spoke to how well they knew each other and how perfect they are together. this show also had a good time with family dynamics, which is always something that i look forward too in my dramas (even if it got a bit messy at times).

however, i agree with a lot of the consensus that there was kinda just way too many plot lines that did not get completed, which really dulled down the drama for me. for example, i feel as though they didn't need both the overworked worker abroad worker storyline and the cancer storyline, especially since it felt they didn't do much with either when going to the end. it really felt like these were problems for a few episodes, and got brought up very minimally towards the later epsiodes.

i also kinda HATED the second lead couple... they started off cute enough (??) but then they kinda just went elsewhere. i felt they did a really bad job with the whole single-parent plotline and made the SFL sound really inconsiderate and pushy. like... why are you offering to tell this man's daughter that you're her new mother instead of him? it was really not enjoyable at most parts.

also kinda felt like the second lead couple was barely connected to our main leads, like we highkey saw the ML's employees more than them interacting together.

still, i really enjoyed this drama and found it to be a super cute watch altogether. the ML and FL actors are literally to DIE for, obsessed with them both (this def redeems my girl So-Min from Because This Is My First Life). would def watch more dramas with them both, as their chemistry was beautiful.

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If you liked Reply 1988, you will love this.

I CRIED TWICE DURING EACH EPISODE I SWEAR!!!!! this drama was so relatable as an eldest daughter with brothers and i saw myself in seokryu's character constantly. the family dynamics in this hit home and made me wish i had a better relationship with my family :') love next door shows that no matter what you say to each other or how far apart you've grown, you can always find a home within your family.
jung somin's acting in this is phenomenal; exactly how i act around my family. she captured being the asian eldest daughter so well. but i wish her kissing was better. i keep seeing her kissing scenes and i'm not impressed.
all the characters and their relationships are shown beautifully; misuk and geunsik, hyesuk and gyeongjong, moeum and her mom jaesuk... all the characters are just written so realistically. this was definitely a feel good, slice of life yet relatable family drama :")
overall, what kept me watching was not the romance but the family relationships between each character and their parents.

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Slice of life struggles of ensemble cast which was very boring.

Felt like a lot of story/plot was abandoned midway or concluded pretty quickly without proper explanations.

FML's ex plot line was horrible they made us hate him and then reveled he was actually the best bf and one comment lead to breakup. It made me feel bad for hating the ex, slice of life genre isn't supposed to make us feel bad.

Depressed FML was hard to watch but when she started being joyful after getting bf/ML it felt fake.

Best part of the series was 2nd ML and 2nd FML they had all my attention. Parents story was also fun.

In my opinion story ran 8 more episode than it should have been. Would have been a good series if they concluded all important stories within 10 hours.

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What the actual heck..

Okay I just want to start this off by saying. THEYRE IN THEIR MID 30s AND STILL DON'T KNOW HOW TO COMMUNICATE. I mean seokryu is just so blind and dumb. Why would she not tell anyone in her family about the cancer. why would she not tell her best best friends🤦🤦and what annoys me the most is the fact that she is jobless and it pisses me off like girl ur parents just wanted you to have a better life. She needs to understand where theyre coming from SHE WAS JOBLESS. and the guy, oh my god the guy. he couldn't confess WHO CARES IF SHE HAD A BF AT THE TIME dont wait until ur 30s 😒u knew her since you were kids. how tf did the second couple have more chemistry than the main leads. hes super emotional and shes swas so dumb in the episodes when he would lash out at her.. i mean can she not connect the dots. and the ex i dont understand why she would get mad at her mom for trying to set her up again when you would continuously enable the guy. like do you like him or not. how are we in the 10th episode already and still havent kissed yet. also this is NOT A ROMCOM. misleading af wasnt funny. felt forced only person i liked was the second leads child and her dad.

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Love Next to important Issues and Annoying Element

This is one of those dramas that is just so hard to rate as it has an amazing cast, a decent story and a lot of important parts of life... A mostly easy watch that gives the viewer butterflies, occasional drool and whole lot of emotions... Some of these are lovely but among those feelings I also found the annoyance to take up a little to much space to be able to rate this higher.

While I can appreciate frustration, longing, and mishaps, over the top yelling, and silly moments of drunk kept getting in my way .And while I do love Jung Hae In (JHI) more than the average drama fan, his character was just a little bit to whiny at times as well a dare I say controlling for me to fully fall for him in this. And while I did feel that Jung So Mins character yelled a little bit to much I still found her character to be far more lovable, relatable and so on than JHIS. That said their romance was top, top, top! Keeping this score from falling.. other things that kept this score from falling further was the portrayal of physical and mental lines side by side. The way one most probably raises concern while the others not so much... Ill just leave it at that...

While the lavenders friendship was unbearable ot watch, at least with sound. The younger generations frandships was lovely,- I also lovet the kid, the amount of shots of JHI biting his lip, JHI in water, the food and the use of umbrellas.

A decent watch, extremely gifworthy, and way better than other drams by the same creators but not as good as other drams with the same leads.

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Good Potential Wasted by weak writing and horrible music choice.

ThIs drama had the potential to deal with mature themes of burnout, loneliness, career breaks, family and marital relationships. It started on a good note setting up the story in a manner where such themes could be delicately explored but it has fallen flat on that promise.
after 9 episodes, nothing happens, there is no significant progress in the story. The drama is filled with troupes which are done half heartedly.
I love the actors who play ML and FL individually, they have given some solid performances previously but this writing is extremely weak.
Even though I mostly like the casting, the lead pair lacks chemistry. THAT COULD ALSO BE Because of the lazy background score which is mismatched and not conveying the correct emotion. For example, in romantic scenes, there is Elevator music, in serious angsty scenes, there is again elevator music.
The SFL is amazing but her story has nothing to offer. There is unnecessary meaningless conflict and the story has no connection to the main plot - it's like watching a second boring drama inside a drama.
what a waste!!!!!

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High expectations led to disappointment

You know what’s crazy I know these actors can act. I’ve seen Jung Hae In provide stellar performances before, and I’ve watched Jung So Min have so much chemistry with Seo In Guk in The Smile Has Left Your Eyes that they make guest appearances together in new dramas years later. But this isn’t hate toward the actors, it’s hate toward the script or directors because the episodes are just too long and too slow. It feels like nothing is happening and everyone is running around in circles. We got so much of Seunghyo’s pov so we know how much he likes Seok Ryu. But we hardly get any perspective of Seungyho from Seok Ryu’s pov.

We are shown one glimpse of her when she was a kid saying that she liked him, but that's genuinely it. Like their confessions lacked sincerity and if you’ve watched enough dramas I feel like you can tell they’re just following a script if that makes sense. There’s no casual skinship that a normal real couple would have. And jumping to marriage when we’ve barely even seen them date just feels jarring. It looks like Seok Ryu is just reluctantly accepting his feelings and only confides the truth when something huge happens to Seunghyo or when it’s convenient for her. Like her confession to this boy that’s been in love with her for years, is simply “I realised I’m bored without you for like a day so we might as well date”. And the main thing is NOTHING IS HAPPENING IN THIS SHOW. The plot doesn’t move forward and no one learns from their mistakes.

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Wasted Potential

I remember when I was super excited for this upcoming romcom with top actors Jung Haein and Jung Somin, especially because it was supposedly Haein's first romcom after starring in a long list of melodramas. Well, first of all let's mention the fact that this drama is tagged as a romcom, which it can't even be considered as - there was barely any romance until the very end of this drama, the drama never had any super funny or comedic timing of moments, and there are some heavier topics that make this feel like more of a slice of life than anything. Nothing wrong with this, but if you go into this expecting a light -hearted feel good romance similar to say, Lovely Runner, this is definitely not for you!! In my opinion, this drama was a bit disappointing and definitely wasted the potential to see the two leads shine together as love interests.

Again, with the drama, there are some heavier topics such as issues focused on families, troubles of being an eldest child, miscommunications, expectations coming from a lower class family, and illnesses. There is also a storyline on the leads achieving their dreams and working towards the life they want for themselves. While I do appreciate them delving into these topics and find it relatable myself, it seems the focus on this is what deviated them from showing the romantic build up between bae seokryu (jung somin) and choi seunghyo (jung haein).

What is supposed to be a childhood friends to lovers romance, we see that seokryu and seunghyo grew up together as seunghyo's mom travels a lot for her work and left him in the care of seokryu's mom. This led them to establish a long friendship from kids to adults (if we count their friendship being apart for 10 years before seokryu returns from the US). I like that after seeing each other again, there isn't any awkward interaction between them and it's like a friendship with a lot of banter, honestly kind of like brothers and sisters. We see that they are truly friends, always being there for one another when they need support, but the way they portrayed their relationship made it seem like seunghyo is stuck in an unrequited love. He is petty, childish, and immature with seokryu, which I guess they wrote him that way to show how different he acts towards only her, but it's a silly thing to have him be childish and not communicate in almost 10 full episodes, no development whatsoever. They're both almost 35 for god's sake. From seokryu's side, we don't see a glimpse or a hint that she ever had feelings for seunghyo other than friendly feelings. That's why to me, it didn't seem like a romance, as there were limited scenes of the sort of tension, and chemistry that we expect to see from friends who are slowly turning into lovers. Don't even get me started on the fact that their exes were in one episode too many - as much as it's good for them to get closure, we really didn't need to see that much of them and instead should have focused on seokryu and seunghyo. I would have rather seen more of the second couple's relationship. And finally, when the leads do get together, it's \the issue where their relationship changes too much from when they were friends - how do we go from teasing and insults to such loving comments and interactions between the two?? I honestly prefer them showing the same banter and teasing as before, but it's like they jump from 0 to 100 and changed their entire dynamic. It's cute but it's also a little boring? I would have loved to see how their relationship is SPECIAL because of the fact that they were friends for so long and knew everything about each other. Another thing, as top actors their acting is.. alright? I love them both and I feel bad for saying this but I expected romcom like Byeon Wooseok acted in Lovely Runner, where his romcom side shined, I wish Jung Haein had the same opportunity to show this side of him, but honestly I want to blame the writers for not letting us see this happen.

The second couple I really loved, in fact l liked their storyline more so than the leads. Moeum is a smart, energetic, and badass paramedic, and danho is a clumsy, calm, and kind journalist. From their first interaction I loved their dynamic and their banter, and it was so cute to see her fall in love when it seems like no man would have been good enough for her! I really wish we got to see even more scenes of them as the second couple (and less focus on both of the leads and their exes). One thing I would have liked is if we saw more instances of danho falling for moeum as well. We know danho is kind towards her, but he's presented as a kind and just man who's willing to help anyone with anything. I think I just wanted some indication that the way he felt towards her was more than supposed admiration for her occupation, and that his actions were special and not something he would do for anyone. The way they get together is also a little sudden without enough buildup, but I still love them. We should have gotten them together sooner though!!

Overall, don't go into this drama expecting an amazing romance and chemistry with hilarious side characters. It's a simple drama, nothing that special or fun, but still a decent watch if you want to watch attractive actors.

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What happened?

So, I made it to episode 8, and I think I'm done. What is this? How is it possible to have quite a great cast, huge names, actors I really liked in the past and to eff this up so much?

I normally love Jung So-min, my most favourite drama ever ('because this is my first life') is with her as the FL. I also liked Jung Hae-in in the past, he was great in 'Snowdrop', in 'one spring night', you name it.

But this? Where to begin? I didn't really like the first episode with all the 'funny' farting intro. Not funny. But I kept watching.
There is no, and I mean none - chemistry between the leads. It all seems so acted and cringe, I can hardly watch it.

So we have two mid-thirty people. One is a rich son, with his own business and for Korean standards he looks super attractive. Yet he steadily acts like a 7-year old boy. We are meant to believe that apart from this one relationship he had in the past with this self-confident but oh so friendly and well-meaning ex (unrealistic to the brim by the way) that is steadily showing up for no real reason, he was a virgin-and childlike boy in the body of this now mid thirty man waiting for his childhood girly to return and otherwise staying abstinent? Common. A guy like him, looking like that, being rich and having his own business? He would have lead a very different life if she had been gone to the US for years, and we all know it.

Same goes for our FL. She acts and dresses like a child. Concerning her relationship with the ML she acts like a clumsy little girl that didn't have her first kiss yet, but we do know she lived in the US, and was engaged and thus had an adult relationship with a man, so she knows how things go. Yet, we have this setting in the house of the FLs parents, who by the way are supposed to be poor, while the very rich son of a doctor and a busniesswoman, somehow has lived across in almost the same house? How? These two families are of completely different financial background and they certainly never lived in the same neighbourhood even, also not in the past?

Next thing? I really don't like ANY of the characters, they all annoy the hell out of me. Jung Hae-in? He is not funny, it's not his area of acting, at least not in such badly written drama, no one could make this seem remotely funny. It seems staged and almost exhausting for him to do these supposedly 'funny'lines, it's so obviously not him and it's unwatchable for me as I know he is a really good actor in other settings.
The FL and her constant screaming and nagging and physically attacking everyone? Not cute, not romantic, not anything, just annoying. Same goes for her mother, screaming all the time and physically attacking people.

Then the storyline, was there any way to make this any more unbelievable. Not only does or ML wait until forever for that girl that steadily beat him up and screamed at him, no, when he finally decides to tell her he likes her (again, like two 12-year-old would act, not like mid-thirties), out of nowhere, in exactly that moment, the even more unlikable ex fiancee stands there blablahing something staged about wanting to get back together with the FL. I laughed out loud at that scene, how ridiculous, who wrote this?

Not enough, our FL, who is screaming and attacking people at random all the time does not say anything to anything. The ML confesses - no reaction, no answer. And no, that milk bag scene with the expiry date was not funny. Why not just talk like adults? It's all Kindergarten. Why? It's not cute, it's so annoying. Same with the even worse situations when both men are 'fighting' over her. The ex-fiancee can just stalk her and show up at any time with this psycho grin and she always lets him talk instead of just finally telling him off. She does not decide anything at any point which contradicts the aggressive and loud character she is otherwise supposed to. And now, to add insult to injury they even come up with a cancer story? Come OOOON!

I think this is the worst drama I tried to watch in a longer time, and there were several bad dramas in the past two years as my impression is the quality of storytelling and writing has been going down the drain in the past two years compared to years like 2016, 2017, 2018, where there were several brilliant dramas per year.

So, no, please South Korean writers and drama producers, you can do better. Not even generally good actors help anything if it is just unwatchably bad.
I give the 2,5 instaed of 1.0 for the acting of the FL's father, as I think he is really good and actually the only one I find credible in his role.

Dropped, and I mean dropped out of a skyscraper in this case.

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