Love Next Door

Slow comfort?

Well, the sub-genre of the show is not new. Like welcome to samaldari . Problems in life, kids come back home, they have a village full of support system. Everyone has their own problems and grudges, and everyone gets angry at each other and solve each others problems, sticking to each other when times get tough.

Considering that the title if "love next door", and one assumes that it is romantic and not famial love or community warmth, i feel like this drama really decenters the main leads romance. I would rather say that they main leads are each others support system. The romantic feelings dont really come out till even ep 6 or 7. and nothing productive happens about it, even 2 sided acknowledgement till ep11. This drama is slow burn ultra pro max.
Its not bad at all, there are many sub-plots and the side characters are all of veteran actors who we've all seen somewhere before.
One may want to watch it for its community warmth, but the drama was too melodramatic for me to be healing. Im sorry but i dont consider alzhimers (probably), or cancer or even the threat of those looming around be an environment that i could relax in. Both our ML and FL have their own set of family issues to deal with. Distance in marriage, lack of work life balance, financial stress, health issues, inferiority complex in male breadwinner. And while i think that regret among family members (parents) was shown, it was too wishy-washy, abrupt and swept under the carpet. It didnt have that feeling of catharsis at all. The moment such situations happened, the tone of the drama suddenly lightened up, out of nowhere. And when your finally beginning to laugh and have fun, ur hit again with something sad, that cant be taken lightly. It all gave a whiplash and stressed me out. The pacing is also very slow. I found myself skipping large parts ahead. There was a lot of filler content.

Things i liked:
-the ML and FL's acting. Like i said, the main leads go through a lot, or express and admit that they have been through trauma, and the other appears to be there for the other (there is span where the ML is going about being very rude to the FL but for the sake of writing something +ve we're gonna overlook that).
-The FL bff. The 2nd leads? I was actually more invested in their romance. the 2FL is also very level headed character, as a member of audience sometimes her dialogues were my thoughts. I also really liked how they put a light focus on her work as a paramedic. It was cool. Paramedics are cool.
-Lavender group or suk sisters. They were cute.

You should watch if:
-You are new or ok with the tropes of this sub genre.
-Are ok with very slow almost non existent romance.

Its actually not bad at all, theres nothing majorly problematic. I just found the way they went about various challenges extremely distasteful. If the cast hadnt been so good at acting, and i hadnt seem shorts gushing about this drama i wouldve dropped it at ep 1. I wished they couldve focused more on such family issues which they put in so much large qty in the drama with some depth , and added some nuance and resolution.

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Another bad k drama

People giving this a ten rating are crazy. Its one of the worst shows I've watched this year. The show has some good actors, but not 1 of them is putting on a good performance. I can't really blame them as the story is garbage from every aspect; the main lead romance, the second lead romance, the families, the friends, all boring with no chemistry. This year has been really bad for k dramas as the writing and stories have been subpar except for a couple of shows.

The male lead is completely unlikable, he's an emotionally stunted jealous child in a grown man's body. Besides his character being poorly written and unlikable, his forced acting is the worst of the bunch. This is the 3rd series I've seen him in and he doesn't have much range in his acting.

The female lead i loved in alchemy of souls, but add her to the list of bad performances.

I'm hate watching now hoping they all end up miserable, except for the daughter of the second male lead as she's the only character i like.

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my expectations were too high...

Once again a really good cast with a weakly written script and flow :( Initially after watching the first few episodes I did not feel like continuing it but i heard reviews saying it was really good so I thought of watching it further. But to me it just got worse...they spent so long on her side of the issues so it felt like when she got together with the ML it was too fast? This could also be due to the lack of FML pov points of liking the ML...And then after they got together suddenly it felt like there was no story to continue so they added the parents fight to give a reason for them to be against their relationship....also the way the FML was just okay to go abroad again (this part i could feel the ML frustration) like girl commit to something esp since the leads barely spent any time together. After awhile i started hoping they should just stay as friends cause the episodes mostly only showed her working.

Most of the episodes i watched them cause of the second leads. their story was very cute and fresh. Their characters were unique as well.

Overall this would pass as a regular rom-com not sure why it was so hyped....

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SOMETHING IS MISSING

The drama started well, but after the halfway stage, it always left you wanting more.
There was practically no proper character development in this drama which is quite surprising as a viewer.

And the writer tried to hide this by shelving some scenes from the past, back and forth to the present, using tragedy tag as a way to engage emotion which was feint.

The acting was phenomenal, and the casting was outstanding but something felt missing.

The 2nd couple felt wasted.
The 2nd MC was mostly a robot.
The always I'm a good person thing of his irritated me the most.

I would go on and say the writer lost the plot, the actors and the director filled it.
This drama relied on side characters more than it should've.

I can bet if they rewrite this script, it will do better than what it did this time.
The potential was immense.

The romance was left out too long to be explored.
Overall it's decent to watch.
Just grab your popcorn tub, binge it and sleep.
Just the right kind if that's what you're looking for.

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Amazing Actors, Boring Story

Friends, I have seen most of the actors in this show. They are excellent performers and I know they could have created an exceptional masterpiece together if given a more interesting script. But, honestly, this show was boring. It certainly had interesting elements, but the 16 episodes with extremely long run time pretty much killed any joy or interest I had in the characters or story. It is too bad because I really like the potential exploration of all of these generations coming to terms with themselves as individuals, friends, and family. It did have some wonderful cinematography, which reminded me a bit of the Queen of Tears vibe. Ultimately, I feel this drama wasn't worth my time.

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disapointing end

the story was very good; it's unique and the acting of the actors was so good. I was captivated by the story episode after episode. but the last 2 ones were dragging the events and at the end, they didn't deliver what I waited for.

this drama is not a classic one. I appreciated the critic of the Korean society where you are supposed to be healthy and have a good job to be considered as a good child and a good person to marry. all the drama is about this idea that a mother/father push the children to meet some requirement in order to be proud of them. it's also about why and how the parents push some children, and why or how they don't push some of them. I really liked it, and it's a shame they didn't go all the way to the end of the analysis. it's also about how and when you can achieve your dreams in life.

I appreciated this being about 30/40 yo characters, not married and without children. there is more and more of that and I love it. I loved that the friends of the main characters had a heavy part of the story to handle.

I didn't like the 2nd male lead's role. I didn't quite understand why this person came back in the life of the MFL. They didn't made it clear either whose fault that was they broke up. Even if the MFL didn't want to break up in a bloody way, it is also a matter of respect to be true to the reality and recognize every part of responsibility. They 2 played the role of the hero (it's not his/her fault, it's mine), and I don't think that was the good thing to do. I didn't like their story, I didn't like the way they broke up, I didn't like the way they parted ways.

last but not least, this drama is also about how you handle health issues when a loved one is concerned, and I really loved the way they explained that sometimes you handle it very badly and you realize it too late. it was subtle but very precise.

If you want to watch, be my guest, but remember that the end will be disappointing. that's a good drama if you have nothing else to watch.
when to watch: if you have nothing else to do
audience: family friendly.

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Unforgettable Chemistry,Relatable Storyline, Unpredictable Twists

I live in the USA, but I made it a point to wake up at 5 AM every weekend to watch Love Next Door. I absolutely love everything about the drama-the family story, the friendships, the healing moments, and especially the incredible chemistry between Jung Hae-In and Ji So-Min. When the characters cried, I cried with them; when they laughed, I laughed along. The emotions throughout the series were truly a rollercoaster. I’m still rewatching it even now because I’m not ready to move on to another drama yet.

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