Love Next Door

I wish it had less unnecessary drama

Tbh this had more drama than comedy, at least before the 11th episode. I was struggling to watch it until that episode because of how much unnecessary drama was added. Because of that I think it has a very low rewatch value. As much as I love the story and the casting, the music was pretty underwhelming. Nothing special. And I was actually pretty dissapointed with the last episode, I wish we had gotten a proper 1 year time-skip so we could've seen the wedding and Moeum and Danho meeting again. Besides that I'm happy with the closure we got from all the plotlines that were going on, and the episodes from 11th to 16th were really enjoyable. I just wish I had enjoyed the other episodes as much, which I really couldnt because of how annoyed I got from the drama lol.

Read More

Second lead couple stole the show

So first of all, this drama started off really fun and interesting. i loved the main actress so much! This was my first time seeing her in a drama and I was totally swooning 😍 she was so beautiful and cool!
At the beginning seeing her hide from her parents was funny too but then het mom beating her up made me feel SOOO annoyed!!! Such a toxic relationship!!! I also just in general hated how ALL the mothers were behaving!!! are they grown adults or teenagers?? it was just ridiculous at times and NOT funny at all.
Another thing I didn’t quite like is all the cringy lovey dovey scenes. It was a bit too much tbh.
I did like her wanting to become a chef tho. That was a very pleasant twist. And for me the real highlight was the second couple, The best friend and her neighbor who is the “dad” of the little girl. That was suchhhhh a wholesome storyplot and I wish we saw more of them rather than the main couple being cringey and over-the-top 😅

All in all the drama did have a few good points but in general it didnt excite me much and i also didn’t really get much out of it.

Read More

I cannot watch anymore of this.

I don't even know what to say if I'm being honest.

It started great. It had been a while since I last watched a K-drama, so I felt very excited watching the first episode, then things started going downhill FOR ME the moment it was revealed to us that the ml likes the fl. I understand why he's reluctant to tell her how she feels, but I've seen this story A BILLION times before! Moreover, I don't like how he started treating her like trash in order to distance himself from him, in response to having realised his feelings. The worst part is that the FL just kept taking all his BS and kept chasing after him, I understand why she did that, but personally, it's not something I intend to tolerate any further.

Another reason why I have decided to drop this show is because of the same old tactic - throwing in exes whenever the candle won't burn any longer. Like, please, can we move on from this guys?

I normally prefer to complete shows whether I like it or not, but at the moment I'm too irritated to do so. I will most probably finish this drama at some point, considering that, as a serial K-drama binger, there's nothing else for me to watch lol, I may even have much better things to say about this drama when I have reached the end. However, at the moment, I'm considering dropping it for a while.

Note: This is not to say that the whole show is completely terrible, as I have not watched all the episodes yet. I may even be venting out all the frustration shared by many viewers at some point who have good reviews of the show. Therefore, watch it or not? It's 50/50.

Read More

You need to use the right ingredients for a food, and it was missing from this drama!

Everything started out good, until the cancer plot! The writer ruined the whole show with that storyline. Why? Well, because it doesn't make sense at all. She said, they removed 70% of her stomach, but we have never seen her struggling with her illness more than once, and that was all about a stupid love triangle as well! I'm pretty sure we've seen her eating food that she shouldn't eat. Anyway, it wasn't realistic.

Their chemistry was great as friends, but after they became a couple, it was awkward most of the time. When they were bickering, it was fun, but all the unnecessary drama was frustrating.

For me, the secondary couple was 10 times better! It was more realistic and original.

The story with the parents was also madness, but sometimes, it was really fun, until they included Alzheimer storyline, and they didn't do anything with that either.

This show don't deserve a high rating, because it feels like the writer wanted to do so many things, but other than the romance plot, she didn't finish anything else.

EVERYONE in this show is CRAZY and an IDIOT! The only character with a functional brain is the little girl.

I want to mention this, because the main plot is basically the romance. All of these characters are 30+ year olds, yet, they're still acting like teens. I usually don't care about these things, but the kissing scenes were boring, so to speak. I don't even know if we can call those real kissing scenes.

Most of the time, the writing was over the top, and too much!

So yeah, it was a disappointment, BUT if you don't think about the plot too much, it's a fun show, but forgettable.

If you watched one romance Kdrama, they won't surprise you. I knew what's gonna happen from miles away. One of the most predictable show.

Read More

Wholesome but boring

This drama started out strong and I liked both leads very much and found them charming. However, as it reached the middle to end, it dragged on way to much and had too much filler to be enjoyable. I initially dropped it on ep 10, but came back and forced myself to finish it and hated every minute. The last 6 or so eps ruined any enjoyment I found in the previous eps because it was so boring and unnecessary to drag the story on that much. I so wish this drama was shorter, if it was condensed into 10 eps I would have loved it, but sadly it was not and it ruined the entire story for me.

Read More

Lost interest

[Updated] Wanted to like this one but lost interest halfway through. The reasons:

1) The acting's great, the leads are good together and the mom group is interesting, but
2) The side stories are forced and formulaic filler with zero character development
3) There's a bit of over-acting
4) Too many annoying flashbacks
5) Typical character setup: overbearing mom/pliant dad; ML is sure, successful and has annoying assistant/FL is lost, searching and has bubbly side friend
6) Typical kdrama plot habit: they start off light, airy and funny and then halfway through the "dark and tragic past" backstory kicks in and they get all dark and depressing
7) [Update] Gave it another couple episodes and saw yet another annoying trope: hiding their relationship from everyone for no justifiable reason.

I was forcing myself to watch by episode nine and once I hit that point it's just work and not a fun watch. YMMV.

Read More

The 3 ep

I have been watching this drama with my friends on weekends. I watched three episodes in one go. This is a Korean drama full of warmth and romance. The story revolves around the relationship between the heroine and the son of her mother's friend, full of the fireworks of life. Although the hero's styling in the play is a little bit not so good-looking, the plot in the second half is still quite attractive.

The plot is novel and real. The heroine reunites with the hero in the ups and downs of life. The setting of childhood sweethearts makes their feelings have both sweet memories and realistic collisions. The two people have known each other from childhood to knowing each other and falling in love as adults. Every stage is delicate and moving. The portrayal of family relationships in the play is also very profound. The contradictions and reconciliations between the heroine and her mother show the complexity and warmth of family affection.

The actors performed well and interpreted the emotions of the characters vividly. Their interaction is natural and smooth, allowing the audience to immerse themselves in their stories, worry about their love, and be moved by their growth. At the same time, the production of the series is also very sophisticated, with beautiful pictures and music that sets off the atmosphere just right.

Read More

Not Good Not Bad!

When I started this drama, I had very high hopes. And to be very honest the first few episodes did match my expectations. It was all light hearted until the FL reveals she had a terminal illness and the SML comes into the scene.
I'm not saying this drama is boring, however it is over complicated. The FL has so much on her plate, the ML has his own problems and then there are family problems. It's sometimes, too much.
I'll first start with the ML. He has feelings for the FL since he was a teen. Now that sounds so wholesome. However it seems like he has forgotten his feelings and now that the FL is back his feelings are back as well. This isn't impossible but somehow doesn't sit right with me. Felt like he only loved her till she's in front of his eyes. But his feelings were genuine and sincere.
Now comes the FL. I have major problems with her character. She takes the ML as her friend only. But out of a sudden she has feelings for him which felt too forced. In the initial episodes it is implied that the SML cheated on her, however, he doesn't. Instead he took care of her and was the only person to be with her during her tough times. However, she leaves him just because of a little outburst due to frustration. I mean it is understandable that she was hurt but doesn't mean she would end things like that when he was the only one she relied on during her illness. The SML felt more of a victim than her.
But even after all of this, she doesn't seem to move on from the SML. She cries for him, she misses her moments with him as well as she even relies on him when in pain. She cries when he leaves but boom the next day she has feelings for the ML. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!?? She even accepts that herself that it was too fast.
One more thing I felt was that she didn't love the ML as much as he loved her. The ML continuously tries to make their relationship official and tell their parents but she stops him everytime until their parents catch them.

It was all over supposed to be a light hearted drama but it had too many flaws according to me. The leads were great as friends but fell apart as lovers. The SFL and her partner's relationship was much more interesting. However I must appreciate Jung Haein and Jung Somin for their great acting. The script and the direction needed to be much better.

Read More

Not a fan of their romance.

I watched ten episodes and then the last two episodes but if I'm honest with myself, I pressed fast-forward in quite a few scenes.

Even though I loved the acting of all the cast, I adored the acting of the female main lead, the end. She brought out emotions and thoughts that I didn't quite want but I cannot NOT see the fact that nowadays, the Korean dramas have such a deep and serious subjects involved in their series and I love it! It's a subject that affects many people in their everyday life, worldwide, and I liked the growth and bonding between the parents and their daughter as the story went on. It's a clever way to see that parents can also be wrong and try to fix their mistakes that have taken their daughter for granted and the pressure one's hold so she doesn't disappoint those around them.

What I didn't like was the non-existed chemistry between the FML and the ML! It's a shame, really, because as individuals their acting was perfect but together, no. I felt myself routing for her ex and that is not good in the Korean land.

I would not re-watch it, as I barely managed to watch the episodes but I could definitely see other series from these leads.

Read More

Curb your enthusiasm

I know that there are many people who thought that Love Next Door was going to be another hit romantic comedy from tvN - blame the marketers for advertising this show as Jung Hae-in's "first romcom".

However, Love Next Door is NOT a romcom. It is a family drama with romantic and comedic elements. And if you go into it looking for a romcom, you'll be disappointed (as many people watching the show as it aired were).

And so I'll be reviewing this show as it is and as what it tries to achieve, many of which did not hit the mark, at least for me. From the synopsis, what I expected from this show was the story of two life-long friends who find love and comfort in each other as they navigate the ups and downs of life. Unfortunately, what I got was a show trying to balance a million storylines and ending up doing none of them any justice.

(Possible spoilers from here on out so beware)

Love Next Door tries to follow an episodic, slice-of-life format. Each episode is somewhat self-contained with a particular theme it seeks to explore. However, what the drama doesn't do as well is linking these different mini-plots together so that there's a main plotline that takes us through the whole sixteen episodes. So these plot points and themes feel like they really serve no purpose other than filler rather than furthering the plot in a meaningful way.

We also don't see a lot of the characters grow in any organic way; their characterization is as the plot demands. This is not to say that characters need to be perfect; in fact, I loved how all the characters were flawed in many ways. But it's expected that they should develop as the story progresses. What we get instead is some growth at the end of an episode, and by the next episode, they're back to square one, and this pattern continues until the last two episodes where all the growth is seemingly jam-packed. As a result, none of their realizations seem natural or earned, especially because of the writers' obsession with using illness and/or catastrophe (combined with illogical fake-outs) and miscommunication tropes to force character development.

The romance aspect was also poorly developed. The biggest error they made was centering the romance on Seung-hyo's POV and not giving us any gradual build-up in their romantic tension. Even until the end, it felt like Seung-hyo was carrying Seok-ryu along in their relationship. And no, flashbacks to their high school days aren't enough to establish Seok-ryu's feelings, especially when she was literally engaged after the fact and would have married her fiancé if not for her cancer. For me, this resulted in a distinct lack of chemistry in their romantic scenes.

The second couple aren't any better to me, even though it seems they're popular with a lot of people. Mo-eum is one of my favorite characters from the show, but I'm still a bit weirded out by her obsession with that little girl? It feels like she was all their relationship was built on. And did the writers forget that Mo-eum's dream was to go to Antarctica before trying to shove her into this family that already has death/abandonment related trauma?

Even the dialogue was so overwritten. There were often these clever or touching moments, and then the characters would keep talking and beating you on the head with the themes instead of said themes being shown to us organically through the story and their actions.

My favorite part of this show, and basically all I stayed for, was Seok-ryu following her dream of becoming a chef, and I really liked how they tied that into the cancer plot. I also like the Lavender crew, even though I could have done with less of their scenes. And there were some truly standout emotional and comedic scenes.

I'm sad to give a review like this to a show I anticipated highly, because I really love So-min and while I've not watched any of his stuff, I know Hae-in is an amazing actor. To be honest, the cast did well with what they were given, but I don't think the writing wasn't as great as it could have been.

Read More