Love Next Door (2024)

Medicore Writing with a fan favorite trope that all amounts to nothing.

The flaw of most dramas and TV writing, in general, is that the entire story is not finished before production starts. LND is an obvious case of let's rely on the cast for the most interesting part of the story, and it fails in every way.

Of course, everyone was excited for this cast. Unfortunately, it's packed with veteran actors who are stuck acting out the same gimmicks in the name of dramatic suspense. Written in a story that feels like a college workshop piece. Not only does LND take a fairly easy trope,& try too hard to make it different. They somehow fundamentally make the story hate & bully its own main character. Bae Seok Ryu at every important turn of this story, is bullied into caring for herself & and tripped for her reasonable actions as a cancer patient. This was honestly my biggest problem with the story: instead of caring for a woman who decided to keep her illness from her family & work it out with her then-fiance. They utilize her decision to remove her agency concerning her medical information at every possible chance. In turn, instead of having a male lead who is gentle or kinder, when he finds out the woman he loves is sick, The story tries to force the FL into loving herself, which is psychologically speaking impossible imo.

Does the ML get punished for all his harsh words and rash decisions? No. but the audience is rewwarded with sweet nothings the last six eps with no substantial growth on the ML part. It makes the comments about the writer seeing the reaction from fans and changing things accordingly. I tend not to agree with that statement. I think the ML is the same in the beginning as the end. His problematic behavior is never addressed; he never apologizes for the stuff he said, and he is just given romance in the end because that's what we expected.

The sequence of events in the story don't make sense and doesn't utilize character & plot points in a way that makes sense. The episodes are long and the best romance & storytelling is in the secondary characters. The 2FL & ML love story was fun & cute. I actually felt butterflies in some scenes. However they did utilize a detail that uproots most of the power behind the painting. The relationship between the leads mothers was the best scenes to watch and feel anything from.

This story is void of so many things we hate like love triangles and angry mother in laws. And yet it's also void of a solid story that makes you feel anything more than meh. The chemistry during their childish arguments is some good dialogue writing. And the actors did their best with what they were given but even then, Love Next Door falls flat as you watch because it becomes a chore. If you want to hear me rant more about this, come hang out on youtube~

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why I don't do friends to lovers

Eh...the friends to lovers trope isn't my cup of tea so majority of this was tedious to get through. There were cute moments but there were too many scenes that dragged out far too long. Cut all the unnescessary stuff and this might've became 12 episodes. The ending was underwhelming and we were robbed of seeing an offical wedding.

There were characters I enjoyed--Moem and Danho stole the show for me. Why were they not mains?? Their storyline was way more interesting. Yeondu is painfully adorable. The drunk antics from the dads were laughter inducing lol. The main couple was just fine. I wasn't convinced of their chemistry and the constant bickering got on my nerves. Seeing Jung Hae In in a rom com was nice but I think I prefer him in more serious roles. Just get together already and roll the credits! Themes like the ripple effect and family showing up for each other were done well but a lot of slice-of-life dramas do this well so nothing unique here.

All in all, this was ok. noting more. I def liked this more the longer things played out but I'd never rewatch.

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bickering friends into lovers?

I've watched lots of childhood friends become lovers dramas, but this drama impressed me because they bicker a lot and it's entertaining. 

It tells about Bae Seok Ryu, who was working in the US, coming back secretly to Korea to tell her family that she quit her job and canceled her marriage. From the first 4 episodes, I could tell that she has been hard on herself and has experienced terrible stuff in both work and relationships. It was Choi Seung Hyo, a childhood friend, who gave her the motivation she needed to start over in Korea. We will discover who has been in love with whom longest and since when in the meantime, along with those fleeting moments of spark that have occurred since they were young.

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No

Should you watch this drama? No.
Is the plot interesting? No
Was this drama comedic like it states it is? No
Did the leads have romantic chemistry? No

Basically, this drama has absolutely nothing to offer as a romantic comedy. TVN should have given this drama 12 episodes, since clearly the writer and director had no idea what direction they were going. The same two people who created hometown cha cha cha, giving us the worst drama of 2024? Unbelievable. I am convinced the people who enjoyed this drama are either fans of the actors, but so am I, and will love any drama with romance and a hot kiss scene. It is indeed my opinion that they are all in denial about what a huge disappointment this was, but I believe one day they will accept how bad it truly was when the actors go on to be in an actual romantic comedy that is good (fingers crossed!).

Jokes aside, your time is precious, and this drama is way too boring and wishy washy for you to spend hours watching it. the writer wrote the FL and ML in such a weird way. In the beginning, the ML really hated the sight of the FL, and somehow the viewers are supposed just to accept it when he actually has always been in love with her? The FL on the other hand, never seems to ever like the ML in a romantic way, its kind of like she just feels sorry for him and gives in to the thought of being with him. Oh, and apparently they're both in their mid-thirties, but show absolutely no signs of it. The way they acted in high school and in the present is the exact same...

All in all, you are better off closing your eyes and dreaming of Jung Haein in your dreams than watching this. I'm sure your subconscious brain would come up with a better romance.

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Its a bore

In short, the episodes are way too long, its filled to the brim with redundant tropes and its boring.

In long, I'm sorely disappointed with this so before get into the bad stuff let me mention some positives;
1. The actors. I think they're easily the strongest point if LND.
2. There are parts that hits you in the feeling. Mostly the ones involving Seokryu and her family. The family dynamic was an interesting one as a whole.

Now this series might have some good points but those positive points can be seen in many other dramas which aren't this boring. So many things are thrown in the mix here which had little to no pay off. For example the plot with their exes. None of them add anything meaningful to the story so why are they there? Or the plot twist about Dan ho and his kid? Or Mo eum mother disagreeing with her relationship so passionately just to change her mind so easily. Or even her moving to north pole. None of them had any impact whatsoever so why were they included?
The episodes where so long you could feel them trying to stretch out the story thin to fill up the run time and it was annoying. The slow burn wasn't a satisfying one. It was painfully slow. I used the skip button alot in later half of it.
The comedy bits are stale too honestly. Every woman was bickering and shouting over stupid misunderstandings that could've been resolved in minute had they talked it out but all the parents here are NOT comically immature.
This could've been a more enjoyable watch if it was shorter and had less overused tropes.

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