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Love Next Door korean drama review
Ongoing 14/16
Love Next Door
13 people found this review helpful
by Maimuna Zaman
11 days ago
14 of 16 episodes seen
Ongoing
Overall 4.0
Story 3.5
Acting/Cast 5.0
Music 1.0
Rewatch Value 3.0

A mediocre drama at best

I started off with high expectations for this drama as it seemed promising with the case and the writer. However to my shocking disappointment, I was proven wrong within the first week of its release. The plot was lacking material and it felt like I was watching something with no substance. Nonetheless I endeavoured to continue due to lack of options with other kdramas at that time. And still I was left disappointed with each upcoming episodes.


The main characters have no chemistry between them. What is supposed to be portrayed as fun banter comes across as sibling energy and constant yelling. It doesn't help that the story doesn't give them many opportunities to explore deeper perspectives and truly get to know the characters. I have by some miracle watched up to episode 14 and till now I wish I dropped it in episode 1.

One positive thing I will acknowledge is the lovely romance progression of the second leads. They have HEAPs more chemistry compared to the main leads and honestly both characters are refreshing to watch as it gives the audience to be exposed to a new portrayal of love. It surpassss all the bs yelling and childish behaviours and only focuses on central ideas. Special shout out to Kim Ji Eun whose acting skills were top notch. I will definitely make sure to watch out for her future projects.

If this was not enough to save you from wasting your time, here is a list of things I found that gave the drama the mediocre rating:
-lack of personality of main characters
-poor storyline. I feel like every week they decide to pick up a completely different issue and drag the whole drama long. They touch on a lot of big and intense issues (without giving spoilers) and then only to ditch them after two episodes like it miraculously fixes everything
- the FL is kind of annoying as each episode progresses. It's sad because I started off quite fond of her and then everything about her character didn't make sense and her personality that they tried to make outgoing and childish-cute only appeared to be exhausting and low-key red flags.
- the ML is portrayed as a green flag who just seems to be a doormat for the FL. I would have loved if the drama got to explore more of his experiences rather than gloss over them.
-the FL's parents are also quite annoying. The constant yelling and hitting gets old when you have to sit through it every episode. I eventually found myself skipping those scenes because they are such an eye roll. But I will give them the acknowledgement that I found some of the interactions between the FL's parents cute in ep 14.
- I feel like they have so much potential to explore the FL's brother in terms of his experiences and also success. I sometimes forget she has a brother because of how limited screen time he gets.
- something about them being childhood friends to lovers still doesn't sit right with me. But then again, I don't have a childhood male friend so I wouldn't know. It doesn't help that the actors kind of look similar.
- the kdrama has the best exes one can with for. And I feel, IN MY OPINION (plz don't come for me), both exes were done dirty by the main leads. And that is a whole another conversation

I honestly don't see where this drama will go in the next two episodes and I'm not even interested. I will still keep watching just for the sake of completion but can say that I bet it won't be worth the time. The drama lacked both the romance and the comedy in romcom. Would I recommend you watch this drama? No. But if you still want to pursue watching it, I can say that you will enjoy the second leads way more than the main ones. And even the FL's and ML's parents romance more than theirs.
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