“Love Next Door” Review- Not What It Cracked Up To Be

With “Love Next Door” concluding its run recently, I thought I’d share my thoughts on the drama and why I am so torn after watching it fully!

I’ll do something on this site that I rarely do, add a new category to judging a fully aired kdrama. I’ve never introduced this before because of how subjective it can get, but I feel its warranted this time.

Note: this is a subjective review. This is a spoiler review

The ‘feel’ of the drama

Before I begin talking about the casting, script, chemistry or directing, I wanted to talk about the decisive factor in why this drama was not what I expected, in my opinion. This will help put the rest of what I am about to say below into a better perspective.

There is something off about “Love Next Door”…. vibes-wise… I felt it at first but I ignored it. However, as time passed, I felt it so much more prominently that I could no longer enjoy the drama as much as I could.

I told my BFF to watch the drama and she told me right off the bat that it feels ‘off’, and ‘forced.’ I tell her she’s wrong, and carry on watching only to see what she meant later on.

I believe if you didn’t quite immerse yourself in the experience of “Love Next Door,” you’d probably feel the ‘closeness’ portrayed on screen feels oddly forced. BUT, if you got into it as soon as it aired, I feel this entire section will feel useless to you.

In Korean culture, seniority plays a big role, people are just not that casual with each other unless they know one another to a certain extent. This, in turn, leads to what can be only called awkwardness on screen when you see two actors unable to surpass that barrier to do their jobs to the best of their abilities. And its not like the blame is all theirs, its the culture, and sometimes, they are just unable to overcome that for the drama’s sake due to age, seniority, difference in characters, or more.

The “Love Next Door” cast tried their best to portray closeness on screen. Sometimes it feels genuine and other times, not so much. I can feel them trying the best they can, but sometimes, it feels so forced in a way I don’t know how to fully articulate. It could be the directing, it could be the cast themselves, I don’t know.

Now onto the bulk of this issue for me, the energy shift between Jung Hae In and Jung So Min. The 1^st half of “Love Next Door” was more tolerable and had many great moments, however, somewhere around the 2^nd half mark of the drama, something switched, something changed….. I don’t know what happened nor will I attempt to speculate publicly, but it feels like something happened between Jung Hae In and Jung So Min that changed their dynamics, also whatever happened seems to have fizzled out in the last episodes making me even more confused.

In the 2^nd half they feel more awkward around each other, its not that the characters feel awkward because they’re transitioning to a love relationship, its the actors themselves, there is a difference. There is a level of tension between the two actors that I feel much more prominently in the 2^nd half and then weirdly, around the drama’s conclusion that tension sort of disappeared.

It could be that the friendship banter was more comfortable for them but as the characters progressed into lovers, they found it a bit more difficult to portray… it could be…. But even that theory is a bit weak because both actors had great chemistry with past co-stars. I don’t recall feeling this in any of their other recent projects.

The script

Screenwriter Shin Ha-Eun confuses me. On one hand, she has great material, and on the other, I feel she adds specific plot lines that end up ruining the overall experience.

There are many parts in the drama that were done well, truth be told. This includes the lead-up to the cancer reveal of Seok-Ryu, and Seung-Hyo’s mother suspected Alzheimer’s. Not to mention the way each past love line was resolved nicely like adults do.

You can tell she put effort into planting seeds for those specific plot lines but execution falls short in other areas of the script and the overall experience suffers.

Firstly, there is an abundance of cringy dialogue between the cast members, especially between Jung Hae In and Jung So Min…. Which wouldn’t be too bad if I didn’t feel like they’re so awkward around each other… [see this is what I meant]

Cringy or cheesy lines are not new and its stupid to expect they don’t exist when its a rom-com, but the way they’re written coupled with what I said above makes it so that it feels even more………….. odd/weird/Not fitting… in my opinion.

Secondly, the love line between Mo-Eum and Dan-Ho feels more natural BUT, its so weird how the screenwriter portrays Mo-Eum’s love…. Her willingness to take on a child thats not her and being so upfront about it is so weirdly written…. Its as if she’s not a real character but a fake one a man would imagine comes to his rescue while he tends to a child alone… it feels so odd, mainly because of the way the lines are written in the way Mo-Eum approaches the very serious subject embracing it fully when its so serious. The willingness when she has no prior experience in motherhood is also very odd. Not only that, but you, my girl, have no idea whether this relationship would work in the long run, so involving the child in the decision-making feels a bit short-sighted.

Thirdly, many important moments get cut badly with cringy lines that ruin them. It feels like these specific parts are written for the younger crowd… which isn’t inherently wrong BUT considering its an adult romance… it feels unfitting and not on the same level as other parts of the drama.

How Seung-Hyo proposes very fast and is unable to realize why Seok-Ryu rejects him even when its obviously because of her past cancer diagnosis, to the way he discusses it with Dan-Ho coming to a childish conclusion that makes you facepalm.

To when Seung-Hyo’s co-worker Na Yun mourns what could’ve been only for Dong-Jin to tell her not to fall for him… [WHAT] These are just some recent examples.

Added to that, I think a lot of people felt cheated by the somber storyline of Seok-Ryu’s cancer diagnosis. We were told its a rom-com but get slapped with the cancer plotline mid-story and it takes the entire past feel that the screenwriter and director were going for and ruining it in the process.

Its so sad they couldn’t just stick to the rom-com side… I understand why she wouldn’t, I just don’t agree with it.

The casting and performances

I loved the casting. Honestly, if its possible, I want to see Jung Hae In and Jung So Min in another project just for good measure. I think they have chemistry but something went wrong somewhere.

The casting overall is great and I loved the performances as I could tell they were trying their best.

Kim Ji Eun’s performance as Mo Eum is my personal fav of hers so far in her career. She truly shined here. My fav performance in the drama.

I also loved actress Park Ji-Young’s performance [she plays Seok-Ryu’s mother]. Don’t get me wrong, I hate the mother’s character, but performance-wise, she was AMAZING.