Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
Korean drama ‘Love Next Door’ (it’s on Netflix) starts off with four ajummas (aunties) talking about their kids, plastic surgeries, while one of them constantly farts away to glory. It’s an adequately fun start for a romantic-comedy series spanning sixteen episodes about a Tom-and-Jerry like couple. But come episode eight, and the entire tone of the series changes and becomes surprisingly serious… and I don’t think I want to watch ‘Love Next Door’ anymore! Not after the unexpected but extremely disappointing twist the creators threw into the story. Let’s discuss plot first.
‘Love Next Door’ follows the comedic romance between childhood friends and neighbours Choi Seung-hyo (Jung Hae-in) and Bae Seok-ryoo (Jung So-min), who are either having fun together or fighting each other like cats and dogs. Their moms are longtime friends, who are always competing over whose child is more accomplished, so when Seok-ryoo returns to Seoul after quitting her cushy job in the U.S, her mom (Park Ji Young) is infuriated and extremely disappointed. Choi Seung-hyo on the other hand is still Mr Perfect, with his own architecture firm in Seoul that’s been winning awards. But his calm and perfect life gets chaotic when neighbor Seok-ryoo gets back in town. She is always finding ways to hang out with him or annoy him. Little does Seok-ryoo know that her childhood best-friend has a huge crush on her since forever.
Jung Hae-in and Jung So-min are quite cute together as Seung-hyo and Seok-ryoo, a lot of their friendly banter is hilarious, especially when they are bickering over little things, without any awkward tension (mostly) between them. However, their childish antics soon gets repetitive and tiring, and Seok-ryoo’s carelessness about Seung-hyo’s feelings are ridiculous. Besides, their romance moves at a snail-pace, which is standard for Korean dramas like these, but the chemistry isn’t there, they feel more like friends than lovers. The child actors who play younger Seung-hyo and Seok-ryoo are adorable though and there’s a generous amount of flashback scenes in ‘Love Next Door’ to establish their childhood bond. Kim Ji Eun plays secondary lead Jung Mo Eum, who is also the lead couple’s childhood friend, however, her romantic sub-plot wasn’t interesting at all.
The first few episodes made “Love Next Door” seem like a refreshing ‘friends to lovers’ tale which encompasses a slightly less-explored theme – a seemingly successful expat returning to their country due to work-exhaustion and other disappointments on foreign soil. Bae Seok-ryoo’s character will resonate with anybody who is struggling to adapt themselves to a new country for their job and feel burdened by the growing expectations of their family. Not just that, she also must figure the biggest puzzle of adult life after one is jilted with their career – What Next?
But despite these fresh elements, “Love Next Door” also checks the same old boring boxes –
- Leads who childishly cannot see that the other person is romantically interested in them
- Parents who unfairly try to force their own dreams and expectations on their children
- Scenes where the leads accidentally fall over each other to facilitate ‘touchy’ moments
- A love rival swooping in and interrupting a crucial conversation just when one of them is about to confess their feelings
- Excessive reliance on scenes where a character is hitting someone else for laughs
Like I wrote earlier, I don’t even know if I want to watch the rest of the series, but if I do, I will put up a full review. At this point, “Love Next Door” feels dragged out and is not the charming romantic-comedy I was hoping it to be and is just a mash of several popular Korean dramas that are already out there. If you do not care much about shows drastically shifting their tones, than might enjoy this series a lot more.
If I had to rate the series at this point, it would be 5 on 10.
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