What intrigued me when I saw the trailer and first-look poster of Love Next Door is its casting and slice-of-life nature. But despite a talented pool of actors including Jung Hae-in in the main cast, the K-drama is disappointing. Here is our full review of Love Next Door directed by Yoo Je Won.
What’s Good in Love Next Door
The opening of Love Next Door is interesting. It’s an unusual hero-heroine introduction carried out through their bickering mothers, who are friends.
The actors have electrifying chemistry and, it’s a delight to watch them on-screen.
Kim Ji-eun’s supporting role is fascinating and has a mystery that gets the viewer hooked immediately. Her storyline is more intriguing; unfortunately, she doesn’t get enough screen time.
The Underwhelming Aspects
The intrigue in the opening sequence hardly gets carried through the rest of the first episode with Jung So-min’s heroine landing from the US after a long time.
She doesn’t tell anyone the reason for her return. The series fixates on this for many episodes which makes it almost annoying to watch. Things get dragged on for too long.
Jung So-min plays the usual – the woman going through a quarter-life crisis. Jung Hae-in is doing something never seen before but the story doesn’t demand much.
The humour doesn’t work and almost seems forced. The friendship between the leads also falls flat. Love Next Door tries to be everything else and fails to be an original story.
It’s a messy concoction of what seems to be working these days on Korean television – Childhood friendship and untold love from Lovely Runner and another important aspect from The Queen of Tears. Love Next Door even has a time capsule nonsense to cry out loud. Most of it is at the very best cringe-worthy.
As I said in the beginning, this ongoing K-drama is disappointing. If you are casting incredible actors who are also stars, the least you can do is come up with an authentic storyline. That being said, I am not saying it won’t be popular. The K-drama might become popular this year because it’s evidently tailor-made for the popularity factor.
Arya is a curious soul and nerd who loves books and cinema. You can read her articles on Medium. You can also follow her on Instagram where she talks about her favourite books and movies.
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