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one of the best 2024 kdrama
i will recommended everyone to watch this show it very good would not disappoint u in any way it not like other romcom who will show those fanfactic storyline and rose tint glass storyline with negative sidebut it more of focus on reality aspect of human life, their struggle and how their healed from it
throughout the series we saw each and every character struggles, trauma and theur healing process i love how they didn't just focused mainly on main lead but give story to each ans every character give their explanation
love both main lead for me haein and somin will be in top2 of best kdrama pair in term of chemistry on and off screen they deserved all the love and hype they got from this show
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I loved it
I don’t care what anyone says, I get that it was a cliche show with characters that were fairly easy to read. but I love how every single one of the characters minus one of the members of Lavender pretty much had a backstory, and some sort of conclusion to the series. I really like how there weren’t any goofy and dramatic traffic accidents, and that everything felt tied together in the end.I think the main annoyance to me was how everything was a weird secret with everyone’s relationships.
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It was such a breath of fresh air how the show balanced romance, friendship, and personal growth. The two couples brought something different to the table, and I just absolutely adored watching their love stories unfold. The slow burn between the main leads made literally every second worth it in terms of those two-their connection ran that much deeper because of it.
In the last moments, my heart was so full and a little empty at the same time. Love Next Door left me with such mixed feelings, like living their journeys and missing them now. I am happy with how all things have turned out, but there's just this lingering feeling of not being ready to say goodbye just yet.
What I liked most was that the show did not rush the painful moments; instead, it allowed the characters to develop in due time. It added a sense of reality to their struggles and triumphs, which made the ending feel like a new beginning for everyone.
Love Next Door delivered a perfect mix of warmth, humor, and emotional depth, and it is a drama that will linger in my head for a while.
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2
1Romance, Realisations and Surviving Adulting!
Love Next Door was a whole different journey for me. The premise was pretty basic and nothing groundbreaking. Yes, the friends-to-lovers trope is familiar, but this drama brings a fresh perspective giving each character a unique identity and engaging journey.Choi Seung Hyo - Initially the embodiment of the perfect architect - very talented and handsome (HaeIn in black and in those formal shirts hits on another level). Yet as we move forward in the drama, beneath his polished exterior, we see him grappling with insecurities tied to his past.
Bae Seok Ryu - Once a top-performing project manager in the US faces burnout and unexpected challenges and eventually returns home unemployed with the weight of unfulfilled expectations of her parents.
The evolution of their relationship from friendship to lovers was heartwarming. The pacing of the drama was excellent with seamless transitions between the past and the present and vice versa.
The romance was a slow burn but in the journey from friends to lovers, they rediscovered themselves first before jumping into a relationship plus the way they bickered with each other but still were there in tough moments offering unconditional support and care. Both of them were far from perfect, sometimes you would question their decision but somehow their motivations became clear as the drama progressed.
I am also glad that they didn’t stretch out a few clichéd plotlines. Once their issues were resolved, it became one of the best dating eras I’ve seen so freakin' romantic that it might just give me a sugar rush!
Our second couple - DanHo and MoEum. As individual characters, they were the best second leads. DanHo is such a good samaritan. Whenever he was on screen it made me happy. MoEum is the best friend I want in real life. However, their love story felt a bit underdeveloped and rushed, especially toward the end. I’m a bit frustrated that they had the chance to give us a perfect story but ultimately it fell short.
Also would like to point out, how instead of being against each other, all the leads were one team. It was nice to see the friendship between the 4 of them.
It happens very rarely that I get intrigued by the stories of supporting characters but here I was totally invested in them, especially Sseung's parent's love story. I see where Sueng Hyo gets his loser-ism from. xD
Another entertaining aspect was the friendship between the lavender ladies. They animated chats about their adult children, each of them boasting about accomplishments with a mix of pride and playful competition. Yet amid the light-hearted bragging, there was a sense of support. However, I wish they had written Mi-suk's (FL's Mother) character better so that she would understand how to treat her "adult daughter" as an "Adult". Though she eventually came around but it was pretty frustrating.
The Dad duo weren't behind. Their bonding drinking sessions were among the funniest things about this show.
I didn't particularly care about DongJin but he had no character development. The story would still be the same without him. He was just there to show how parents treated both their children differently. Thats it.
Overall, for me, this was more than a romcom. It was a nuanced story of personal growth, love and healing. The drama resonated long even after each episode ended somehow reminding me that understanding ourselves and the people around us is both complex and sometimes profoundly beautiful. It also reminded me that life can be pretty overwhelming and filled with challenges, but hope can emerge from the messiness of it and guide us towards the light.
I may have delved deeper than necessary into the drama but the 8 weeks journey was a treat. The real-life parallels made this extra special for me. I know it has FLAWS but I am willing to overlook them for the sheer enjoyment it has given me.
I would wholeheartedly recommend this. <3
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Personal growth, overcoming pain, communicating better, and strengthening bonds that last a lifetime
This one actually held me captive til the end as an eager viewer, not a casual turn it on and zone out sort which is kind of how parts of No Gain No Love hit even though Shin Min Ah is captivating… don’t get me wrong; I still really enjoyed it, many of its characters (the writer especially) charming and just beautifully written and portrayed, but it doesn’t have quite the balance OR critically the lasting power of Love Next Door for me (still, the weeks LND had hard, faucet-breaking episodes, NGNL was a big comfort to mend my soul after aching so much-they have their places, this one just digging its lil heels more deeply in my heart).I keep saying this here and there, but JSM creates amazing chemistry with EVERYONE. If her next costar is a silent but sentient rock, I will be like that rock and yearn to speak to her. I will be sold because how-can-you-not?
This isn’t romcom territory. There is plenty of romance. There is plenty of comedy… but fluff it ain’t. These are people with real struggles, real pain, and most of all real, deep friendship, enviable most all the time though occasionally quite frustrating like the real life stuff it represents…
People wanting a romcom surely felt a bit frustrated at how many times this triggered a mess of tears in non-sociopath viewers. (I imagine this didn’t get on the radar of many sociopaths unless as a study of humans without their affliction in which case it is a solid one though I can imagine being infuriated at the illogical way humans tend to be in the face of intense feelings and even pretty shallow ones sometimes).
The way families come together is just gorgeous. Episode 15 was one I watched happily til I left for work then snuck away during break to watch the last 20 minutes… I kinda knew I would probably choke up, and boy, I went from laughing at someone else getting smacked with onions to being slapped with them right in the eyes myself because of this tiny bit of dialogue: “ Seok Ryu was sick; how could I not be worried? She's your precious child, the apple of your eye. She's the daughter of my best friend. You know how much I adore her. How could I not care about her? ... I'll protect her with you. Just like you raised Seung Hyo, I'll love and take care of Seok Ryu, too.”
Geesh, just smack me with all those onions you used a bully ahjumma’s face to peel and split in half already, Hye Suk!
The only thing that could get to me more than that followed immediately… how sweet is it to promise that boy (whose face still looks 8 when he gazes lovingly at his only one forever) that despite it being tiring, hard work requiring a lot of devoted energy and making her become one with the oil… she will make him rainbows to eat forever?! Tell me ANYONE who wouldn’t be just as smitten in that moment whether she was acting or confessing to an actual lover? She makes just about EVERYONE fall for her over and over. It is just impossible to not love her (even though some early *cough*Playful Kiss*cough* titles were severely lacking)! If I got promised rainbows from such a unicorn-like mythical creature of beauty, I would be quite at risk of having organs harvested as I followed her entranced.
The parents and Mo Eum (and Yeon Du-ahhhhhh she calls soooo sweetly, awwww) are absolute icing on a delicious cake. Some bites of the show are bitter and salty from my tears, but okay, we’ll have salted caramels a while! In this case, nothing at all felt particularly forced/fabricated thanks to acting that really is above and beyond expectations even with mine rather high for the veteran cast playing the parents especially! It felt like every single character grew immensely through this… and HEALED… and crucially went from holding on somewhat bitterly to really charging forward embracing life HAPPILY as they sorted out their own very real-feeling issues.
The finale had a lot of predictable moments, but I savored them because this is THE LAST show I wanted another surprise from! I was kinda annoyed that the thing I knew would happen as soon as she was in cooking classes, her ultimate future, took SO long to even mention when it was so dang obvious what would happen… but I was okay with how they rolled it out even if literally no one was at all surprised by anything but how long it took lol.
Ultimately, this became a story about growth, overcoming a whole lot of pain as well as COMMUNICATING BETTER WITH THOSE YOU LOVE DANGIT, and strengthening the bonds that last a lifetime. I was not envious of their situations overall, but man oh man, their friendships-FAMILY regardless of blood ties, truly-were enviable and honestly pretty rare in this day and age. The more people in my generation and particularly my pretty spread out nation succeed, the further away from our roots we tend to get, so I live near NO ONE I grew up around. Makes me glad I don’t have any real issues socializing with strangers anymore (kind of interesting that the super quiet introvert from my hometown, me, seems like an extrovert in this place I live now where they even say there is a massive “freeze” because outsiders have so much trouble finding their people here. Who knew being a nerd would make it EASIER to find community?! Still, when I think back to the people I grew up playing with like the young adults here, nostalgia hits and I realllllly get homesick. This did bombard me with that more than a few times, but it’s been actual decades since I’ve seen ANYONE who knew me before I was 18. I wouldn’t recognize any of them, it feels safe to say, since even their faces are hazy memories (bad thing to say as the managing editor of the yearbook, but they really are hazy memories, even the teachers caricatures at this point, most all of them long gone from the living realm).
Since I am hiding this behind a spoiler, I’ll say one big spoiler detail that made me so grateful: thank you, writer, for not killing anyone off! That early “renovate a funeral home” thing really was getting under my skin with comments about it all the time and them teasing that it could be the FL of course but also the ML’s mother. I am so glad they had them instead mend wounds from the past and go forward closer and more full of love than they ever had before. My heart doesn’t have to weep. I don’t even mind sad or mixed endings, but this one I really just did not want to be manipulated emotionally by in that particular way-don’t take (probably her) away just when our forever 8 ML has finally said all he needs and grown close to her how he has wanted all these years (be it the FL or his mom, as it happened with both so beautifully)!
Wonderful lovely watch. For all the moments characters were frustrating, they were fully understandable and realistic in the ways they made me wish they were different… That is a pretty big feat to accomplish between words and location details scribbled on a page and a human carrying out the instructions and saying the lines!
Solid 9.5… the writing not always perfect necessarily, it was more than made up for by the cast embodying people I know as if the writer spied on, well, a LOT of real life humans I’ve known over the decades in all kinds of capacities… sometimes, the “flaws” become strengths of their own in scripts… in real life, though, still do your best to not be perfect, no, since that will just make you awful, but at least don’t, like, acquire new problems like crash test dummies acquire displacements of their parts!
Gonna miss this show a LOT.
(PS Kate told me to post this lengthy feed entry as a review, so all meanies who want to argue with or fight me, you gotta go through her first, and our cult leader has lots of weapons and magic curses for people that mess with her minions!)
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Not your average rom com, Thank God!
Even there are some weaknesses in the writing and in the directing in my point of view the overall message of this series is very beautiful:If you are stuck in your life or face some real hardship, look for a new path. Dare to fail. Dare to accept help. Dare to be honest. Dare to love and live with those around you.
For me this was funny, very deep and also light in a good way, realistic and very touching .
Personally, I loved that things moved on at a very realistic pace here, the exes aren't crazy, and that a romcom can also involve deeper emotions and genuine pain points in life.
The chemistry of the main leads is wonderful, they definitely bring out the best in each other and all the actors here are doing a very good job.
So loved it, but hey don`t take mine or anybody else's word here.
Go and watch to find out what it is for you!
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Love Next to important Issues and Annoying Element
This is one of those dramas that is just so hard to rate as it has an amazing cast, a decent story and a lot of important parts of life... A mostly easy watch that gives the viewer butterflies, occasional drool and whole lot of emotions... Some of these are lovely but among those feelings I also found the annoyance to take up a little to much space to be able to rate this higher.While I can appreciate frustration, longing, and mishaps, over the top yelling, and silly moments of drunk kept getting in my way .And while I do love Jung Hae In (JHI) more than the average drama fan, his character was just a little bit to whiny at times as well a dare I say controlling for me to fully fall for him in this. And while I did feel that Jung So Mins character yelled a little bit to much I still found her character to be far more lovable, relatable and so on than JHIS. That said their romance was top, top, top! Keeping this score from falling.. other things that kept this score from falling further was the portrayal of physical and mental lines side by side. The way one most probably raises concern while the others not so much... Ill just leave it at that...
While the lavenders friendship was unbearable ot watch, at least with sound. The younger generations frandships was lovely,- I also lovet the kid, the amount of shots of JHI biting his lip, JHI in water, the food and the use of umbrellas.
A decent watch, extremely gifworthy, and way better than other drams by the same creators but not as good as other drams with the same leads.
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Simple but raw
If you’re looking for a drama that has a complicated, unique, different, new, plot then I fear this may not be for you. The premise of the drama is very simple but it has a lot of underlying tones that makes it so much more enjoyable. The cast is able to bring out raw emotions when they’re required, especially Jung Somin and Jung Haein.One can say its similar to QOT in a sense that its a drama thats carried by the flawless amazing acting of the leads.
Its a simple drama but also shows the complicated human emotions. It is rom-com but also melo, as each episodes contain a mixture of both, if you only see the romcom part and hate the drama for the melo, thats a you problem.
Its very enjoyable to watch a drama be so realistic and relatable just through the conveyance of emotion
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The interactions of the main characters are really adorable??
The Korean drama “Love Next Door” is a charming and heartfelt work that truly captured my heart. A love story full of emotions and realistic conflicts managed to capture my heart since watching the first episode. Complex, well-developed characters added depth to the story, making me feel connected to them and feel every emotion they experienced. The chemistry between the main characters is also so strong that it made me really fascinated by the beauty of their relationship. Apart from that, the beautiful soundtrack also adds a romantic feel to this drama. I really enjoyed every scene and can't wait to know the continuation of this story full of romance. With all the emotional power and beauty it presents, "Love Next Door" has definitely stolen my heart and made it one of my favorite Korean dramas of all time.❤️❤️Was this review helpful to you?
The plot wears off quickly. Lack of deeper storyline and character connection.
"I've seen it thousand times"..The beginning is promising, I thought "This might be the best one this year actually"..
Around 8th or 9th episode you notice how they lack ideas and innovation, as if they took 100 other dramas and took parts of it and tried to adapt it to this series. It doesn't go well together, 99% of characters are over 30, they all act if they have an teenage alter ego. It doesn't fit when it comes to serious scenes because you can't take them seriously. They threw scenes one after another, but gradually deepen the plot and having a rich ending was not an option. As if they didn't have ideas or material for continuing the original idea (the first few episodes). The drama is alright, but it reminded me a lot of many (seriously, many) things that I've seen already. I'm used to typical k-drama acting and some repetitive scenes, but this was too much.
The acting was fairly good in general.
Since it's a series I can't really comment on how realistic some situations and facts are, they could have been made more accurate, but it was okay without getting too much into facts.
For me personally, I've seen better.
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been looking for a good childhood sweetheart drama.
After watching multiple Chinese dramas. I thought it was time to try a good Korean drama. The last chinese drama I watched was, "memory of encaustic tiles," which was about friends growing up together. Since then I fell in love with the concept of two childhood besties falling in love. This drama came right in time and has given a mix of childhood, teen, and adult scenes that are both heartwarming and funny. The end of each episode leaves you wanting more. My only disappointment is the waiting game for new episodes.Was this review helpful to you?
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