This review may contain spoilers
A true Slice of Life drama at it's heart
One thing to know about me, is that slice of life is not really my genre, i usually view them as palate clensers. However I was blown away by this one, it was such a pleasant surprise. I absolutely fell in love with the characters and their story from the first episode, it was the perfect frenemies/childhood friends to lovers show. The main leads were really phenomenal, in terms of character writing and acting aswell. Jung so-min and Jung hae in killed it honestly, the chemistry between them was insane, and it was very fun to watch their interactions with each other, and it looked like they were having a lot of fun aswell. I also really loved that the show focused a lot on developing the relationship between the ML and the FL, and they had a lot of scenes together which i really appreciated. Whoever told you that it's a sunshine and grumpy trope has LIED to you. Cheossong is just as much of a goofball as seok-ryu if not more, I cannot stress this enough. I really liked the story structure aswell. How the story worked in this one is that it wasn't throwing 6 storylines at you at the same time. It was only a handful at best, and they were completing them one after the other mostly so that the viewer wouldn't get overwhelmed, which I really appreciated. They were decently written aswell and made it so that the main leads have even more screen time. The only side story i didn't really liked was Dong-jin's, it felt like a drag everytime he came on screen. I felt like his character was poorly handled, they could've included him in the story more, and explored the theme of being the sibling that is not much expected of, which was kind of explored but in only one short scene. I also love how the secondary leads were handled, they had a really cute storyline, but it really felt like they were secondary leads in this one which i really liked, because there's a reason why people prefer the secondary leads in a lot of dramas, which shouldn't be the case all the time. It is also worth to keep in mind that the show is slowburn, probably even by kdrama standards, but I think it made sense because of the story and the personalities of the main leads. Stuff I didn't liked was probably the OST, which was only decent at best, and the VERY early bed scene. I don't know what is netflix's obsession with bed scenes, but they really didn't do it well this time. Now I don't mind bed scenes, but I feel like if there is one, it should be kept to the last or the second to last episode, I feel like it's a milestone in a relationship, and when we look at the trope of a kdrama, it really emphasizes the milestones of relationships like holding hands, kissing, bed scenes. Overall, I really enjoyed my time with love next door, and I was really sad to have to say goodbye to these awesome characters. So if you like a good slice of life drama, it's a must watch!
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