I will be the first to admit that I had fun. My heart gave some twinges at the cute romance scenes. I laughed. But sadly I was mostly underwhelmed. Because from beginning to end Flower Boy Next Door was plagued with doubts. It didn't know what it really wanted to be, nor where it wanted to go.
Come on it started out with the lead Dok Mi basically spying on her hot neighbor across the way. She knew his schedule and planned her day around it. She even had scary big binoculars to do it. Not cheap fun ones, the real stuff. Bird watching stuff. Bird watching stuff used for a nefarious purposes.
It was a questionable start and I almost tossed in the towel. However, it was really funny. It didn't hurt that Dok Mi and Geum had some decent chemistry. Dok Mi's mental issues and troubled past fascinated me. I wanted to see her overcome the odds, and to rise up like a phoenix as she realized she could now control her life!
Sadly Dok Mi was not truly given a decent chance to do so during the drama. And when she did--and I was fist pumping her victory--confront the person who ruined her life she was smacked down. What the bleep!
That was the problem. Flower Boy Next door didn't know what it wanted to be. Then it tossed in some hot topic issues such as suicide, mental illness, bullying, and just . . . ugh! It was horrible. No lessons where learned and it felt so unsatisfactory. The guilty parties just kept going and being justified. A small tap on the hand when it should have been a sever hand slap. The "villains" should have dealt with some consequences.
It was funny I started this up for Park Shin Hye, I'm a fan, and I thought she'd be awesome as Dok Mi. But I didn't like the way the director lead her, I know she could have did so much better. (I type this as I'm currently watching Pinocchio.) What made me stick through this drama was newcomer (at the time) actress Kim Seul Gi. She played a deputy manager of a Contents-development team.
She was glorious and stole the entire show!! I Watched for her. I yearned for the storyline around her and took any thing I could get. (And it's safe to say she is now one of my favorite actresses.) I thank Flower Boy Next Door for introducing me to her. Thank you. Kim Seul Gi is hilarious and one of the best comedic females I've seen. She's laughable, loveable, and just all kinds of awesome.
Visually this was nice to look at and I enjoyed the fashion. The music was pretty enjoyable. I was singing and humming a lot. Sadly the story didn't hold up. It tried to be too much and tackle issues it didn't really want to tackle. Or tackled them poorly. There were surprising moments where I did love the romance and plenty of fun scenes. Dok Mi was an interesting lead, and while I didn't enjoy how she just took things and didn't get to rise up quite like I had in mind, she wasn't too badly realized. So that was something. The only reason I'm truly happy I watched this was to discover Kim Seul Gi.
Truth is though I dropped this drama in 2013 at episode 13 and didn't care to pick it up again until 2016. I only picked it back up because I had just 3 more episodes left. AND I didn't want to miss out on some good Kim Seul Gi scenes. PEOPLE KIM SEUL GI IS AMAZING!
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