[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Love Next Door" Episode 1

With opening ratings of 4.899%, "Love Next Door" comes in with higher expectations than might be expected from such a generic premise. Seung-hyo (played by Jung Hae-in) is a highly lauded architect. Seok-ryoo (played by Jung So-min) has been working overseas in a prestigious position. In a curious screenwriting choice, we are introduced to the leads not directly, but by the generally obnoxious bickering of their mothers trying to one up each other with petty bragging.

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Why "Love Next Door" is already earning decent ratings is no huge mystery. Jung Hae-in and Jung So-min are both fairly beloved romantic actors. The drama also reunites the writer/director team of Sin Hae-un and Yoo Je-won from "Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha" a few years back. There's every reason to think "Love Next Door" will be a similar low key hit for the platform. It's already fourth place worldwide on the FlixPatrol chart.

All of that's well and good, but is "Love Next Door" any fun to actually watch? Well...for the most part, although the "Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha" comparison feels like an ominous one to me, given that the script for that show eventually started to resort to increasingly pointless advertisements for the Jeju tourism industry. "Love Next Door" doesn't seem to be selling much of anything by comparison, except for maybe the abstract concept of parents being annoyed.

At first I couldn't stand Seung-hyo's mother Hye-sook (played by Jang Young-nam) or Seok-ryoo's mother Mi-sook (played by Park Ji-young). But then that's part of the point. Their friends can't stand them either when they start obsessively bragging about their children. And it's easy to appreciate the emotional distance their adult children try to keep from their parents, the situations never feeling dangerous so much as awkward.

As I mentioned at the start here, this is all fairly generic romantic comedy territory for South Korean dramas. The family stuff is only just barely different enough from how it's presented in family dramas to not feel like, well, a family drama. Much of the appeal of this project ultimately hinges on Jung Hae-in and Jung So-min putting in compelling performances as bickering childhood friends who aren't really facing tragic consequences for their flaws so much as significant inconveniences since they don't have anyone to call them out when they're behaving self-centeredly. Hm, now where could they ever meet someone to help out with that...

Written by William Schwartz

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"Love Next Door" is directed by Yoo Je-won, written by Sin Ha-eun, and features Jung Hae-in, Jung So-min, Kim Ji-eun, Yun Ji-on, Jang Young-nam, Jo Han-chul. Broadcasting information in Korea: 2024/08/17~Now airing, Sat, Sun 21:20 on Netflix, TVING, tvN.