Love next door is my 1st love of 2024 in drama land. With 2024 being a not so good year for dramas (really) I was almost giving up on 2024 to anticipate 2025. Until this show came into my screen.
I had not much expectations of it while seeing trailers and all. I was like, let's go in and see if we gonna drop this like many 2024 dramas I did. And a part of me felt like I would, but ep1 and 2. I took a seat. In the damn front roll!!

Love next door is a tale that brings together the theme of love, dreams, reality, friendship and family dynamic, comedy and healing to tell an exquisite tale.
One would think at first glance that it's a simple tale of two childhood friends turning into lovers. Like I did, but no. It was more than that. It was a tale that not only examines these two friends journeys to becoming lovers, but it bravely looks around these two. Investigating these two's family dynamics and how these dynamics shape them while also surveying their environments. Past, present and future. It looks at not only the relationship of these two but also the two family's relationship. Not on a subploty level, but on a grander scale.

PLOT
Plot wise, It's just one word. SOLID. Like I said the drama didn't take a simple ride on the park of turning friends into lovers. But it got brave and ambitious with its portray, and that did it Marvels. The plot could be seen as a slice of life at some level, one that aims at investigating the relationship between two friends, extending it to the families of these two friends and to the friends of these two friends and even the friends of the family of these two friends. The whole damn neighbour is not free from this splendid portray. It navigates the lives of the people involved in our leads lives, telling their distinctive stories, sprinkling realistic lives into them and using these intriguing characters to shape a grand tale. And like I say, we get our childhood friends to lovers as a theme, but also are given the opportunity to watch the tales around these two friends, family, work , friends. And see how these shape them.
With it's premiere, Most were looking forward to this being a typical ROM-COM. A fluff that focuses only on our leads who are friends falling in love. Those cliché. But I'm sorta happy these drama didn't do that alone. Honestly it'd get super boring. I appreciate the bravery of rather setting up a grander view of things with the characters ( leads and support) shaping the natural flow of the drama. It was nice.
I remember when people began panicking at some point of the show, hating on it when it took a rather serious turn and not being their typical ROM-COM. Well, I couldn't relate because that personally shaped the show so well in the drama. At that point, we got a major event that shaked our characters, bringing these contrasting emotions to play and rolled it towards a mutual understanding. A resolution that sent tears into our eyes. I cried indeed haha. And as the show progresses from there and we saw these characters become "one" and "get their healing" I couldn't help but express how beautiful it got. Each ep got beautiful and I cried in some EPs because it was just so beautiful.

CHARACTERS

The characterization in this show was chef's kiss! One of the strongest points to this show and one of my fav part. When I saw it was the same writer as the hit show hometown cha cha cha, I knew we were in for some solid characterization! And it didn't disappoint. Every character in this show stood out. From those with highest Screentime to least, they glowed. The drama dishes out a bundle of characters, solid in their characterization, and experiments throwing them together to make a relatable watch.
I think this drama did something that I really loved ( Although most probably didn't, ahem.. those looking for ROM-COMs lol) the drama didn't only bring characters ,but they brought Flawed characters. No character here is perfect. We're faced with flawed and relatable characters who merged to make a story. I personally loved all characters and related to all. They were written so well, so realistically. No villains, just real humans facing contrasting beliefs and shaping one another. Friends of opposing personalities and beliefs, families of different opposing problems, they merged to create a sense of real people, friends and possibly a heartfelt family to warm one's heart.
The drama throws these flawed characters at us viewers and watches how we, the audience view them. And our views will vary. Because for Me, I loved them. People hates some characters. (no spoilers) But to me that was just how the characters were written. it was serving a purpose and I liked that. Flawed. had their bad sides. Annoying sides, imperfect side

ROMANCE
The Romance was ADORABLE. I couldn't count how many times I fell off my bed giggling and rolling with the sweetness I got from them. Like omg, the sugar was due to hurt. Haein was super adorable here hahaha. It was refreshing to see him in this role.Our leads had that tension! They had that romance! I was rooting for them so bad. And you know slow burns really do burn when they do. Haha. Our 2nd couple were equally adorable omg. Cuties!! And not to mention our lead parents' romances. It was fascinating watching their romance develop after some cracks.

I enjoyed two Ost here. "What are we" and "Leave it all behind" I remember being obsessed with this song like I cry whenever they play it. It's so good!!

WHY YOU MIGHT NOT LIKE THE SHOW??

The show is a slice of life in my opinion. It's Character driven and not Plot driven

( character driven in the sense that The characters are core of the show and they move the show. they are the Plot and their lives are the plot. They influence external activities and it revolves around them While
Plot driven is basically external activities hitting the characters up and down left and right to squeeze out a storyline. Here there's something activity happening to move the show and not the character's characteristics)

with that being said. I feel that it's not for y'all then so perhaps try seeing if you'll like it when watching further or stop. because Maybe slice of life shows isn't it for you. because I've seen Many watch some slice of life and say it's boring. Yes the setup could be boring for most. Because Nothing is literally happening and you watching the characters lives. Thus in such case You'll have to LIKE THE CHARACTERS TO like the show. Because you're literally watching these characters lives. so if you don't like the character enough to want to journey with them for hours then it's a miss for you. you probably won't like the show. Just like here. So some , like me, like slice of life and some good character driven story. So hope this helps.

Overall I'm grateful to LND for bringing such an entertaining tale to our screen. The moments do waiting weekly for episode was a bliss. It really accompanied me through this weeks. and I hope anyone interested should give the drama a go. Irrespective of the negative comments ( which some are clearly forced) and see if they'll like it or not. Because in my opinion it's really a fascinating tale worth being checked out by all. But then again all is subject to their own opinion, so feel free to drop if it's not to your taste.

LND family, I'll really miss y'all.