Hello everyone, so this is my come back to Iko Africa and I'm going to talk about love next door.

‘Love Next Door’ is a 2024 South Korean romantic comedy series about 2 childhood friends who happen to reconnect when the female lead (Bae Seok-ryu) suddenly comes back to Korea from the US. Our male lead (Choi Seung-hyo) is a note worthy young architect and our female lead is also killing it in her career at Greip (imagine a huge multinational company).

I went into the series very excited but with low expectations because k dramas have been missing the mark these days. Nevertheless I was really happy because the female actress Jung So Min acted in my one of my favourite drama ever "Because it's my first life" and I was glad she'd be back on my screen.

NOTE; how I feel does not stop you from rating this series a ten. These are my views and I wont argue with anyone. Now let’s get into what I liked about the drama;

THE ACTING; I liked the acting in this series. The casting director did a good job. Everyone can act and actually knew how to deliver their role. From the main leads to the supporting characters, no matter how annoying a character was meant to be, I personally feel they all delivered.

THE MESSAGE ABOUT DREAMS; I liked the fact that the characters were finding a balance between chasing their dreams and making money.

MONEY;I like money as much as the next person but not every male character has to be from insane money. I liked that wealth was not too shouty in this movie if that makes sense. I'm kinda tired of the rich man broke girl act. It's nice to see a movie where the man did not have to woo her with a black card. This shows more in the romance with the 2nd lead love

That's all I liked so let’s just head into my problems with the show.

IRRELEVANT SCENES; I'm starting with this because these are my lighter issues. In episode 1 our female lead opens her box while headed home so she can put on more clothing to shield her from her mum's beating. Let me first ignore the fact that she's 34 and her mother still hits her first and go to the fact that the luggage is filled with puffy coats... like? Our female lead just uprooted herself from the US, a place she lived for more than 5 years and all she came back with was puffy coats? This is such a tiny detail but it annoyed me so much.

U.S, a place she lived for more than 5 years and all she came back with was puffy coats? This is such a tiny detail but it annoyed me so much.

BAE SEOK-RYU MOTHER; I guess I am supposed to understand that she just wants the best for daughter but I don't. Especially when her son is cuddled while she relies on her daughter to be her pride and joy and make life worth living for her. I don't get it. You haven't seen your daughter in years and she comes home without telling anyone, not only that, she has also quit her job and broken her engagement one month to her marriage and your first thought is let me beat my 34 year old daughter and treat her like trash... like girl? Are you okay?

Like why are you dragging her bags out and saying she betrayed you for quitting her job? Helloooo is anybody home in this woman's mind?

Even after Bae cried, her mum went right back to it. Don't get me started on how she treated of her husband. Abeg get her off my sereen.

UNNEEDED FEARS; What is the best way to communicate? If you ask the writer of this series, they will say tragic events, Firstly, our female lead needed to say she had stomach cancer for her mum to even feel bad for her. Like okay there's no time for a family conversation than finding out your daughter had stomach cancer.. There's a trend in this series where something tragic or scary needs to happen for characters to have sense and I don't get it, actually I hate it. It reminds me of how when somebody dies Nigerians start posting about how nobody knows tomorrow and you need to be good today. Girl tomorrow is Friday and act right now.

In one episode our FL is looking to go to a culinary school abroad and the male lead is skeptical about her leaving when she just got back.

She asked for a week to think about things and says he shouldn't contact her and he respects her wishes, tell me why it takes a work accident where she runs to the hospital for her to realize she loves him and tell him? Do you love him or can you just not imagine loosing him? Bear in mind her first confession is also when he's away so she goes to meet him to confess. I don't like this because why can't you just love someone while they are in front of you? Why do you need to fear loss to act right?

Let's also not forget that the male lead's mother fearing she's getting dementia is what eventually brings his parents back together? Oh remember he thought she has been cheating for like 20 years oh.

Like wtf I guess nobody can communicate in this drama without almost death experiences.

THE LAVENDER FRIENDSHIP; What is going on, i ask again. So you mean to tell me that 30 years of friendship, and mind you, these are adult women who are at least in their late 50's have never had open communication but instead the friendship is riddled with so much resentment, envy and ill feeling even thought they are neighbors who see often. They are friends oh not aqiuitances.

WRITING; I won’t even talk much but why would you have such an incredible cast and then this kind of writing? The series dragged at various points. A lot of subplots were so random and felt like they just need fillers to complete the screen time.

THE KISSES; Is it by force? I know these actors can kiss so I'm confused why we got very awkward, no chemistry kisses. Oh lord its giving that the heirs kiss on the roof. Was this the directors idea because the behind the scene kisses were better so I’m confused.

COMEDY; Nothing was funny please, I'm not laughing.

I've watched worse but I'll really love to watch better. I’d rate it a 5/10. 

Anyway, welcome me back on here with a smile. Have you watched this series?

Let me know your thoughts.