Letter #136: Love Next Door

Good morning, Erin.

I have spent a lot of my adult life being…mopey. Which is not news to you, of course, if for no other reason than because I have repeatedly said as much in my letters. But I reiterate the point because, despite the frequently downcast pall to my humours, I sometimes find myself given to bouts of, well, optimism. Not hope, unfortunately, but this self-assured belief that things are actually going my way. It doesn’t quite reach the heights of arrogance, I’d say, but there is certainly that kind of foolishness about it—a mistaken impression that I need not worry myself with mundane burdens, for I float securely amidst the gentle tides of fate. 

…and then God takes a moment to humble me, to pointedly remind me that I am indulging in hubris, being lazy rather than showing faith in some cosmic prescription: I screw up at work, turns my crush has a boyfriend, I grab the “hand-tossed” instead of the “rising crust” frozen pizza—banalities, ultimately, but signs of a greater imbalance in my connection to the world around me, I’ve learned, all meant to disrupt my unfounded reveries and bring me back down to earth, to refocus on the tangible. 

That I then become mopey is its own (separate, albeit related) problem, which I’ve been working on for a while. And, gradually, I’ve gotten pretty okay at keeping myself positive, active, engaged—and always with an eye on how closely I edge towards that point of karmic redress. All of which perhaps sounds silly, but…the unexpected murder of my car notwithstanding, it’s been a successful last couple of years. 

That said, this morning I was confused about why my apartment door wouldn’t open when I had already clicked the “unlock” button on my key fob (y’know, the one for my car), so…take that as you will. 

In less embarrassing news, I watched Love Next Door—because of course I did. (It has Jung So-min in it. There are rules.)

But, if you want embarrassing…

[turns baseball cap around] 

…let’s rap.

1. This show is…okay. I know pockets of the internet tried to “OMG still not over themmmm~” the main couple into the show being a classic, but no. The actors all do a really good job, both individually and as a group (as in, there’s good chemistry). It’s heartfelt. It’s funny. I mean, I enjoyed it, and I’d say it’s a good watch—but it’s not especially…special. Not quite paint-by-numbers, but also not giving off the sense that this is rooted in some deep feeling on the writer’s part. 

1A. So, the “childhood friend romance” angle isn’t as much of a driving force to the story as advertised, which is disappointing to me but not detrimental to the overall success of the show—except insofar as the romance subplot for the leads resolves itself and is left to tread water for the last several episodes. Instead, the show is more of a family drama than anything else, perhaps with a few too many things going on (and too often in their own little universes) for its own good. It’s not that these different pockets of drama are bad, but they do get emphasized more as the show goes on and are a poor substitute for the main romance, once the water-treading starts. That said, this is right about when the secondary romance plot hits the gas, and that’s probably the best element in the series. So, there is that counterbalance. 

1B. It’s worth noting that the show is about love—though also not expressly about it. That is, it’s there in literally every aspect of the story, dealing with romantic love, familial love, spousal love, parental love, platonic love—all the loves with all the ups and downs and starts and stops therein. But it’s all there functionally more than it is thematically. So, it’s a foundation for the plot, but I wouldn’t call it a meditation of any kind. 

1C. Again, I enjoyed it, and I don’t want to give the impression that it’s bad. But I don’t think it’s anything to get excited about—at least, by the end it’s not. (If it helps, it looks like I’ve got it hovering in the area of my list between Touch Your Heart and Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha.)

1D. …did you see it? I feel like you’d have given it a shot, at least. Or maybe you’re in your dark, revenge-drama era and gave it a pass. Hmm. So mysterious, my seonbae. 

2. Because I’ve already complained about this in other letters, we get four or five separate topless scenes of the male lead in this. Sure, Jung So-min flashes some leg in a couple of episodes—and it was great—but it didn’t really balance things out, in my opinion. I’m not saying it needs to be 50/50 on the leering, but…a little something for the boys, show, come on. 

3. But speaking of our leads (and a whole heck of a lot of the cast overall), let’s talk about who I recognized!

• my girl Jung So-min (Ji-ho from Because This is My First Life) as Seok-ryu, the female lead

• Eun-tak’s baseball friend from Goblin as Seung-hyo, the male lead

• the female lead from Branding in Seongsu as Mo-eum, Seok-ryu’s best friend

• Coach Choi from Weightlifting Fairy as Seung-hyo’s mother

• the conniving mother-in-law from The Matchmakers as Seok-ryu’s mother

• Glasses Lawyer from Vincenzo as Seok-ryu’s father

• the shrink from Doctor Slump as Seung-hyo’s father

• the scammer mom from The Atypical Family as Mo-eum’s mother

• the dopey magistrate from Kingdom as Seung-hyo’s business partner

• Landlady Divorcee from Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha as a funeral director

• the Angry Man’s servant from The Matchmakers as a scam artist

• the daughter from Crash Course in Romance as herself

3A. So, you clearly noticed that we’ve got a mini-reunion with Seok-ryu’s mom and the scam artist having both been in The Matchmakers…but did you remember that Glasses Lawyer was also in that series? Not that I think any one of them was ever in a scene with the others, but…still!

3B. The actress who played the daughter in Crash Course in Romance makes an appearance as herself at an awards show…for architecture…because sure—but she is explicitly referenced as being broadly considered “perfect.” And…I mean, it’s not the adjective I’d reach for, but I’m not going to argue the point. 

3C. Okay the little girl who plays young Seok-ryu isn’t on the list above, but I’ve technically seen her a couple of times already this year (she’s been in A BUNCH of things in 2024): she played the little girl version of Kang Han-na’s character in Frankly Speaking and 1st Floor (the limping guy)’s daughter in The 8 Show. The woman who played 8th Floor (the crazy lady) in The 8 Show was the lead actress in The Atypical Family—that is, the scammer mom’s daughter. So…we have a “Kevin Bacon” reunion. Which is to say, not a reunion at all. But I thought it was funny. 

4. Speaking of little girl Seok-ryu, her shirt in the Episode 1 flashback says, “stay hydrated,” and this amused me to no end. I mean, look at it:

 

That’s just silly. I love it.

5. Jung So-min has a blast playing the oft-chaotic Seok-ryu, and it really comes through. She is excellent at playing unhinged. Not that Seok-ryu is unhinged by any stretch, but she certainly doesn’t do calm or subtle. But, yeah, she always brings it when she gets to play someone who lets loose, and it was great seeing her do what she does best. (Which includes sudden turns into deep, gut-wrenching despair.)

6. …well, I say Seok-ryu isn’t unhinged, but she only juuuust stops herself from leaping out her window into Seung-hyo’s room in Episode 2—and then the shot of them looking at each other that closes out the episode shows that their windows are at least 15 feet away from each other. Followed by at least three other references in subsequent episodes to the fact that you’d have to drag a ladder over from one house to the other to get to the other one’s bedroom window. So…I feel like she has to be unhinged adjacent, right?

7. As an American viewer, there’s an adorable moment in the Episode 5 flashback to when Seung-hyo visits Seok-ryu at Berkeley College where Seung-hyo frets about getting into trouble for “sneaking into the girls’ dorms” after dark. As though there’s some kind of decency-driven curfew. Cracked me up. I mean, I’m sure there’s a college like that somewhere in the US, but it sure as hell ain’t Berkeley. 

8. I’m 70% sure the later episodes of the series just magicked into existence employees besides the three named characters we know from Seung-hyo’s office. 

9. Speaking of his office, I quite liked the…uh…I’m going to say she’s the secretary (she’s not)—anyway, I quite liked the secretary who had the big crush on Seung-hyo. I thought she was fun. I kept wishing she was Song Ji-woo every time she showed up, but…still, I quite liked her. 

9A. To wit: her Sherlock Holmesing the “makeup Shroud of Turin” on the back of Seung-hyo’s jacket to determine that he had just been with Seok-ryu was hilarious. 

10. Similarly, I quite enjoyed the reporter guy’s boss at the newspaper. I thought she was fun. And not in it anywhere near enough. I cheered whenever she showed up. Which was, like, three times. For some reason.

11. Similarly, I was a bit frowny over Coach Choi—who you know I love—being relegated to playing a mostly very dry, serious role. I still thought she was good (I always do), I just…she’s so good at being funny, y’know? So, I always hope to see her get more comedic roles. Here? Not so much funny. But…she looked darn good. Love that short hairstyle on her. 

11A. Which makes it that much worse that they gave her an awful floppy beach hat. I mean, it’s a French hat, which is 100% what her character would wear (having been a long-time ambassador to France), but…come on. Do better, show. 

12. That said, Seok-ryu wears an awesome floppy beach hat in Episode 13, which almost makes up for it. (And for a lot of things, if I’m honest.)

13. In an odd bit of writing, Mo-eum’s desire to go to Antarctica as part of a South Korean science research team never prompts any particular invocation of environmentalist preaching from her or her subplot, but the “treading water” period of Seok-ryu and Seung-hyo’s storyline features two or three instances of non-sequitur social commentary one-offs from the leads. I’m sure the production staff felt like total rebels slipping in their (to my mind) lukewarm political talking points, but I thought it felt very forced and, as such, a tad cringe. (Though I leave it to you to decide if Seok-ryu’s ex- reading Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s book, My Own Words, counts as one of these moments or not.)

14. Much more clever were two specific instances of product placement:

• the new features in Seung-hyo’s Hyundai electric SUV. While she drives him back from the hospital, Seok-ryu f***s with Seung-hyo by playing with his seat movement buttons. She’s always screwing with him, so this seems like regular teasing on her part—if you ignore that some of it lingers a bit longer on the buttons than you would have otherwise. (And there are just a lot of Hyundai logos all around, as well. Which is great!)

• some microwavable dinners in a cup. Seung-hyo’s partner comes into the office kitchen to find Seung-hyo digging in to a couple of the microwavable meals, which is the kind of thing he wouldn’t normally do, leading the partner to figure out that he must be dating Seok-ryu (because he’s acting quite different than he has in the past). He plays it off as the meals just being delicious and easy to make, encouraging the partner to try one of the handful of cups sitting on the counter by the microwave. (The only flaw with this scene is how Seung-hyo has to tell his partner that there are a variety of flavors to choose from by saying that the partner can pick one of the others if he thinks he won’t be able to handle the spicy food option—two episodes after very clearly establishing that the partner loves spicy food.)

15. The opening scene of the show with the four mothers going on a hike together lets us know that Seok-ryu’s and Seung-hyo’s mothers are opposites—not by having them bicker (though it helps), but by having one wear a red windbreaker and the other a blue windbreaker. So, we started off strong on the ol’ Daryl-o-meter!

15A. Similarly, in a key scene revolving around Seung-hyo’s parents and their marital problems, the mom is in black, the dad is in white, and Seung-hyo is in black and white. Very slick, show. I like it. 

16. In the past, I’ve mentioned that I’m not the biggest fan of the actor who plays Seung-hyo—insofar as I somewhat inexplicably want to punch him in the face whenever I see him. But, for what it’s worth, I did not want to punch him in the face as I watched him in this. 

16A. That said, I’m a little bit miffed that this dude has now made out with both Jung So-min and Han Ji-min, my K-drama girlfriend and backup K-drama girlfriend respectively. Like, not as miffed as I was having to watch Yoojung kiss stupid jerk male lead in Sound Candy, but certainly more than simply displeased. 

16B. Y’know, now that I’m thinking about it, I’ve seen the lead from Behind Your Touch make out with them both, as well. And I don’t want to punch him. Interesting. 

17. Speaking of smooches, though, Mo-eum kissing the reporter is tame as hell, just this childish lip-press that she holds for a few seconds—and it is adorable, because it’s sweet and sincere and literally the first time she’s ever kissed a boy. Their whole story is super-cute, and I loved this moment. 

18. By contrast, Seok-ryu and Seung-hyo’s first kiss was lame. It was supposed to be a passionate climax to the story, but…meh. I was underwhelmed. 

19. It comes up more than once, but how familiar is the average Korean citizen with “CIA” standing for the Culinary Institute of America and not, y’know, the Central Intelligence Agency? Because, to me, this would be a very, very strange subplot twist for Seok-ryu, suddenly wanting to apply to be an American spy after all her cooking lessons, were I not already aware that the two organizations have the same acronym. Like, maybe I’d contrive that she was applying to work in their cafeteria, but it would still be a weird turn.

20. I’m not sure if this was deliberate or a coincidence, but Episode 9 has a flashback in which little girl Seok-ryu promises to get little boy Seung-hyo a pork cutlet shaped like Pikachu, and the actress playing little girl Seok-ryu totally has the same wide-eyed look of excitement on her face that Jung So-min always makes when she’s amped up about something fun. Either way, I thought that was great. 

21. …I see you, YouTube algorithm, trying to get me to listen to Loona, but YOUR DARK POWERS WILL NOT AVAIL YOU!

22. I’ve heard one of the actors reference ad libs and/or unplanned reactions that made it into the final versions of scenes in the show. I don’t know if these fall into that category or not, but I made note of three moments that I thought seemed pretty unscripted to me:

• When Mo-eum talks to the little girl in Episode 4, she describes her job (being an EMT) as “working with ambulances” and makes a siren noise to underscore the point. The little girl is supposed to think Mo-eum is a weirdo for doing this—but the young actress clearly thinks it’s hilarious, and you can see her desperately trying not to laugh.

• Also in Episode 4, the reporter guy runs into Seung-hyo, whom he’s met already, and Seok-ryu, whom he has not. Despite this, he tells Seok-ryu she looks familiar—which she says must be because she’s “so pretty” and that, therefore, he must be mistaking her for a celebrity. There’s a brief pause as the reporter guy tries to figure out how to deny this without seeming rude (laugh laugh laugh), and then the focus of the scene shifts as the two men start talking to each other. BUT…as the focus turns to their discussion, you can just see Seok-ryu quietly sit back in her seat and frame her face as though she’s doing a photoshoot.

• And then there’s the product placement moment in Episode 11 where the soda Seung-hyo goes to drink sort of explodes all over him when he opens it. It’s the start of the scene, so they could have stopped or just started again, but the reporter guy enters the scene and just sort of rolls with it, calling it out and trying to help dry him off before starting the conversation the two are clearly scripted to have. 

23. …okay, y’know what, “PTT” is actually pretty goo—what do you mean Loona broke up last year?! COME ON! Why are you like this, k-pop?! I’ve just discovered what “Chuuves” is! And you just take it away?!?!?!

23A. But don’t worry: IVE is coming out with the fifth season of their reality show, so…at least they’re still on the board for me. (Can you imagine if they suddenly broke up? I’ve only just settled on Liz as my bias. That decision took months; I’d have an aneurysm.)

24. That the events of an episode cause the title of the episode to change from one thing to another by the end of the episode was clever—for the first couple of episodes. After that, it lost all its punch and just became rote and pretentious. That’s a trick you need to save for when it’s most effective—and I don’t know that you can do it more than a couple of times overall (or that it should be done more than once).

25. Seung-hyo’s mom’s subplot about wanting to reconnect with her family is fairly cliche, but it manages to sometimes hit paydirt—such as when, left alone in the house on her birthday, the mom opens the present Seung-hyo gave her: a very nice necklace…that she is actually wearing as she opens the box because it’s the same kind as the one he’d gotten her the year before. She swaps the old one for the new one, smiles, and says to herself that she likes this one better. It’s a really, really strong character moment, and I loved seeing it. 

25A. I loved it less when the show explicitly calls it out a few episodes later in a “let me tell you all of my emotions!” scene, but for a while it was quite good. 

26. I’m pretty sure there are two separate instances of the subtitles skirting around a character referring to “an old Indian saying”—that is, an American Indian saying (I think). I mean, I could be wrong, but I feel like I’m not reading too deeply between the translation’s acrobatics. 

27. I don’t think I’ve mentioned that the actress playing Seok-ryu’s mom does a really good job, but…she does a really good job. Like I said at the start, all the actors are good, but I want to call attention to her if only because I’ve only ever seen her previously in The Matchmakers, where she plays a veeeeery different kind of character—specifically, she played a very astute, clever, and politically adept character, whereas Seok-ryu’s mom is…uh, not that. (Is she as good at playing a character who isn’t the sharpest tack in the corkboard as Kim Go-eun was in Little Women? No—but who could?)

27A. However, the thing I really want to bring up is this key difference in her acting that I not just took note of but felt was a key factor in the increased strength of her performance in Love Next Door: she doesn’t constantly make the same soap opera-y “I am surprised and concerned by this information” face as her go-to expression. (I think she literally does it once, towards the end of the series. But that’s it!) So, her performance felt a lot more natural and didn’t have me grinding my teeth like some of Princess My Name’s lesser performances. Which was nice. 

28. The little girl playing Mo-eum in flashbacks only appears on screen briefly in a couple of scenes—assuming you happen to notice her playing by herself in the background. HOWEVER…she does get one shining moment in Episode 12 where the camera focuses on her face as she watches little girl Seok-ryu child-flirt with/torment little boy Seung-hyo—and she is clearly so done with their bull****. It’s hilarious. 

29. At the height of their big rift, Seok-ryu’s mom loudly declares that she’s not interested in repairing her friendship with Seung-hyo’s mom and won’t regret doing so. She says this while wearing a shirt covered in French words. Seung-hyo’s mom was, of course, part of the diplomatic corps stationed in France. So…press X to doubt, as they say.

30. In a scene where Seung-hyo’s mom is teaching Seok-ryu’s mom English, she speaks pointedly about the importance of the definite article the—only to then immediately forget to use it in her next English sentence: “I’m going to supermarket,” she says, matter-of-factly. (For the record, though, her pronunciation is mostly excellent.)

30A. Relatedly, later in the same episode, Seung-hyo’s partner says (in English), “Welcome to the Hell.” Which, in a rare turn, comes up in the subtitles despite being said in English…but written out as “Welcome to Hell.” Nice try, subber. But you can’t get that kind of thing past me. 

31. Okay, this is a bit of a sidebar, but…I saw the three main actors do a promotional interview with…uh, the super-famous comedian who was the main lady host on Change Days. It was great fun, and I recommend it, if it sounds like something you’d be interested in—though, of course, my main takeaways were that shy, giggly mess Jung So-min is totally charming and I love her; and that extremely charming Kim Ji-eun wore a tie and I love her, too…so, okay, actually, maybe I’m a little bit biased. But I mention this because…

32. …Seung-hyo’s heretofore unmentioned ex-girlfriend, Tae-hui, is 1000% #bestgirl. Hoooooooooly f*** is she cool. The moment she stepped on screen, I sat up in my chair and grinned like an idiot. Not because she’s gorgeous, but because sh—okay, well, yes obviously in part because she’s gorgeous, but it was more than that. She’s just…magnetic: supremely confident, intelligent, fearless, and unabashedly straightforward—and you can see it immediately. Like, that’s how the character is written, sure, but it’s not like she walks in and announces this to us, she just…does it. With stage presence alone. She was like Nana and Jeon Yeo-been from their glorious Glitch promotional tour all rolled into one. It was incredible. 

32A. No, seriously—this is a show that has Jung So-min, Kim Ji-eun, and Coach Choi in it…and I’m over here fangirling about some actress I’ve never seen before who’s on screen about 4% as much as any one of the others. I mean, she’s that much of a charm bomb that she wiped all three off the board pretty much immediately. 

32B. And, credit to the show, she wasn’t just some one-off cliche filler plot obstacle for Seung-hyo or Seok-ryu to deal with: she’s a full-fledged character who comes back multiple times—and not as an antagonist! I mean, yes, she’s an obstacle, even when she’s not trying to be, but she’s not made into some kind of contrived villain for the sake of filling time. She’s completely reasonable and very honest about both where she stands and the situation she finds herself in. Y’know, like she’s an actual character. I was so afraid that we were never going to see her again, after they resolved her first appearance, but she kept coming back. Not often enough for my liking (though it would never be enough), but certainly whenever it made sense for her to come back. And it was great. 

32C. That said, the ex-girlfriend isn’t in the finale, though, so f*** this show. 

And that’s Love Next Door. For whatever that’s worth. 

I think there was some informal debate about whether this or No Gain, No Love was better, but I think they’re probably about evenly matched, pound for pound—though I’d give the edge to this one because the script is better, at least in terms of its character writing. Other than that, I’d say they’ve got a lot of the same flaws. But both are still mostly fine. 

[shrug]

We can only work with what’s in front of us, right?

And what’s in front of us next? Well…I dunno. I’ve got some options, some ideas, maybe even some plans. Why ruin the surprise?

I mean, ruin the surprise after the spin-off to No Gain, No Love. You already know that one is coming. 

But what could follow after? A new weekly? An old recommendation? IS IT GOING TO BE BTS?!

Only one way to find out. 

Or, well, I think there’s only one way. You can probably think of three. Like, just off the top of your head. Ugh, I don’t know why I’d ever think I could surprise you. Such a fool.

Sigh…

In fairness, I did promise you embarrassing. So. 

Anyway. 

More soon. 

—Daryl