Love Next Door – K-drama Episode 1 Recap & Review

Comeback

Episode 1 of Love Next Door features a group of friends on a hiking trip. Two of them are neighbours who can’t help but flaunt their successful children—Choi Seung-hyo, a star architect, and Bae Seok-ryu, an employee at a renowned firm in the U.S. – earning an unimaginable amount of money. While they bicker about whose child is more successful, Seung-hyo receives an award as a co-founder of an architecture firm, while Bae Seok-ryu suddenly returns to Korea amidst the hype surrounding her upcoming marriage.

Baek Seok-ryu’s childhood friend, Jung Mo-eun (who is also the daughter of one of her mother’s friends) picks her up from the airport. They reminisce about their childhood over tteokbokki. It’s not until Seok-ryu hides from her brother that we realize there’s something suspicious about her sudden arrival.

Since Mo-eun, being a paramedic, has to leave early, Seok-ryu meets another childhood friend, or as she calls him, her “mother’s friend’s son,” Seung-hyo. You’d expect long-lost friends to be thrilled to see each other, but it turns out Seung-hyo and Seok-ryu aren’t as fond of each other as one might expect. “What are you doing here?” is amusingly the first thing Seung-hyo asks Seok-ryu.

After a bit of bickering over Seok-ryu standing on Seung-hyo’s “land,” Seok-ryu ends up hiding inside a large packing box when her mother and her friends return from their hiking trip. After some pleading, Seung-hyo helps Seok-ryu avoid her mother’s wrath. She then sneaks into Seung-hyo’s new office building, nearly damaging a million-dollar piece of metal that Seung-hyo claims is an artefact. Here we learn that as kids, Seok-ryu often unintentionally hurt Seung-hyo, as shown by the scar on Seung-hyo’s back where Seok-ryu once accidently pushed him into barbed wire snare.

Elsewhere, Mo-eun rushes to an emergency call and tries to handle a particularly difficult homeless man. Here she meets Kang Dan-ho, who is later revealed to be a writer searching for touching tales about ordinary people.

Meanwhile, Seung-hyo and Seok-ryu head towards their house, with Seok-ryu preparing for war by donning multiple layers of clothing to protect herself from her ruthless mother, as she knows she’s done something that will surely earn her a beating.

But Seok-ryu hadn’t anticipated that her parents, along with Seung-hyo, would overhear her telling Seung-hyo that she’d broken off her engagement. All hell breaks loose when her mother charges at her with a bunch of leeks in a chaotic slapstick comedy. We find out that not only did Seok-ryu call off her wedding, but she also resigned from her job and moved permanently back home.

Amidst her mother’s lashings and her father’s dramatic fainting, Seung-hyo and Seok-ryu manage to escape together, sitting in a park until the situation calms down. For the record, her layers of clothing did protect her from her mother’s leek-laden assaults!

Seok-ryu confides in Seung-hyo about how she felt lost under the burden of moving to a different country, starting a new job, and planning a wedding. “Going at full throttle all the time like that overloaded my CPU. The screen went blank and the keys stopped working. So I had no choice but to reboot myself,” she tells Seung-hyo.

They return home when Seung-hyo receives a call from Seok-ryu’s brother, with her mother promising not to beat her again Asian-mom style. But that’s revealed to be a hoax as chaos ensues yet again, this time with Seok-ryu trapped inside the house thanks to Seung-hyo’s mischievousness.

In the closing scene, we see a young Seok-ryu protecting an equally young Seung-hyo from bullies. “Now that she’s back, it’s going to get chaotic again,” adds Seung-hyo, as the episode ends!

The Episode Review

‘Love Next Door’ episode 1 starts strong with a compelling and entertaining chemistry between our protagonists, Seung-hyo and Seok-ryu. The first episode is mostly introductory but highly amusing, with brilliant performances from its star-studded cast.

The premise may feel a bit overused, with ‘Love Next Door’ mirroring themes from K-dramas like ‘Welcome to Samdal-ri’ and ‘Doctor Slump’, offering a similar vibe and tropes. However, the chemistry between the talented actors ensures a generous helping of slapstick comedy and engaging characters. Do let us know your first impressions and thoughts about the K-drama in the comments!