Flower Boy Next Door

When I was first getting into drama back in late 2013, I started with all the popular romantic comedies, most of which starred Park Shin-hye. I was like, "Wait... Didn't I just see her in You're Beautiful? And wasn't he in Boys Over Flowers? Wow, Heirs is weird." After the torturous, angsty Heirs I found Flower Boy Next Door, which resonated with me far more than any other show I'd watched thus far. It still has a special place in my heart.

Flower Boy Next Door is about Go Dok-mi, a woman reluctant to leave her little room after some experiences in high school traumatized her. All she wants is to be as little involved with others as possible, but when bubbly Enrique comes barging into her life, she has no defense.

Flower Boy Next Door is the third of four drama on tvN that revolve around "flower boys", which are essentially very pretty men. I've watched the first drama, Flower Boy Ramyun Shop, and seriously hated it. Although both shows centered around people who felt they were failing in life, they had very different tones. Flower Boy Next Door was sweet and thoughtful where Ramyun Shop was brash and cringey. That's just my opinion, I know many people loved Ramyun Shop and it's not that it's a bad show, but more of a matter of taste.
I think this show was marketed wrong. I would argue the same for a lot of early tvN shows, actually. Flower Boy Next Door is not a comedy - there are funny moments, but I would actualy describe the main tone of the show as 'gloomy', since it reflects the state of our heroine as she grows. Flower Boy Next Door is about how its okay to be hurt, to be vulnerable, but it was marketed lie any other thoughtless rom-com. Bright, bubbly posters. A cheap looking, upbeat opening card.

  I get that the budget for this show was probably quite low, and they did the best with what they have, but it does show. The way its directed is weird at first  - it gets better later, but the use of colour at first is especially strange. It does improve over the course of the drama, though.
  I liked how this show didn't rely of dramatic tropes to pull the plot onward. I'm used to seeing drama full of flashy sets, but Flower Boy Next Door was set in a small neighbourhood full of colourful characters. It was quite realistic in the sense that the characters were all a little broken, and they only began to heal once they opened themselves up to new experiences, and potentially more pain. Dok-mi's emotional journey was engaging - I was captured by her from the very first episode and dying for her to voice all the thoughts she was burying. Although it isn't apparent at first, she and Enrique have more in common than they realise. It's easy to forget that under all the charm and chatter, Enrique is just a normal person who wants what everyone else has. Where he hides it under a facade, Dok-mi chooses to close herself away so no-one can ever find it. Maybe they just need a little love?
  Flower Boy Next Door gives a little insight into all the different types of love. For example, Dok-mi's next-door neighbour is Oh Jin-rak, a failing webtoon artist who has secretly loved her from the moment they met. But with Dok-mi rarely leaving her apartment, the only way Jin-rak can express his feelings is to leave her little anonymous drawings for her outside her door. He believes that, as  long as he waits paitently, Dok-mi will eventually venture outside more, but the chance to be her knight is swept out from under him when the loud and intrusive Enrique steps into her life. He's forced to watch as the two of them become closer, and wonder if that could have been him. One-sided love is always painful, but it makes for some interesting conflict.
  Yoon Shi-yoon was complete gold and showed an impressive range, portraying a likeable and layered Enrique. Unfortunately, I don't really have anything to compare his performance to. This was the first I'd seen of him, and he was terribly miscast for Me Too, Flower, a drama that was too bizarre for me to complete. I'm always thinking about which of Park Shin-hye's various romantic-comedies that I like the most, and while I still haven't decided, it's probably this one.
  In short, Flower Boy Next Door is a cute, quirky rom-com on the surface and a warm, contemplative human story in the centre. It set a high standard for me regarding romance stories - now, I can't finish a show if it doesn't balance happiness to heartbreak equally. I also can't finish a show if I don't find any interesting or relatable qualities in the characters, and if I don't notice them growing and changing. It's safe to say I really wish I could be Park Shin-hye. She's just too blessed.