I really loved the ending!! was surprised show didn’t force everyone to live together. Everyone chose their own happiness and yet were bound to each other like family. Sweet!!!

By the end of the show Moo Jin really grew on me. He was the same person he was but matured enough for the family to be happy.

I also liked a different take on the Maknae. He spoke for all of them Maknae in kdramaland.

Kudos to writers for giving Mi Rae a happy ending she wanted. And her romance really adorable from start to finish.

I loved the cameo and the fangirl wink!! lol. What a fun reveal it was. It made total sense he got money this way.

The drama might not have been great but it kept me wanting to continue week after week. The characters felt real. And their growth was satisfying to watch. A condensed 12 episode weekender!!

This was a cute ending to a cute show. I enjoyed it for the low stakes drama it was. Just lovely.

I was watching this alongside Love Next Door. What a surprise that this show delivered the romcom experience as I expected this show to be more melo. I'm going to miss this show providing the counterbalance while I continue to hate watch Love Next Door.

I agree that it was refreshing to see a trope-less ending with Ae-Yeon deciding that living separately was ok and Moo-Jin was ok with it and didn't go on a tantrum. As for our younger couple, perhaps the writer could have added an epilogue with them eventually getting married and CEO/Father in Law turning things over to Mi-Rae? That's just me thinking out loud

Overall, an enjoyable watch with some very photogenic actors/actresses.

I really liked that nobody suddenly became a whole new person at the end of the show - Ae-yeon continued to live alone, Mi-rae is still not interested in marriage and Tae-pyeong is still staying away from corporate life. It was just small changes and communication that healed the family and brought them together. Sweet show!

Towards the end, the story ran out of steam. Even the big secret of how the father got the money, which turned out to be pretty unspectacular, hardly interested me any more.

Instead, I enjoyed every scene with the CEO and his son/brother. It was so obvious that the father loves his child, which made the conversation and dinner together in the last episode all the more enjoyable.

Overall, I thought the ending was good for the respective characters. I can understand why the mother doesn't want to remarry and prefers to live alone for the time being.
The daughter's decision is also understandable because of her experiences with her parents' marriage. However, I can hope for the sake of her boyfriend that celibacy (if I remember the subtitles correctly) only refers to not getting married.

This drama is possibly the surprise of the year for me.

I wasn't intending to watch it but Netflix kept pushing it at me and so I got hooked on the Mi-Rae/Tae-Pyung romance.

It's what LOVE NEXT DOOR should have been.

The last episode was perfect! Unlike shows that start strong and then meander or fully fizzle to nothing at the end, i feel like this show meandered through things and then got some solid emotional exploration and closure for a very satisfying ending. There were some very good moments of comedy too. I'm not sure if I'll revisit it, but I'm glad I watched it.

I loved what Moo Jin and Mi Rae ended up as, he's not trying to playact a genial patriarch and she's not letting her years of hurt keep her from building a new relationship with him. I love that she's finally calling him her father and telling him she was hurt more because she did love him, and his teary eyed delight at hearing her call him father and reciprocating his fatherly overtures was lovely.

I also loved the father son moments with Tae Pyong and the ceo. He'd always been a good father, no matter what their convoluted biological history was, and i loved that Tae Pyong thought about it, returned the affections as his son, and promised to stay in his life, while also making sure he went back to his chosen career path with taekwondo.

I loved that Ae Yeon chose independence without it being unhappy or bitter. She wants Moo Jin around but also wants her hard earned long overdue space, and gets to have it in a delightful grown up way. The romance was very sweet and the resolution to how they move forward was excellent.

Ji Jin Hee does really good kissing scenes lol, the chemistry was great. Moo Jin's character growth was great too, i really liked that he came back to be a support, not try to force his way back into the family, but ended up finding himself well loved with his sincere efforts anyway.

I learned a new word from the subs translator of RiTH last week, "Situationship."

Seems to me that this word sums up the relationship for every single couple in this drama! I ended up loving the growth of our hairdresser and embezzler the most, frankly. There was something truly endearing about them for me.

Throughout the drama, I also appreciated that the styling team had me totally buying that Ji Jin-hee was a former baseball player...even before they dressed him up as a Little League coach. He can rock a pair of heels too. 😉

Such a satisfying ending! Haven't seen one in a while.

I'm very grateful to this drama for staying true to itself and its characters. No sudden revelations or sacrifices were made. Everyone chose themselves, no matter what everyone said or expected. I love that.

1. I was convinced the drama was going to end with a wedding for Ae Yeon and Moo Jin. That always happens in dramas, "we couldn't have a proper wedding in our youth so let's have it now", but, as a pleasant surprise, I liked that even though everyone was pressuring her to get married again and live with Moo Jin, she prioritized herself. I really liked watching her learning to be comfortable with herself, alone.
They may have a wedding or live together in the future, but there's no rush. I like that.

And talking about the "future", I love that when dad and mom said that it is okay they didn't become the best hit or wtv, but they have "Hyeon Jae and Mi Rae", you could also interpret it as them saying that they have "the present and future". So whatever they want to do, they can start doing it now. #tears

2. And about Mi Rae and Tae Pyeong, I think there's nothing else to say. They're in my top 3 of the year too. I haven't seen a couple feel this right in a while. Like, since Sand Flowers.

3. I also liked Hyeon Jae's ending. I wasn't expecting this kid to make me cry, but everything he said was so sad. And I can relate with the "no one tells me anything" in my childhood days.

I liked mom's response and that she appreciated all the work he did for his app.

4. Tae Pyeong's talk with his dad... 😭 They're so adorable.

Anyway, I loved this drama. This heals all the wounds left from the failed weekenders over the years. This is how you make a family drama KBS... 🙄

Such a gem. One of my favorite surprises of the year.

I liked the family relationship part of this drama. I liked how the drama didn't force the couples to get married. But, I feel like the ending wasn't great. The purpose of the drama is that when they put expectations on each other and tried to force their lives, they became miserable. The solution shouldn't be to not choose marriage, but to be open to any changes in their relationship in the future because they developed mutual trust. I think this would have fit the story better. So, the writer should have made it a point to say no marriage for now. Instead, it became an anti-marriage story which doesn't really fit.

My interest in the show had waned in the middle- i think I even skipped eps, but it turned out so good and sweet at the end. I liked how the relationships within the family were resolved, both as a unit, and with each other. I loved that they didn't force marriage as means to an end. A signature doesn't really guarantee happiness, but what matters is love, respect, and commitment between a couple.

What I most appreciated was that between mother and daughter- they recognised that they were both adult women, and needed their space away from each other, yet knowing that they always have each other. This maturity was what was missing from Not Others, where the mom continued to behave childishly until the end. Ae Yeon was such a good mother, cutting the apron strings from both her kids, but telling them that she'll always have their back. I'm so glad everything ended well for this family.

Reading this recap made me realise exactly why I felt unsatisfied with this show throught. It's the fact that TaePyeong's heart-to-heart with his father over drinks made me emotional the way none of Moo-Jin's attempts at reconciliation with his family did. When he went off at the CEO for creating problems for Mi-Rae I felt irritated with him for behaving like a man-child yet again, but when CEO defended his son I swooned.

The parents of the main family just didn't feel authentic, which is surprising since these are veteran actors. I may have dropped this show if not for the younger couple's romance. It was such a joy to watch two very decent and rooted people create a relationship that started with mutual respect and then grew to love.

The ending was unexpected but satisfying. I loved that both couples were happily together, but neither ended up getting married. How refreshing! The writing was consistent throughout, with minimal makjang and zero murders. It had all the expected family-drama beats, a few silly comedic moments, a light-hearted mystery, and romance. I related to Ae-young so much, and as a middle-aged woman, I definitely get the appeal of having romance without sharing your living space. Anyway, this drama wasn't perfect, but it hit just right for me.

Thank you for the recap @unit! Some hyped shows this year were either disappointing or frustrating while this one stayed true to its genre and was a pleasure to watch.
Glad this ended with a happy note and was close to reality.

This drama re-imagined the "we" in family as it morphed into a loose amalgam of "me, myself & I". Such is the reality of growth. Many of us are lucky to start out as a vital member of a close family group which supports & helps each other, until we grow & become individuals needing space to spread out into our new lives. The Villa was a perfect setting for this story, with enough apartments for Mom & Dad when lifestyle fluidity became necessary. Especially when the Maknee rebelled against their expectations and bounced from one apartment to the other. However must day, I didn't really warm-up to many of the characters when the mystery around Moo-jin's past was building, EXCEPT of course for Tae-pyong and his CEO Dad/brother. Loved every one of their scenes because they delivered the only tender moments in the drama for me. All three relationships were successful, yey the low-key anti-marriage ending was overstated somewhat when both female leads made the same decision, reacting to old wounds; and I do get that this is breaking an old 'trope', something K-Dramas are known for. I actually love some of the old tropes but understand this story as part of a wave that's breaking new territory for dramas. Although who knows, this too, could end up becoming an overdone trope in the future as well. KDramas do reflect a changing culture and Korea has indeed been changing...witness the data for less marriages and children in their country. (and many others). Also too, is the arrival of the "mukbang' on the internet, where people turn in to watch someone eating a meal alone, while the viewers themselves are watching alone. An interesting drama...