Drama Review: Flower Boy Next Door Episode 1

Flower Boy Next Door

Episode 1

            I am bummed that Viki.com still doesn’t have the license to air Flower Boy Next Door.  It is the only website that shows dramas for free with little to no commercials, plus I don’t really have to worry about possible viral attacks to my computer.

            Anyways, the first episode was more like an introduction of all the characters that will have a major role in Go Dok Mi’s life.  I couldn’t think of anyone who could have done a better job playing the cute, socially challenged, sometimes a little creepy, peeping tom character than Park Shin Ye.  That’s a compliment, by the way. J

            So, the guy she’s been spying is Tae Joon who is a cousin of Enrique Geum.  She didn’t expect that Tae Joon actually lives in the apartment building right across hers.  On top of that, she can see his place from her window which leads to her buying this child toy binoculars from a convenient store.  How convenient that it actually works!
 

            In all her creepiness, she even plays the role as the co-owner of Tae Joon’s dog which she calls “Blackie”.  Now, it is not clear whether that dog’s name is indeed Blackie.  Her concern for this dog will result to an embarrassing accidental meeting with Enrique Geum.  We can talk more about that later.  So, Dok Mi knows almost everything about Tae Joon except the real Tae Joon, if you know what I mean.  She knows his schedules—what time he wakes up, exercises, leaves for work, and comes home from work.  What else she knows about him, I’m not sure yet.  There’s got to be more than what I already mentioned.  The thing is, the guy doesn’t even know she exists nor does she have the courage to introduce herself to him.  She’s just socially challenge in that aspect—like meeting normal people, I guess, because there was a part when she even told a very strange guy about how she first started liking Tae Joon.  What’s with that?  I think strange people feel more comfortable with each other.

            On the other hand, Jin Rok, who is a struggling webtoon artist have always noticed her despite her trying to avoid to be seen by the world.  He even drew her on his iPad.  It looks to me that there is already a spark of interest towards Dok Mi.  When will he have the guts to actually do something about it, I don’t know yet.  We’ll just have to watch.  He lives in the same apartment building as Dok Mi and is sharing an apartment with his friend and co-worker Dong Hoon.  The two guys just finished their webtoon, Zombie Soccer, but it was rejected because it was similar to the theme of the game created by Enrique, so Jin Rak very quickly [so as to save his pride] suggested the topic about a very shy girl who doesn’t come out of her apartment and have a pretty boy for a neighbor.  Well, to cut the story short, it’s pretty much like the life of Dok Mi.  It passed the taste of the editor so all they have to do now is to come up with a story behind the idea.  His very talkative friend, Don Hoon, of course felt that he is the force behind the idea of the “flower boy next door”.  I already have a feeling that this guy will add a lot of comedy and spice to this series.

            There is also the security guard of their building who later assigned Dok Mi to be the new representative for the demonstration their doing against the fine they have to pay—this has something to do with the apartment fees.  He is one of those guys that think a woman is playing hard to get when they reject him or ignores him every time he approaches them.  Just the thought makes me smile plus he makes a really funny facial expression every time he thinks that he’s “something”. 

            Now we’re down to the male lead, Enrique Geum.  He is a gamer (creative director) genius who entered the game world at the age of 17.  He is very popular especially to women for his looks and talent.  But maybe mostly because of his looks!  You know how it goes.  He is called by some as the god of gaming. 

            He has a girl friend named Seo Young who seemed to have a liking towards him.  It isn’t clear to me yet if he still likes her or not but he offered to be the cupid between her and Tae Joon.  Based on her facial expression, she didn’t look like her heart was jumping up and down.  If she actually cares for Enrique, I feel bad for this girl.  It was like the worst way to get rejected.  It wasn’t just an insinuation of a “no” but she was also being pushed towards another guy.  Or maybe she was the way she was because she likes Tae Joon but she is concerned about Enrique since she is supposedly his first love and she doesn’t want to hurt him.  Although in some character description, it was mentioned that she likes Tae Joon and not Enrique, I just don’t want to jump into conclusion since the drama itself hasn’t really showed that yet. 

            Going back to Enrique, although he is very fashionable when he is out into the world, he is no different from your everyday Joe inside his home (in this case Tae Joon’s apartment).   He is just as sloppy.  Not in a gross way, though. 

            So how did Dok Mi and Enrique meet for the first time?  How did their two different worlds intersect?  It was more of an accidental, comical, embarrassing, incident caused by human error on the part of Dok Mi and she can blame it to the dog.  When Tae Joon came back to his apartment sometime in the middle of the day, he placed a kettle with boiling water [supposedly] on the edge of the table.  This kettle fell on the dog and everything inside it when Tae Joon left.  Of course Dok Mi, who was spying on him at the time, saw everything and was really worried about the dog.  She tried to chase Tae Joon to let him know but she ended up having a conversation with a very strange guy.  She called their equivalent of 911 and reported what happened.  After a while, she went straight to his apartment and was talking to the dog [outside the door] checking if the dog was alright.  She was in her crazy self in this unusual, creepy, situation when Enrique got there and imitated her actions. 

She initially crawled her way out of his sight then ran due to excessive embarrassment.  I am saying excessive embarrassment because even a normal person would be embarrassed in that situation so what more a socially challenged individual.  She will later realized while scoping Tae Joon’s apartment using her binoculars that Enrique also resides (or maybe?) in the same apartment.  Enrique kind of felt like he was being observed when Dok Mi was checking on him.  Fortunately for Dok Mi, she didn’t get caught!

            Then there is Watanabe, whose first sight of Dok Mi was when she first woke up in the morning with a toothbrush in her mouth and a jug of water on her right hand.  Despite that, she got nothing but smiles from Watanabe.   This was the morning when he moved in to the same apartment building as Dok Mi.

            In that same morning when Dok Mi was checking on Tae Joon, Enrique caught her red handed.  The same yellow binoculars she uses to see Tae Joon paved way to realizing that her secret is not a secret anymore!  With it she saw Enrique wearing his fluffy panda hat staring at her while signaling that “he can see her”.  There is no denying that she is indeed spying.  Enrique now has a concrete basis for his suspicion the night before.  He then walked straight to her apartment to confront her.  Meanwhile, Watanabe is getting ready to meet his new neighbors and his neighbors [whom he sent messages to] are doing the same. 

            Dok Mi’s nerves filled her apartment with anxiety but there is no avoiding Enrique.  Then there was the door buzzer!  She didn’t know what to do…Then the end of the first episode and I’m like, “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO?!”