Signal

2016 is something indeed...

Wow. Honestly I don't even know where to start with this drama. It has been an age since I last wrote a review, but this work is that good to remind me I have an account here to convince anyone on the fence to WATCH THIS RIGHT NOW.

There has been talk that 2016 was THAT year for kdramas. From Goblin, to Weightlifting Fairy and Scarlet Heart...I can't believe it took me this long to watch SIGNAL.

Having DNF'd a few dramas lately, I decided to go with this on a whim having seen the poster in passing many times, and now recognised Kim Hye Soo from watching Juvenile Justice the year it was released, and Lee Je Hoon from Taxi Driver. Ended up being hooked at the end of the first episode.

The premise is unique, and it's not your typical crime drama. Being able to suddenly communicate with someone in the past immediately serves a large hope and brilliant possibility for tragedies to be prevented. Anyone would cling on to it for dear life. The drama does address this and more, but never in black and white. There are choices and consequences, courage and morality, and above all, what it means to be in a team, and the value of time with those around you.

There were more than few occasions I was so overwhelmed and yes, there have been tears (which happens rarely in my case personally, and it had been unexpected in a crime drama). I love SIGNAL and think it's one of those where it will likely stay with me for a long time.

The switch between past and present is weaved so seamlessly in the storytelling, I found myself marvelling at the incredible writing and structure, and again, reminded why kdramas are the absolute GOAT. It does take some time to wrap your head around what is happening, and changing, and I ended up pausing just to digest these details as the episodes progressed.

There's inevitable layers of complexity involved when it comes to a past/present plotline, and I half worried it might end up being too messy at some point, but SIGNAL remained brilliantly consistent in quality and requires a bit of work on the viewers' part to make it make sense.

Honestly, it is worth it, and I will spare you the essays regarding the world class acting. When you witness Kim Haesoo's stellar performance, it's no wonder she won Best Actress at the 52nd Baeksang Arts Awards (equivalent to Oscar in Kdramaland).

Highly recommend if you haven't seen this gem yet, absolutely unmissable if you are a fan of the crime genre.

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Mixed bag

I've read so many raves about Signal and am aware that the drama garnered best drama at the 52nd Baeksang Arts Awards, so I was really looking forward to it. I like gritty detective stories, particularly Scandinavian noir and this sounded right up my alley.

Ultimately, I found myself disappointed in the drama. There was a lot of good, but some lazy storytelling marred the series.

First, the good:
Interesting premise: the idea of a walkie talkie that could connect detectives in modern-day (2015) Seoul with a detective in the past was intriguing and generally well used. I liked seeing detectives work on a case in both timelines--and the effect that solving a crime in the past had on the present. I was particularly intrigued in one episode where using the walkie talkie led to tragic consequences. It wasn't used as a device that magically solved all problems.

Tie in to actual past crimes in Korea. It was interesting to learn about some of these past crimes; I found myself googling the particular crimes to learn more about them.

Character development: I especially loved Detective Lee Jae-han and his commitment to doing the right thing. Park Hae-ye's storyline was also interesting, as we learned about his past family tragedies.

The not-so-good:
The romance between Lee Jae-han and Kim Hye-soo. She seemed mostly a bumbling, enthusiastic rookie with a rather immature one-sided crush on her superior officer. Her behavior seemed inappropriate to me; she kept chasing him even when he expressed his disinterest.

The crime solving relied on coincidence and the hunches of the profilers far too often. In one episode, the detectives in 2015 Seoul are trying to track down the victim of a crime who had lied about her attacker. Park Hae-ye uses his profiling skills to deduce where she might work, and then just happens to see someone walking past him and figures out that it is her--based solely on what? He's never seen her before, but yet she walks past him in the street? Similarly, in the final episode, Lee Jae-han determines that a perpetrator has thrown away a crucial piece of evidence at a rest stop near a particular pharmacy. But by the time he arrives, the trash has been collected. We next see him at the landfill tearing through bags, only for a homeless woman to walk by him with the very item that he needs.

I was willing to suspend my disbelief for the main plot device, but the crime solving aspect was just too far-fetched.

I still give this drama a fairly high score because it was well-directed and well-acted. If only the crime solving had been a bit more thoughtful, this drama would be an "A", instead it's a B, maybe a B-

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Signal has always been a series which caused me doubts whether I really like it or not as the summaries I have read about this series did not really catch my eye, so I am glad that I gave it the benefit of the doubt (thanks to you voters!) and I ABSOLUTELY love it! It is pretty safe to say that this series is among my favourites right now.

The story was well-created and told in a way that it would keep your interests throughout the show, in which they mislead you with different plot twists and side stories, which eventually were connected to the main story itself.  By dealing with several crime/rape cases. the producers and directors approached each crime in a different way. For example in one crime, you'll know the culprit immediately, while in others you did not. They did even hire the perfect actors/actresses for specific roles as all three of them exceeded my expectations with their performance, especially Lee Je Hoon's role as Park Hae Young impressed me.

So I definitely recommend you all to watch it if you haven't watched it as of yet. It is totally worth it.

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Definitely a must watch!

Definitely the best Kdrama, no scratch that, one of the best dramas ever made!

I have read mostly great things about this drama and wanted to keep it on my watchlist in case I ever needed particularly good entertainment. After almost 6 years this moment arrived. I finally watched it! And I’m not disappointed one bit. Well the last was a lie, the ending is making me kinda nervous.

First two important things:

* All of you who have been watching this series on a weekly basis while it was airing must have nerves of steel. Teach me your ways Senpai!
* And even worse, you were waiting for season 2 since 2016... HOW EVEN??!?

My review:

The drama has everything one needs! Definitely a must watch! Probably no potential for a rewatch, as the suspense is very important for such a crime series.

Positive:

* Great story, acting, music, vibe, suspense, cinematography, pacing, message, characters and villains (I hated them, which is a good sign for villains).
* The 3 leads were charismatic, intelligent and were of different ages which is so refreshing! Oh and the female lead was finally normal (strong enough and still had feelings/empathy), what a surprise!
* The motives and behavior of all characters were believable and kinda human. They all had weaknesses and strengths.
* It has a lot of realism (without being boring/annoying) with a cool scifi aspect to it and a pinch of a love story (no forced “they have to kiss once at the end” and not really a 2nd lead).
* It has no unnecessary CGI or stupid overdone fights (everything felt real and yet exciting).

Negative:

* On a contrary to many, I like the ending, it fits the whole vibe. But it makes me nervous, so I can’t say it is a great ending. I need season 2 to be able to sleep better. Is there any hope we will get one?
* Up until the end I wasn’t 100% sure if what they portrayed between Park Hae Young and Cha Soo Hyun was only respect/friendship or should show some kind of one-sided love on Park Hae Young’s side or the start of a new love between them both. I loved their friendship and wish it was meant that way/will stay that way. However, at moments I felt conflicted, because they would make a great love pair... I would have preferred they would not have given me mixed signals tbh. Does anyone get me or am I the only one seeing things? Maybe I'm just having a permanent 2nd lead syndrome. :(
* If you are watching this for a love story, then you will be disappointed. It’s not the main driver of this show. It’s just a nice touch to it.

Trigger warning:

* This is not a deal breaker for me, because it is needed for a crime series to be good. However, some of you might not like the violence and themes of the crimes they try to solve... Not much is shown, but still, some of you might not be comfortable watching this.

Now, guys go watch it if you haven’t and if you have please talk to me. Tell me it’s going to be alright!!!!!

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This is one drama that I would recommend to all my friends family colleague!! if you are a new fan of k-dramas, you definitely cant miss this thriller drama! from the plot to the small details of this drama, everything is perfect and it really can keep you on your edge of your chair. Although I have watched fashion king (where lee je hoon starred in), I didn't remember the role that he acted in. But after this drama, I'm in lost of words at how amazing his acting is! this has to be his representative drama other than the movie "architecture 101" where he acted with suzy in.

OH! if you are a fan of thriller dramas like Signal, I recommend you to watch "voice"!!! IF YOU ARE MISSING "SIGNAL", YOU DEFINITELY HAVE TO WATCH "VOICE"

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The potential...

So yesterday I finished the drama, and honestly I wanted to love it so so much but it just couldn't live up to my expectations. I really liked the plot, the music, the visual, it gave me a bit of a True Detective feeling. And still I nearly dropped the whole thing after the 4th episode, because the writing pissed me up so much. Basically every character was terribly written.
Lee Jae Han: Who is despite a policeman, creeping on his crush following her from 10 meter and hiding behind bushes when she turns? And literally trying to run away when the girl approaches him? Srsly? As a fresh policeman he should be more than 14 years old i guess. At least later on the show he matures and from there he is the most realistic character of them all.
Park Hae Yeong: The absolute worst character I ever met. In the majority of the show he just stares into the abyss with a question mark above his head, or just simply asking back to every piece of information given three times.
He is not the killer!
He is not the killer?
No he is not
So…. he is not?
Despite he supposed to be the brain in the “team”, he was basically useless in the entire show. He is definitely not a professional detective, just a selfish emotional idiot. Sometimes I was truly thinking he got some mental challenges to understand the most basic things happening around him…
The Cold cases team, is also a non existent thing, because the show falls into the most brasil soap op cliche of all times, the members are not talking to each other, not sharing informations the typical thing where a problem could be solved with 2 sentences but, nooo the characters just staring each other and then walking away silently… Oh Cmooon!
I understand they wanted drama everywhere but this is not the way you should make drama. This is just bullshit. I was preparing myself for the episode where they show us the Inju case (the main thing. The case which started all of this), I really hoped they will give to the `what happened that day` a full episode placed only in the past, and show us (the viewers) the brutality of the gang rape, how the whole village knows what happened, who did it, but keeps silent because of the absolute power of the cement company… That could have been dramatic where we see how bad is when company leaders have absolute power on people and even the police. What we got? A half episode a weird rape scene where one person rapes the girl who gets into the hospital after? So it wasnt a gang rape then? Or when did it actually happened? Did I miss something?
Every time something good happened, and I started to lay back to finally enjoy the show the writers decided to make some idiot choice which ruined the whole experience again and again leaving me frustrated because this show had so much potential. The way Lee Jae Han finds the scarf… I'm still shocked how bad that was. And why the heck they had to explain everything like two times to the viewers? I constantly felt the writers thinking im stupid or just really slow like Park Hae Yeong. I remember the scene where I was like “finally the scene they made clever”. It was the photographers missing girlfriend and the fact she was reading a book and they just showed the book in her hand for a split second and I was like omg yess the book the book! And what happened next? I can imagine the writers were like “Oke, we need to explain to the people what is happening because you know not all of them are so smart like our police” and bammm another disappointing solution. Same with the woman who comes back to SK because of the sick mother. You can put together the puzzle pieces but noooo Cha Soo Hyun explains you everything when she talks to the sister…

Im so pissed, because this could have been a unique masterpiece but the lazy, incompetent writing ruined the show for me.

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just straight up a waste of time

Just bad. The first maybe 3 episodes were great and promising and then everything just took a turn for the worst. Every fucking thing is inconsistent and everyone is just evil. It's like they just had a big ball of the worst things humankind could do and kept picking chits out of it every 20 minutes. No catharsis AT ALL just pain and discomfort. Why were all the murders only of women and children? God i could write a whole book of the the plot holes and issues I have with this drama. Can't believe I wasted so much time — my sister and I started the show one night and got hooked initially but it was so fucking dumb and bad as it progressed BUT we couldn't stop. The agony. We had to complete nearly 18 hours worth of run time in 10 hours by skipping tonnes of shit and watching it at 1.5x (don't worry you won't miss anything) I've never hated lead characters this much ever before the two male leads (esp lee jehoon) were all that kept me going. And I generally only like the women in a show but MY GOD did they make me hate the FL. Just bad don't watch this show it's just awful. I should've just read about it on dramabeans. As a film and writing student especially i really lost the will to live while watching this raging pile of dogshit the crew and cast that worked on this need to reflect on their actions.

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