Signal (2016)

You don’t want to miss it

I had a hard time to get a grip onto that series. I mean, I started to watch it several times and dropped out of boredom but finally came to the end. It is a great plot. Honestly a great plot.

It apparently is based on some true stories even if most of them compiled together don’t really add up to the point where it is comparable to the series.

Anyway I liked the plot very much even if the end was not flawless. It is acceptable.

The only drawback to me are the performances. We can all say that Kim Hye Su is a great actress. And I am convinced by all vilain characters in a performance point of view.

Unfortunately, Lee Je Hoon is lacking so much. Sorry for the fans but there is something wrong. In his favor I wonder if the filming direction was good in this way… There are a lot of long scenes where he just… think ? wonder ? try to show emotions ? those scenes are seconds but feel like minutes and he never conveys it right.

As for Jo Jin Woong, I was convinced by his performance but the too much crying (sorry spoiler) didn’t work at some point.

That is actually my point that the performances
of the 2 main characters don’t feel natural.

But the story is indeed great !

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This drama could be split into four cases: Gyeonggi Nambu murders, 1995 Larceny case, 1997 Hongwong-dong murders and the final, most important case - Injoo (poor Sun Woo - my heart broke for him.)

It actually kickstarts with the kidnapping of a young girl, and the thriller starts.

In the first two cases, they did a slow reveal of who the killer was, which was pointless in my POV, because I figured out who was the killer and burglar respectively, in like, 2 seconds. In the first one, the second the bus driver said, "No-one got on at that stop" it was bloody obvious who it could be (hint: it's not the bus driver.) In the second one, there was no witnesses except the rich boy...and lo be'hold - it doesn't take a genius to figure out who it could be. I felt like my intelligence was being mildly insulted, but the walkie-talkie side-drama, kept my score around 7/10. You know - that awesome thing that can communicate with Lee Jae Han in the past :)

In the last two cases, they revealed who the culprits were straightaway, so I just settled in to watching the net closing in on them! It was actually kinda fun. My fav bits were the flashbacks on how the crimes were committed, and the human emotion it wrought. We really were spoiled! Also any scene with Lee Jae Han in it. The time looping was very impressive.

Questions that I still want to know the answers too:

1) Park Hae Young's phone kept ringing at 11:22, just before the 11:23 transmissions, 2 or 3 times. Who was it? Why was it never mentioned again? (That bugged me the most, surprisingly)

2) Does this have a second season? :)

Extra mention to Cha Soo Hyun, she was brilliantly acted by Kim Hye Soo. That woman!

Also strangely - my most favourite character besides, LJH, was Ahn Chi Soo. He wasn't quite a good guy, nor was he a full out blown bad guy (I love how he supported the Cold case team sometimes, at odds with his jerkface boss, Kim Bum Joo) and the reveal with his character in ep 11 (was it 11?) was my fav cliffhanger of the show. I like people who straddle both light and dark, in the murky grey area.

The soundtrack was great. Really elevated the show throughout. I didn't even realise the last episode was 1 hour and 1/2, I was so amazed that a show, could still remain exciting to the end, raising questions, instead of solving them! Kudos Signal team. You outdid yourselves!

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This is truly a special Korean drama - one of those that have the perfect combination of great writing, great acting, and great directing.

At first instance, it gave me a True Detective vibe, which shows the ambition of the show from the get-go.

For once, there were no overwhelming loveline in the story. Just a overwhelming sense of tragedy and injustice, which is precisely what the audience SHOULD be feeling, because those are exactly what drive our main characters forward throughout the show. Police corruption and injustice seem to be popular topics to cover in Korean dramas, but if there’s one thing we can all agree on, it’s that wrongs must be made right.

The writing was not simplistic at all; the storylines are tightly woven together and the stories are carefully told and not laid out all at once to force-feed the viewer with information. The writer gives it to us bit by bit and allows the story to unfold naturally, so the viewers can come to a gradual realization of the real horrors of the injustices. I was totally hooked to the show to the very end; it genuinely kept me coming back for more after each episode.

The 3 leads are not actors you see often on TV so it was a real bonus to have them join this project. Each one of them did a great job, especially Jo Jin Woong, truly the star of the show. It was also great to have, for once, a strong female character who was placed front and centre of the show, NOT for the sake of having a lead female character. She was a capable detective who HAPPENED to be a woman. Isn’t that fab?

Clearly from the above, I highly highly recommend this show for a gripping and rewarding watch.

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Lee Jae Han forever

This Drama is on a whole other level. I have never seen anything like it.

Starting with the hyper-high-octane nature of the Drama that makes 24 look slow, Signal is at the same time like a Russian novel, more complex than even Stranger 2 (which feels like a discourse in political philosophy they had the guts to make into a Drama).

I can overlook obvious flaws, like the decision to play up overly emotional moments which feels manipulative at times. During the course of the Drama I realized that emotional trauma makes up the crucial moments of everyone's life. Also, certain scenes are repeated over and over, because those crucial moments in life stay with you and are the ones you ruminate over.

These emotionally loaded scenes contrast with and bring depth to the gripping hunt for criminals and make for much needed breathing space. The Drama also infuses a very dark story with a lot of hilarious comic release moments that feel almost brutal in how they break the tension.

I think the storytelling and pacing is absolutely masterful here. It builds a perfect circle.

Signal seems to say that suffering is something you might never overcome but you can use as powerful motivator to change yourself and your environment. Without that you might live a more comfortable life but there is a price to pay for it, which may be the suffering around you.

Signal is about what makes you who you are. It closely examins in equal measure trauma, transformation and transcendence. It is healing and, in every sense, life altering.

I feel like I have lived an entire lifetime with these characters and consequently the connection I have to these people is much stronger than with other characters.

Watching Signal is an all-consuming, exhilarating experience.
This is largely due to one character and the acting involved in creating him.

Lee Jae Han: shy, socially inept, an almost naive idealist, tremendously sensitive, stubborn, defiant, gentle, strict, with a strong sense of justice, cheeky and bold, innocent, who shoulders too much responsibility, emotional, caring, grumpy, charming, unflinching, perpetually annoyed and frustrated with anyone and anything standing in his way, no-frills-no-bullshit-no-time-to-waste, quite a temper, empathic, a little silly, no sense for playing politics whatsoever, who over time embraces his outsider status, stepping over every line and on every toe in order to do what he believes is right.

Cho Jin Woong marry me.

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One of the Best time travel and crime drama ever!

I watched this drama very recently and oh
god I loved it. I was a little scared that I
would not like this drama but I freaking
loved it so much. I thought at first that it
would be another drama where we have
to find a serial killer and all and well it
was kinda same but we had to find two
serial killers and a lot more than that.

The thing I loved the most about it that
unlike some detective dramas it showed
the corruption of the police department
and how rich people get away even though
they commit a big crime. It was like an
eye-opener. The time-travel element was
very well written and executed it had its
own rules and they never were broken.

The actors did their jobing like so perfectly.
I specially liked the old detective like
whenever he cried it felt totally real. The
most thing I liked was how the characters
and the story both was so well balanced.
It was just amazing of a drama. Another
thing I liked that the criminals weren’t
labeled as “human trash” just because they
did a crime.

It showed how victim’s family and
criminal’s family was effected to. And just
it was a fabulous drama and I am eagerly
waiting or the season 2. The ending left
me speechless and it needs to have a
season 2! It needs to!

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After a year on my plan to watch list I finally got the time/vibe to watch this drama, and didn't sleeping well for two days was really worthing! Signal is not the kind of drama that everyone will like it, but at the same time is the kind one that grabs and take over your heart and mind. The way that they develop the story and how the things start to make sense is totally amazing! The most crazy thing about this plot is how you start to find out the link between the characters and the cases that they investigate.. The writers did an amazing job here, after one/two episodes you're already hooked to this crazy/amazing drama!
One of the strongest point of this drama is the cast: Lee Je Hoon as Park Hae Yeong is perfect, his expressions, his big lips, the crazy look he has when he's profiling someone, his tears.. are really on point! I dunno another works from him, but after this drama I'll definitively stalker him around. Jo Jin Woong as Lee Jae Han is really good too, I really like the development and how the actor portrait this specific character.. Cha Soo Heyon is not my favorite kind of female character, just for the fact that I feel like almost all her judgements are kind of based on her feelings for Lee Jae Han. But, on the other side, is really cool to watch this strong and amazing woman that doesn't seem afraid of fighting for the right thing. Kim Hye Soo was really cool on the acting scenes and I really think that she has a crazy chemistry with Lee Je Hoon; I shipped Detective Cha with Park Hae Yeong all time long!
Overall I really enjoyed watching this drama and I couldn't stop until I had finished it.. Everything was done pretty well and it's impossible to not like it.

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SUPER ADDICTIVE !

~One of the best detective dramas with fantasy mix
~Keeps you on the edge of your seat the entire time
~Two cops from two different timelines attempt to solve crimes with noticeable repercussions
~Time-travel aspect is executed so well
~Solid acting by leads and their chemistry is very endearing
~Some of the cases are based on real events and can be disturbing at times but handled very sensitively
~Can be tear-jerking if you get too attached to the characters/stories
~The open ending left too many questions and I am still waiting for SEASON 2 GODDAMITT!

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One of my best K-Drama

One of the best mystery Korean dramas in my opinion. At first I was skeptical about watching it, but when I tried 1 episode, I finished it right away.

It's still the best mystery, thriller and crime drama in my opinion, and I'm eagerly waiting for season 2, but it doesn't look like it's going to happen.

In terms of story, cases, the uniqueness of the dynamics of the story really makes the audience drift into it especially in the last episode.

As for the music, I don't remember the OST at all, but I think the tension in the drama itself made me forget about it hahahaha

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