Signal

Signal

8/10

Signal

Genre:                                     Episodes: 16                            Year: 2016

Mystery

Thriller

Synopsis:

Park Hae Young is a criminal profiler with a deep distrust in police officers. After his team successfully solve an old murder case minutes before the statute of limitations applies, the government decide to abolish the statute of limitations and create a cold case squad. While working, Hae Young receives strange radio transmissions from the past, and he works with Detective Lee Jae Han to solve cold cases by gathering evidence in the present, and also the past. 

Cast:

Lee Je Hoon (Park Hae Young)

Kim Hye Soo (Cha Soo Hyun)

Cho Jin Woong (Lee Jae Han)

Jang Hyun Sung (Kim Bum Joo)

Jung Hae Kyun (Ahn Chi Soo)

Kim Won Hae (Kim Gye Chul)

General Thoughts:

This drama is an experience. It takes a little while before it snags you- but when it does, it has you forever. Dramas that deal with time tend to be a little bit confusing, and ‘Signal’ is no exception, only its confusing in a good way. Not only are the viewers surprised and confused by results of tampering with time, so are our characters- because once desperation kicks in, all rules are gone and the timelines start to change.

And the changes aren't always good...

While the series does include the butterfly effect, thankfully it doesn’t focus too heavily on how the past changes the future. The idea is there for sure, but the writers don’t take it too far, and the future timeline has big, dynamic changes (like people dying or not dying)- but the core elements of the future remain unchanged, which let us live in a steady, consistent time and gives a sense of continuity despite all the past/present changes.

Poor pumpkin didn't get the chance to smile much

The idea itself is quite novel (though it’s very similar to the American film ‘Frequency’), so there’s no set rules for how to interact with people from the past, because it’s an idea that has rarely even been seen in movies. The acting was pretty fantastic all-round, even by those that had small roles. At first I found Lee Je Hoon overacted a little, but as the series went on he settled into the character of Hae Young much more naturally. As the feel of the drama became much darker and much more desperate, Lee Je Hoon’s acting fit the tone of the series well. And at the end of the day, I’d much rather have my actors overacting than underacting. It took me a while to warm up to Kim Hye Soo as Cha Soo Hyun, but in the end I really enjoyed her in this role. She fit the not-so-girly detective well, and did an excellent job at portraying both the past and present versions of Soo Hyun. Kim Hye Soo nailed the innocent new police officer with a crush on her sunbae, and showed the excellent transition of how this enthusiastic rookie became the independent realist detective in 2015. The effective flashbacks that were used throughout the series also helped in crafting the identity of Soo Hyun, and assisted greatly in making her an understandable, likeable heroine.

Or you could both quit and go live in the mountains and be happy hermits and not die.

Then we have Cho Jin Woong as Lee Jae Han, and he’s just perfect. He has the perfect image for the gruff police officer from the past, but showed just enough vulnerability that he never became too harsh. Of our three main leads, Cho Jin Woong definitely had the hardest task as he had to show such a diverse range of emotion.

He's sad, I'm sad, everybody's sad

He was believable in every aspect of Jae Han’s life, and it’s obvious that the actor put a lot of thought and effort behind his portrayal of Jae Han. It was always obvious to the audience why Jae Han acted the way he did, and what situations led him to act in certain ways. He was a loveable, awkward goof when it came to Soo Hyun, but could become a desperate, powerless officer with Kim Bum Joo in the very next scene. Jae Han’s struggles were perfectly emoted and added a huge amount of tension to the drama, as Jae Han was the one in the past who would be able to alter past events and change the future for our other characters. And let’s be real- were we ever not going to love the righteous cop struggling for justice in a corrupt world? While I really enjoyed the underdog fight, the drama did sometimes get a bit too depressing when it seemed like our three good guys could barely make a dent in the huge world of corruption and bribery. The show wasn’t afraid to go to some really dark places, which added so much tension to the series, and raised the stakes much higher than other shows who play it safe.

The criminals were scary, and it was scary that they were walking around free

It primed the audience to really despise those that were using their power to keep themselves safe while also pushing down innocent, powerless people. While I adored almost all of this drama, I felt the payoff at the end wasn’t quite as satisfying as I wanted- but I guess I should almost have expected that given that the drama’s whole commentary was that the world never changes and that the rich and powerful can always abuse the poor and powerless.

Tell Jae Han to just wait 15 years and then all work on it together

The differences between the past and present were so spot on that it was always easy to tell which timeline we were watching on our screens. The attention to detail is so impressive, as every tiny thing in the past sections of the drama seem as though they really came from that era- the radios, the phones, the cars, even the chairs and desks. It’s also brilliant that technology came into play a little bit- with Jae Han sometimes being unable to catch the criminal purely because the technology in his time isn’t advanced enough to analyse the evidence. It added an extra layer into why our detectives needed each other- Hae Young needed Jae Han to find evidence that wasn’t discovered originally, and Jae Han needed Hae Young to figure out how to use that evidence. The music of the series had a really unique vibe to it, and didn’t remind me of the soundtrack to any other K-Drama I’ve seen, which is an in-the-background, but still brilliant achievement.

What Was Great:

Everyone:

The cast was just a fantastic thing to behold. Our three heroes were all wonderful characters and were all acted brilliantly.

It's just a shame we never got all three of them together

The main antagonist, acted by Jang Hyun Sun, was so dislikable. No matter how hideously a character is written, you need a good performance behind your villain to make him really hatable.

Someone please punch that smug smile right off his face

Despite not getting a lot of background information on Bum Joo, Jang Hyun Sun portrayed him well as a slimy, inhumane man who’d do anything to get ahead. Even the smaller roles were all acted brilliantly. We had criminals coming in for a few episodes while their cold case was being solved, and the many, many criminals we had were all enjoyable. None of the criminal cases were played out the same way, so we had a nice diverse set of characters. Each of their reasons for committing crimes were different, as were each of their reactions at being caught. 

Tie-Ins:

At first I wondered if ‘Signal’ had any sort of overarching plot, or if it was just going to be small crime-of-the-hour plot-lines helped along by mysterious radio transmissions. But once we got into the series, it became evident that all the cases Jae Han worked on were connected (if not only by the fact that he worked on them). It was almost as if the corruption in the world connected everything together- there were so many bribes, fake evidence and destroyed evidence in the police force that it was almost impossible for Jae Han to work a case and not have a run-in with corruption.

♫ Bad boys, bad boys. Whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when they come for you, bad boys ♫

The gradual buildup to how Hae Young was connected was steady, and managed to be fairly unpredictable. It was fascinating to watch how Jae Han and Hae Young were connected through the past case, and how Soo Hyun’s involvement in both the past and the present ended up being the main factor behind the past changing, and Jae Han making it out alive. Interweaving all the cases so intricately with all the corruption made it feel as though our heroes were fighting one big battle that had been going on for decades. The radio transmissions also added a feeling of continued connection and entangled all the different storylines.

There is no timeline where Hyung lives

It added so much emotion to the series, as it gave Jae Han a feeling of responsibility over Hae Young, and that only made it so much harder for them both (and us) when Jae Han failed to save Hae Young’s brother. 

What Wasn’t:

Open Ending:

I’m very, very rarely a fan of open-endings, and in this case I was particularly not keen to have one.

Let's just end it here and go home

It felt like all drama long we were fighting the big, powerful bosses and all the suffering and pain and death was going to be worth it in the end, because they’d change the world just a tiny bit, and one corrupt powerhouse would fall. That is not what happened. Despite all the effort our heroes go through to bring down the man behind Jae Han’s struggles and the one responsible for the murder of Hae Young’s brother, the man is still perfectly fine when the series comes to a close. I think the drama was trying to be hopeful with the way it left off, kind of like ‘it may not be better now, but if we keep trying surely something will change’. Only they’ve been trying for years and nothing’s really changed, so it was actually kind of depressing. I mean, sure Jae Han didn’t die- but he’s been hiding in a hospital for 15 years and that’s only really one step up from being killed. I think what I really wanted out of this drama was a scene with all three of our main characters together. I didn’t even know I wanted to see it so badly until I didn’t see it, and was left feeling a little bit empty. I’m on the team that wants a Season 2 to explain everything that happened after Jae Han lived and the present changed so dramatically, and also so our characters can have maybe just one teensy tiny smidge of happiness. 

I suppose hiding in a hospital is better than being a skeleton

Re-watch?

Maybe, if I ever recover from how heavy this drama is. If there is gong to be a Season 2 I’ll probably have to re-watch it and then go straight into the sequel.

Six seasons and a movie

Entertainer

Entertainer

6/10

Entertainer

Genre:                                  Episodes: 18                         Year: 2016

Romance

Melodrama

Synopsis:

After falling out of favour with the entertainment company he works for, Shin Suk Ho is left with no money, no credibility, and no artists. As the new entertainment company Suk Ho created struggles, he scouts high schooler Jo Ha Neul after hearing him sing in hopes of producing an album. Suk Ho promises to create a band for Ha Neul, but Suk Ho’s old company will do everything they can to see the rookie band fail. The band consists of Ha Neul- wrongly framed for sexual assault, Kyle- a Juilliard guitarist, Yeon Soo- a single father, and Jae Hoon- a mamma’s boy.  

Cast:

Ji Sung (Shin Suk Ho)

Kang Min Hyuk (Jo Ha Neul)

Lee Hyeri (Jong Geu Rin)

Gong Myung (Kyle)

Lee Tae Sun (Na Yeon Soo)

L.Joe (Seo Jae Hoon)

Heo Joon Seok (Kim Joo Han)

Ahn Hyo Seop (Jinu)

Chae Jung An (Yeo Min Joo)

Yoon Seo (Lee Ji Young)

Jo Yeon Ho (Na Chan Hee)

General Thoughts:

It could have been an amazing drama- but it just wasn’t. It didn’t really know what it wanted to be: an endearing struggle of young musicians trying to make it big? A heartbreaking bromance? A sweet and funny romance? In the end it just sort of ended up being a hodgepodge mess of all of these things.

What story are you trying to tell?

It’s not to say the drama didn’t have its moments, because it definitely did. When it hit its melo stride it tended to bring the emotions on quite nicely, but somehow I found that the conclusions of most of the drama’s plot points were resolved in unsatisfactory ways. Except for Jo Sung Hyun’s story which was pretty perfect from start to finish (except for that one moment where he looks at his family’s photo before committing suicide- like, what?).

Jo Ha Neul is the one for me

The darker aspects of the show were definitely its most intriguing points, and for probably the first time ever I found myself more interested in the company shenanigans than in the romance. Because it was kind of a super unconvincing romance, and I had some pretty serious Second Male Lead Syndrome. The weaknesses in the love department can probably be considered mainly due to the casting. Hyeri wasn’t bad in her role (though I still fail to see the point of her character other than they needed at least one female in the story), and she played the happy-go-lucky girl well, but also did a fairly decent job in the few scenes that required more emotion. But the simple fact is that she’s just so much younger than Ji Sung. I wouldn’t care about that 17 year gap should they actually look like they might possibly have a chance of working well together- but they didn’t. Hyeri looked significantly younger than Ji Sung, which kind of confused the point of her character and her character’s relationships- issues that probably could have been avoided had the role been cast older. It felt like the drama was forcing me to want Geu Rin and Suk Ho together- but I just didn’t. Geu Rin looked more age appropriate to be dating Ha Neul, and their maturity seemed to be on the same level, whereas I thought Suk Ho came across as more of a respected mentor than a love interest.

Pretty much sums up the differing maturity levels of our two leads

It was also a touch confusing that Geu Rin seemed unable to view Ha Neul as a man because he was sooooo much younger than her when it looked like she would only be 3 or 4 years older (Kang Min Hyuk is in fact 3 years older than Hyeri). It just created a whole buttload of question marks about Geu Rin as a character, because I wasn’t sure how old she was (though I’m sure it’s mentioned in one indirect way or the other that I missed), what stage of life she was in, or really anything about her at all that went beyond living with Ha Neul after her parents died.

Kang Min Hyuk looks like an Oppa, not a Dongsaeng

And even though we knew a lot about Suk Ho, I still didn’t really understand what would have drawn him to Geu Rin. The emotions were there from the actors, but something in the writing prevented me from comprehending this couple, and I didn’t really care if they ended up together to not. Ji Sung’s acting was pretty fab throughout, but did seem like a bit of a step-down from ‘Kill Me, Heal Me’ last year.

His fantastic crying skills were a little overused

The writers completely overused Ji Sung’s crying to the point that I didn’t feel all that bad when Suk Ho had a crisis and burst into tears- because it happened about every second episode. Knowing what a brilliant actor Ji Sung is actually made the flaws in the writing stand out, because at times Ji Sung came across as very cheesy and unrealistic, and I’ve not really seen his acting have mood swings like that before (and let’s all hope we don’t see it again). While Suk Ho’s progression from unsympathetic corporate man to loving leader of bromance was handled smoothly and consistently, Suk Ho’s character could sometimes feel a bit schizophrenic. He would be depressed and grounded in one scene, and then be fake laughing and rather horrifically superficial in the next moment, which made Suk Ho feel like a character that’s been written on paper, rather than a man who truly lives and breathes out in the world somewhere. On the other hand, Kang Min Hyuk completely smashed his role. Rather than Suk Ho (our male lead), I found Ha Neul to be the emotional crux of the show, and felt more connected to his character than anyone else in the drama.

I kind of wish Ha Neul was our male lead

Kang Min Hyuk’s had a few drama appearances, and he’s always been a good actor, but this was the role that separated him from his previous idol-gone-actor roles. Usually when I watch an idol from a band I love (long live CNBlue), I find myself struggling to remember their character’s name. While the idol-actor can be acting well, it always tends to be difficult to separate the character from the idol that you know and love.

♥♥♥♥♥

But in this series, Kang Min Hyuk was just Jo Ha Neul. He didn’t give you time to think about how much you loved him as the drummer of CNBlue, because you were too busy being invested in his storyline and concentrating on his wonderful performance. The role of Ha Neul allowed Kang Min Hyuk to delve into emotions that he hasn't had to express before, and he did an excellent job of showing us every victory and every heartbreak of Ha Neul. Jo Ha Neul wasn’t a simple character to act out and had a lot of complexities. He was a man who tended to keep his struggles to himself and put up an emotional wall to distance himself from others. The danger of these types of characters is that they can often come off as unemotional or uninvested in the situations around them, but Kang Min Hyuk perfectly portrayed every thought going through Ha Neul’s head, even without the use of dialogue or monologuing. While the drama had its many shortcomings, it's made me excited to see Kang Min Hyuk’s acting career expand and develop. Also, he has the voice of an angel. Just sayin’. The other band members were aways fun to watch, but had significantly less screen time than Suk Ho and Ha Neul, and tended to lean more towards comic relief rather than structured, emotional characters.

The beginnings of bromance

Gong Myung (and many of the 5urprise boys) have been taking on a lot of drama roles this year, and their performances tend to be pretty good. I like Gong Myung as an actor and thought he did a reasonable job bringing in the bromance and a bit of comedy. L.Joe of Teen Top was ignored for most of the series and was only there because the band needed a drummer.

Guess who's missing

He has one or two episodes in which he gets a decent amount of screen-time before disappearing into the background where his character got no story and no development. Lee Tae Sun made his drama debut and absolutely smashed it.

Jo Yeon Ho was one of the best kid actors in Dreamland this year

He gave heart and grounding to the optimistic single father, when it would have been very easy to have Yeon Soo come off as a smiling idiot. Instead, Yeon Soo’s story was focused on good things that come from suffering, and he became an endearing, loveable character. Jo Yeon Ho was brilliant and adorable as his young son, and the two were just so cute together. Throw in the Noona Romance and it’s one big cute sandwich. Despite being a drama that was heavily focused around music, I didn’t find the music to be all that compelling. The Ddanddara boys only had two songs- the first was nice, but wasn’t anything exceptional (despite Kang Min Hyuk’s fab vocals), and while the second song was beautiful, I kind of preferred Jo Sung Hyun singing it solo. Narrative wise, the duet between brothers was emotional and impactful and was a great moment in the series- but going on only the music, I preferred the original acoustic version. The momentum of the series seemed to be a bit odd. While the big conflicts were built up as something huge, they had a tendency to fizzle out come the conclusion of that story arc. It seemed almost as though the writers were too afraid of our main characters doing something that viewers may consider harsh or mean, and then opted for the golden forgiveness route. Every. Single. Time.

So much pretty

At the end of the day, there were a lot of great things about ‘Entertainer’, but some of the execution fell a bit short, and it became another of those series that is just a whisper of the beautiful, emotional drama that could have been.

What Was Great:

The Bros:

Bromance is always a winner. Even the most horrific of dramas can be pulled into mediocrity by an excellent bromance. ‘Entertainer’ isn’t a horrific drama, and the bromance gives it a wonderful lift. There were so many going on- between the Ddanddara boys, the boys and Suk Ho, Suk Ho and Jinu, Suk Ho and Man Shik, Suk Ho and Sung Hyun.

Cute male friendships are always a winner

The relationship between all of the boys was infinitely more entertaining and interesting than the sort-of-love-triangle around Geu Rin, and added a heap more emotion to the series than any of the love-lines. While Suk Ho could tend to be a character that was difficult to like or understand, it was always clear that he loved all of his artists, and would do anything for them.

Suk Ho loves all his boys

This ultimately becomes the biggest issue in the series, as he constantly has to choose between Ha Neul and Jinu. It was like making him choose between his children. What do you do? Do nothing and let one of the kids be falsely accused, or personally throw the other under the bus to clear his name? Suk Ho showed enough distress over making the choice, but eventually chose to clear Ha Neul’s name. The constant support from the other boys in the band was delightful, not just of Ha Neul, but also Yeon Soo (because let’s be honest- Kyle and Jae Hoon didn’t need a lot of support). I do wish that Jinu had been pulled into a bromance with the younger guys as well, seeing as Suk Ho was the main character and not Ha Neul. It would have been a nice touch to have his two favourite boys become buddies rather than having one of them piss off to study abroad. Seeing as Jinu was such a huge motivator for the plot, he was rather uninvolved with the other characters. Oh well, everyone else got a sweet bromance.

The Melo:

The dramatic parts of the plot definitely won out over the romantic aspects. And most of those dramatic aspects tended to revolve around Ha Neul- who was my favourite character, and just a pretty fab character in general. It was interesting to see the drama go into the darker parts of the entertainment industry.

Poor sad puppy

While corruption in the higher-ups and those that already have power are often portrayed, ‘Entertainer’ took on a bit of a different tone by examining the horrible things the younger people would do to get into the entertainment industry, and then what they would do to stay there.

He's in a position of power so he's obviously a giant tool

Ji Young had no issue with falsely accusing Ha Neul of sexually assaulting her, or using a manipulated video of Jinu to blackmail and get what she wanted. While Jinu was more conflicted than Ji Young, he still wasn’t willing (at first) to sacrifice his own career to save Ha Neul from a false accusation that had, and would continue to have, detrimental effects on his life. Then there’s all the higher-ups who are obviously going to be corrupt and power hungry. Are they ever not? While I do wish that we got a bit more background and development for Lee Joon Suk that went beyond ‘he’s a money-grabbing asshole’, he was a great antagonist for Sung Hyun (who I also wish was a teeny bit more developed). Sung Hyun was one of the saddest story arcs in the series for sure, and he had an interesting impact on Suk Ho and Ha Neul. It might have been nice if the drama had focused a little more on the buildup to Sung Hyun’s struggle and suicide, because there was so much around that character that could have been explored more. He was basically the person that was behind Ha Neul becoming who he was, and the obstacle that prevented Ha Neul from being what he wanted to be.

Get ready to weep

It was interesting to see the way the writers slowly unravelled the past surrounding Sung Hyun and the impact that the truth of his death had on his loved ones once they found out how horrifically abused Sung Hyun had been by the music industry- specifically KTOP. The melodramatic moments in the series were definitely the points that opened the characters up to us and gave us a plot that went beyond four cute boys starting a band.

What Wasn’t:

All the Forgiveness:

While the buildup to these melodramatic story arcs was always brilliant, almost every conclusion felt weaker than its set-up, which is disappointing to say the least. The drama seemed like it was being a serious, emotional story, but then the conclusions seemed like rainbows and magic kittens from a fairytale where everyone was happy and no one got hurt.

From 'the only person I want to destroy is you' to 'it's cool, don't charge her'

Except Sung Hyun. Who’s still dead. The first antagonist we’re given is Ji Young, who (falsely) accuses Ha Neul of raping her. Yeah, that’s a huge d*ck move, especially as they were close friends. For almost half the series we watch Ha Neul struggle under the title of ‘sexual assailant’, and watch as all the clues unravel and point towards Ji Young being a selfish b*tch who has no problem framing multiple innocent young men to get what she wants. Finally our characters gather all the info and all the evidence needed to bring this girl down and…they forgive her. And she doesn’t go to jail. Or face any sort of consequence. Apart from being booted out of the entertainment industry. But when you’ve manipulated one boy so it looks like he’s assaulting you and used it to blackmail him while simultaneously framing another for an assault he actually tried to prevent- is that really enough? Despite being a totally anticlimactic finish to a great story-line, what I hate most about this lukewarm forgiveness is that it minimises the brutality of Ji Young’s crimes.

Because falsely accusing someone of rape is actually a HUGE F*CKING CRIME

If it were the other way around and a girl was forgiving a boy for sexually assaulting her and he received no punishment whatsoever, there would be huge amounts of outrage in the viewership. What annoys me so much is that the writers have taken a topic that is very rarely expressed in the media (false sexual assault accusations), and then made it seem like its not really that big of a deal. Which is total bull because it is a huge deal, and it angers me to no end the lighthearted way this writer dealt with Ji Young’s punishment, as if everything was all okay because she got caught out in her lie.

WHY DO HER ACTIONS HAVE NO CONSEQUENCES?! WHYYYY?!

Except that it's a lie that could have destroyed the lives of two innocent men had she not been caught in it. But apparently we’re all going to ignore that because the power of love and music and blah blah blah that b*tch still should have gone to prison.

Ending:

This drama so didn’t need the two episode extension (99% of the time they never do). The drama didn’t exactly have a heap of plot material to begin with, so the final episode was just basically watching our characters live their lives with no conflict or plot at all.

'What should we put in the last two episodes?' 'How about nothing?' 'Nothing sounds good, let's do nothing.'

Which is not always a bad thing, but in this case it is. Had it just been an episode about the boys finally enjoying their success and Mango growing as an entertainment company, that would have been fine, but no.

Who the hell are you, and why are you here?

The writers decided to make some dramatic (and dare I say unwanted) changes in the final hour. To start with- Jae Hoon quits the band. Yes, the band that we’ve watched struggling for 17 episodes finally has the chance to revel in their fame and glory, and their damn drummer quits so he can study. Lame, lame, lame. We’ve also watched Ha Neul have a cute yet heart-breaking crush on Geu Rin for 17 episodes, but apparently he got over that in the drama's last moments, because suddenly he’s crushing super hard on the newly introduced female drummer who came to replace Jae Hoon. Ha Neul is only the second most important character (first in my books), and you give him some random chick as his conclusion? No thank you. It felt like everything I’d watched for the last 17 hours was undone in the final episode, and it felt far too cheesy for how emotional and relatively dark the rest of the show had been.

Re-watch?

No. While Ha Neul was a fabulous character and I loved him and his story dearly, the other characters didn’t grab me. Suk Ho was rather unlikable for a male lead, and it would have made no difference whether Geu Rin was in the story or not- she is the most irrelevant female lead ever.

Maybe try again, but make Ha Neul the lead this time