Signal’s premise reminds me a lot of the 2000 American movie Frequency. I haven’t confirmed it yet, but I can
almost guarantee that the creator of this series was inspired or influenced
some way by that movie. Regardless if
that hypothesis is correct or not, the striking premise was what intrigued me
to watch it in the first place. And it turned out being the
best K-drama series I’ve seen this year so far.
It’s in a completely different level from the rest.
The series centers on two detectives,
Park Hae-young (Lee Je-hoon) and Lee Jae-han (Cho Jin-woong), who communicate
through time via a mysterious walkie talkie.
Hae-young is a police lieutenant/criminal profiler in 2015 whose bad
experiences with the police as a kid made him bitter and contemptuous with them
despite becoming one himself. One night,
he gets hold of a strange walkie talkie that allows him to do the impossible: communicate
with a cop from the past named Lee Jae-han.
Due to their first exchange, Hae-young is able to assist veteran detective
Cha Soo-hyun (Kim Hye-soo) in bringing closure to a fifteen-year-old
kidnap-murder case, which prompted the immediate creation of a cold cases squad with
Soo-hyung as leader and Hae-young as profiler.
From then on, Hae-young and Jae-han make use of the uncanny means of
communication that fate has given to them to solve cold cases or stop the crimes
from being committed.
Right off the bat, Signal captivated me. Its first episode immediately delivers an
intense case while laying out the foundation of the show. And all through the rest of the series until
its finale, the narrative sustains its riveting delivery and well-built
suspense. It made me become greatly
invested on it. In fact, I never had
this much enjoyment and engrossment on binging on a K-drama since I Hear Your Voice.
Signal isn’t as great as IHYV
(still my number one!), but it stands out from every other K-drama series I’ve watched
so far. For starters, despite the
fantastic nature of the walkie talkie, this is probably the most grounded
K-drama series I’ve seen. It’s straightforward
in delivering what’s rotten about the reality we live in. Hence, while every other K-drama series I’ve
seen has light-heartedness and humor in them, this series carries itself with a
serious tone. In addition to that, there
is no real focus on romantic subplots.
Some of the themes it tackled are police corruption, dire crimes like rape and murder, social partiality, and
compromised justice. This also makes it
the darkest K-drama series I’ve seen so far.
But the core message of the series is that despite all the evils and
unfairness in this world, it’s important for someone to have the courage and
resoluteness to pursue the truth and do what is right despite the disadvantages
and trouble it might bring to oneself – in other words, being a moral badass. Hence, a powerful impression is left.
The writing is generally solid
and thoughtful. The “time travel”
aspects aren’t completely flawless, but they mostly hold up
retrospectively. Also, though there are
a few lazy and dumb details here and there to make it convenient to the plot,
they are easily forgivable since they help quicken the pace, or build tension
and stakes.
The three main characters are all
amazing. The respective actors did a
great job in conveying the appropriate emotions and projections in infusing
depth and intensity to their characters’ personalities. Among them, I was most impressed by Cho Jin-woong as Lee
Jae-han. Park Hae-young is probably the
central character of the series, but Jae-han is arguably the hero.
He’s also the best developed and most interesting character. Jin-woong was fantastic in showing the
different facets of his character: from charmingly goofy to wretchedly
broken-hearted to unwaveringly badass. Lee Jae-han will
likely end up being my choice for Best TV Hero for the 2016 Bernels (i.e. this
blog’s annual awards for film and TV).
Aside from the writing and acting, the
other production aspects are quite excellent, too, in bringing a “complete
package” of a show. The effective direction
and editing collaborate superbly well in thoroughly executing the drama, thrills,
and tension in the narrative. The soundtrack enhances
the hardboiled, gritty atmosphere. And
the old-school tint of the scenes happening in Jae-han’s time period gives this
flow of the story an authentic 90’s feel, which I found very appealing.
The series actually ended –
SPOILERS – with a cliff-hanger, which may disappoint those who prefer a
definite ending. But I think the open-endedness
of it was fitting to a series like Signal. Besides, there’s a rumor that a follow-up is
going to be done. Now, I would love to
see more of this, but even if that won’t happen, Signal has already delivered enough to make a lasting impact. The terrific characters, thought-provoking and
well-layered plot, and seamless production quality all add up to a brilliant crime
drama series for the small screen.
Signal has set a very high bar for future K-drama series that I will
watch this year.
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