Signal (2016)

There's something seriously missing here

I have this thing that if somebody would recommend me to watch something a lot, I would instinctively postpone watching this thing till forever. Normally I want to know as little as possible about the series I’m about to watch, that way I do it with clear mind and no expectation. And maybe that was exactly the problem I was so disappointed after watching Signal. Plus, at the same time I was watching Kairos, series that’s based on very similar idea, and that gave me additional perspective on how Signal is using the motive of communicating with the past.

The idea is relatively simple. In 2017 detective Park Hae Yeong is solving long lasting murder case when he finds old walkie talkie that allows him to communicate with Lee Jae Han, who turns out to be police officer from late eighties, who’s also working on the same case but in the past. Knowledge that they both acquire helps them solve the crimes that were opened for years. But there’s a catch. Every, even slightest change to the past dramatically influences events in the future (or present, depending how we see it). So every step is very risky.

Writing about Kairos couple days ago I admitted that I love time travelling related motives and Signal was actually first on the list, since it was recommended to me so many times. And I’m honestly not sure where does all that praise come from, since Signal turned out to be merely mediocre drama for me.

I’d like to say here that I’d probably won’t be able to restrain myself from comparing Signal to Kairos, so if you don’t want any spoilers from both of the series, please beware.

I like how whole mechanism of communication via walkie talkie was introduced early on. Basically the first episode was pretty neat introduction to the characters and the way changing the future influences future events. So at his point the viewer has more or less knowledge of what can happen when the past is changed. Even tough first episode was pretty slow, at his point it wasn’t an issue. The problem was that the pace was like that basically throughout the whole series. It wouldn’t be that bad if we get some connection with the characters, but unfortunately they seemed so distanced that it was hard to get emotionally attached to them. And I don’t only mean time distanced but I think it also played a valid role in how the drama was viewed. I’ve wrote in Kairos’ review that the strong side of that drama was emotional bond with the characters. We’ve seen events basically from their perspectives. We’ve shared their feeling, we could immerse ourselves in their pain. Here I had the problem that characters of Signal were much more distanced. Obviously one reason was that they weren’t so connected to the cases they’re solving as it was with Kairos. They were also separated by much longer time period. The crimes were mostly pretty old, since in the present timeline they were dealing with very old, sometimes over 20 years old cases. So the emotional attachment towards them was almost inexistent. And I mean, we've seen some tears, we've seen some anger, but it was just not enough.

The first episode also proved that changing the history is not easy even if you know what will happen. There’s just so many variables that there’s always something that can goo wrong. This drama doesn’t give simple solutions, characters need to fight for the truth constantly, not being sure if their methods will work. And of course past doesn’t want to be changed. Every try may result in failure in other aspects of the investigation. Nothing is this drama comes easy for characters.
At one point this drama was so emotionless it was almost painful to watch. Overall slow pace of the show didn’t really help either.

After couple of really slow episodes, in the second half of the season we’ve finally had characters involved somehow in the action. The fact that they were directly connected to the case made it a bit more interesting. The fact thew Park Hae Yeong and Lee Jae Han actually almost met in the past seemed a bit too much of a coincidence but was quickly explained in a way that didn’t really spoiled anything.

Overall I was impressed on how detailed this drama was to all the events, but unfortunately very slow pace any really unlikable characters threw me off. I just couldn’t immerse myself in watching the drama. And I know that it’s very subjective but this drama just didn’t worked with me, it was missing something to make it more alive. What was good story worth when we get characters that cannot deliver it?

And why the hell is Park Hae Yeong whispering so often? Most of his conversations with Cha Soo Hyun are whispered and most of the times is doesn’t really make sense!

So overall, I really wanted to like this drama. It seems to fit perfectly in my interests. But I just couldn’t. I see good sides of it, I see well developed plot, but no chances to actually get caught up in it.

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