You’re referring to this? I don’t know about Signal season 2, but I am suddenly overcome with a desire for a “buddy cop” show starring Lee Bo Young as the reckless cop who’s happy to go in guns blazing, ready to knock some heads together, and Kim Hye Soo as the cool-headed, by-the-books detective.
Tag: ask
How much do you like Go Kyung Pyo? I’m curious (and to me he was shiny in that dance club scene). Also, how good is the entire cast of Chicago Typewriter? (except the guy who screams all the time and almost makes me deaf, since I use headphones to watch) + the script is also great so far. I’m so afraid this will disappoint me. The length is already problematic, I have almost no time to watch stuff and then tvN does that to me… I skipped the first 5 min too!
I love him, but then I blindly latch onto actors who were in roles that I adored and follow them until the bitter end, hoping they’ll finally get the role that will show the world how great they are and that I’ve always known they were since the beginning. I haven’t watched everything he’s done (not even Reply 1988, because omg those episode lengths!), but I’ve liked him in whatever I’ve seen him in.
The script is… okay? I literally fast-forwarded through most of ep 2 so I’m not sure I’m qualified to comment on the script, but I also know this writer isn’t one I particularly like so I wasn’t really expecting greatness in the script, anyway. Her projects are generally saved by the talent of the cast (at least in my estimation). Although, I’m not feeling the chemistry between Yoo Ah In and Im Soo Jung, which is weird because I know they’re good actors and should convince me of anything, but… eh. I think there’s a good concept, though, and I hope it goes as dark as I want it to (c’mon lets go full-on horror/mystery!), but realistically we’ll probably wallow in the modern day where I get bored easily.
Now, if there were more than fifteen minutes of the 1930′s scenes, then maybe I’d like this show a lot more than I do. I’ll still give it a chance next week, but only to see what happens with Go Kyung Pyo since he only appeared for a few minutes at the end. I fully expect it’ll hit my “drop” list, though.
hi! do you have an recs for dramas similar to signal, voice, cruel city, tunnel, pride and prejudice, liar game, etc?
So… dramas in the dark thriller/mystery genre? I’ll list all I can think of, bolding particular favorites in case you want a specific place to start.
Some of these will be darker thrillers and some will be more procedural mysteries, and some will fall somewhere in that spectrum, but they all pretty much fit the format of the shows you’ve mentioned.
If you liked Signal, I recommend looking up Kim Eun Hee’s previous dramas:
- Harvest Villa
- Sign
- Ghost aka Phantom
- Three Days
(These are all ranked in my order of preference, with the caveat that you’ll probably think they aren’t as good as Signal, but they all have her signature style.)
OCN shows are always a good default for this genre:
- Vampire Prosecutor (seasons 1 & 2)
- Bad Guys
- Missing Noir M
- Squad 38 aka Task Force 38
- Reset
- Special Affairs Team TEN (seasons 1 & 2)
- Virus
- God’s Quiz (all seasons)
- Dr. Frost
- Vampire Detective
If you like Cruel City (aka Heartless City), then you definitely need to check out My Beautiful Bride by the same writer.
Other random recommendations:
- Story of a Man aka The Slingshot
- White Christmas
- Killer Girl K
- Nine: Nine Times Travel
- Two Weeks
- Gapdong
- God’s Gift – 14 Days
- Solomon’s Perjury
- Pied Piper
- Hidden Identity
- Punch
- Last
- The Chaser
- City Hunter
- I Hear Your Voice
- The Village: Achiara’s Secret
- Resurrection (part 1 of the revenge trilogy)
- The Devil (part 2 of the revenge trilogy)
- Shark (part 3 of the revenge trilogy)
If anyone else has recommendations, let me know and I’ll add them to the list!
I am not sure where I heard this, so I may be remembering it wrong, but does radiant office has a cancer (or some type of terminal illness) theme? I am out of things to watch and consider starting it but I strictly avoid cancer stories. I had enough of it irl so can’t stand watching it in my shows. And also, do you recommend watching it, is it good? Thanks!
This is awkward to answer because it kinda does and it kinda doesn’t. There is a terminal illness plot device but what exactly that illness is we don’t know (for plot reasons) and it’s hardly referred to except for moments when it’s convenient for character motivation. There’s also a pretty strong contingent (myself included) who believe the illness will turn out to be a misunderstanding, which I refer to as my “Last Holiday” theory. But there’s nothing to say it couldn’t be revealed to be a cancer and that someone might actually die, although it honestly doesn’t feel like that kind of show. Then again, we’re not even halfway through yet, and everyone knows the latter third of a drama is when the angst hits.
It’s so hard to tell someone if a drama is good or not, since taste is so subjective. I personally like the show quite a bit, although I’m not sure how much stake to put in that since I’m often on the opposite end of the spectrum when it comes to how dramas are generally perceived by the fandom.
I find the lead character relatable in that wonderful-yet-painful Misaeng way, and the comedy suits my taste. I love the friendship between the characters – it’s probably my favorite part, although Hoya’s adorable lowkey crush on his boss has me all in a flutter, but my obsession with minor secondary romances is totally just my thing and not something I should use to recommend a show to others. The main pairing is… okay, I guess, and I like that they’ve finally shown more of the male lead’s human side. I’m not invested in their relationship, beyond wanting to see Go Ah Sung’s character succeed and be awesome and respected for her awesomeness by this boss that’s been hindering her attempts so far. But then again I’m rarely invested in the main pairing just in general, so that’s not a strike against this show.
Overall, it’s a comfortable and enjoyable watch, and Go Ah Sung is an utter delight. I can’t guarantee the supposed terminal illness might not be cancer, though.
I saw you watch Radiant Office. In the TV show Guesthouse Daughters, the actress Jang Shin Young said she was sorry for Hoya because they will have a romance and she is older than him. I think he’s lucky, she’s really beautiful !
Someone told me that on twitter, and while I’m happy to confirm it isn’t all in my head (that looooook!), I’m also happy that I didn’t know about it before hand so I could be pleasantly surprised to be smacked in the face with it and become a devoted servant to this ship (I’m still gunning for captain, though).
Jang Shin Young is a year younger than Park Hee Bon (his office crush in Super Family 2017), and I think both women are gorgeous! Hoya’s a lucky duck to have a noona romance with each of these actresses.
Hi, thank you for your last answer about handsome oppa. I’m glad that you liked his role in Voice. I think it’s the best he ever had and personally the only one in which i enjoyed his acting. He was really the best actor for playing Mo Tae Gu. Speaking of the devil, I’m curious about one more thing: what is your favourite scene (if you have one) for this character? For the other leads?
Ahhh, good question, although I’ll probably struggle to answer because I’m a love’em & leave’em kind of girl so I’ve already forgotten a ton about this show even though it’s barely been a week.
As for Tae-gu’s most memorable scene, hmm… how shallow would I be to say it’s whenever he’s in the bath? Kidding! Kinda… Honestly, probably just about anything from the last couple of episodes would do, especially when he finally got to act in the same room as everyone else. Probably his stand-off with Jin-hyuk as Jin-hyuk threatened him to shoot.
For Kwon-joo, ahhhhh, it’s hard to decide, since honestly a lot of her scenes run together for me since so much of the time she was in the call center talking to everyone over the radio. But the moment she had to break the news about Choon-ok’s death to her brother had a lot of understated emotion in it, which is all thanks to the lovely Lee Ha Na.
For Jin-hyuk, I’ll forever adore that lowkey scene when he’s like, “hey, we all make mistakes, don’t beat yourself up about it. I forgive you.” I can’t even remember what case it was, but it was somewhere in the middle, and Kwon-joo was super apologetic that she had heard wrong. It was such a small moment, but it meant a lot to me when it came to figuring out his character, and it felt like the tipping point of their working relationship when he went from angrily thinking she let his wife’s killer get away to deciding that he was finally going to trust her and treat her with respect as a coworker and boss.
For Dae-shik, no question, the scene in ep 15 where Jin-hyuk confronts him about being the mole. Baek Sung Hyun was phenomenal in that scene.
Even though there was woefully not enough of Hyun-ho and Eun-soo, and what we did get was mostly wasted exposition and PPL, I loved their first meeting when she shut him down and was willing to report him for sexual harassment because he wanted to know how to hit on girls in Russian. I think I also loved that scene because it gives me the sensation of what dynamic these two characters could have had if only the writer had allowed a little more opportunity for character development. Although Yesung with the puppy deserves a little love, even if it wasn’t necessary to the actual plot. But it was dang cute.
Might as well start over with SFD. It’s been over a year since you watched the last episode. I believe that was Episode 24. Or maybe you ended up watching Episode 25. Either way, do you still remember what happened? I wouldn’t, so I think it’s better to start fresh.
If I start over I will never finish. Might as well call it Sisyphean Dragons.
“I bailed on this at ep __ for no real reason except I lost momentum and there wasn’t anything that made me want to keep watching. I did enjoy it at least until that far.” Basically me about 35 dramas since 2014 and I have no words to describe how guilty I feel about this. I simply can’t watch any drama anymore and I’m feeling incredibly bad about it. Which is sad is that I can’t delete those stuff of my computer because I always have that feeling I will miss it even though I know I won’t.
While I can understand the sadness that comes when an interest that used to bring you joy no longer does, I don’t think there’s a reason you should feel bad about dropping a show. I scatter partially-watched shows in my wake constantly even as my “to watch” list grows and grows, and I know I will never watch even a quarter of those shows just because of the endless output of newer shows that catch my attention.
I’ve just popped over to MDL and there are 24 shows that I’ve dropped since 2014, and if I honestly assess my “on hold” list, I should probably add at least another dozen to that… which brings me about to your total. That’s also not counting the multitude of shows that never even made the list because I knew I wouldn’t watch them.
That’s not to belittle your issue. I just really don’t want you to feel guilty about deciding dramas no longer are satisfying or bring you joy. It could be just a phase – 2015 was a rough year for me where there were only a couple of dramas I truly enjoyed, and I’m getting the sensation that 2017 will be the same. But as you know from the sentence you quoted, I also willy-nilly drop dramas that I actually enjoy (although that’s more due to my poor time management than anything else).
Live-watching is really a chore for me – I’m much more content to wait and binge a completed show years later, but then sometimes I get caught up in this foolish idea that I need to keep current on dramas just because… I have to… even though honestly in the end no one cares about what I’m watching or not watching.
I will forever maintain that dramas are first and foremost entertainment. They should be enjoyed as a fun hobby and pastime. I know the internet loves to take TV way too seriously, but honestly, they’re just TV shows! They’re made to entertain you and give you joy, and if that’s not working any more, then you should give yourself the freedom to drop as many as you’d like, or not even start watching in the first place. I mean, there are a gazillion dramas on my “to watch” list, but I’m happily satisfied by using my TV time right now (as in, literally right now, that’s playing on the screen as I’m typing this) watching cooking competition shows. Why? Because they make me happy and that’s what I want to watch.
Again, I really, really, really want to impress on you that there is absolutely no reason for you to feel guilty. It’s not like you get a gold star for every drama you watch. There’s no security guard in drama heaven that will deny you entry because you haven’t checked off enough titles in your watch list (but if there is a drama heaven do I get to spend it with Handsome Oppa? Because that’s important theological drama question I need the answer to).
Finally, here’s a stupid attempt to answer a problem you might not actually have: maybe consider getting an external storage device and moving those dramas onto it. That way you’ll have it handy if you want to watch them, but they won’t be taking up space on your computer and you won’t see the files as a constant reminder of what you feel you ought to watch and enjoy.
Ok, I will be really honest in here because I follow this blog for awhile. In OCN’s Voice, are women the only victims? Because I watched episode one when it aired but the idea of having only women being killer put me off. It seems to be an interesting drama, so I would like to know. I’m tired of the serial killer of women subplot, and to me it has ruined Strong Woman Do Bong Soon to the point I couldn’t pass through episode 3 (plus the weird mix of comedy, romance and brutal mystery).
Short answer: no, women are not the only victims.
Longer answer that attempts not to spoil too much: while the main killer definitely leaves quite a few bodies in his wake, there are just as many named women characters (that is, they have names and interact with the leads) as named male characters that are killed. While there are certainly aspects of the show that could be considered problematic (there’s a subplot that involves a baddie-of-the-week profiteering off of rape, although that’s not shown on-screen), the main killer simply kills those who are hindrances to him, no matter their gender. But there are definitely many brutal murders on this show, which I can understand being an issue for someone. Not all the deaths are due to the main killer, but all seem evenly divided along gender lines nonetheless.
Thank you for your complete answer about why romance on Voice: i didn’t expect so much. I don’t agree with your view but i really enjoyed to read it. I also found one of your old post about handsome oppa and your dream role for him, and i wonder now do you regret that he played Mo Tae Gu/did Voice?
Aw, thanks for reading my ramblings, and I guess we’ll agree to disagree.
I don’t know what I said was my dream role for Handsome Oppa (I, uh, say a lot of things, especially when those cheekbones are involved…), but I definitely don’t regret his decision to play the villain on Voice.
Not only was Voice the most successful original show OCN has ever produced (at least, ratings-wise, which is always the most important thing to the executives), but Handsome Oppa has managed to do an incredible job making the role his own. He’s both captivating and legitimately terrifying. He manages to hold his own with more seasoned actors, especially big names like Jang Hyuk. Also, a lot of his scenes are ones where he’s the only one in the room, which means he has to rely only on his acting skills, since there’s no one else for him to react to. I think this role has shown how he’s grown as an actor over the years, and he has every reason to be proud of it.
All in all, I’m very pleased with his role in this drama, and I’m hoping this gets him more exposure for other projects, since having to wait every three years for him to show up on my screen is more painful than a kettlebell to the skull. Or, ah, something like that… yeah…
I am hoping his next project is a little more light-hearted, though. I know he seems to like odd-duck roles, but really, I could use a decent rom-com – or at least something more comedic just in general. I feel like he gets type-cast as a brooding mystery guy a lot, but I know he’s capable of being adorkably hilarious and that’s a side I’d love to see more from him. Really, whatever role it is, it just needs to be as opposite from Tae-gu as possible, because he’s just a little too convincing as a murderous psychopath. *shiver*
The Obsessive Dilettante 