50FiftillidideeBrain
⏳The Long Game ↪️↔️↩️ 2 May Enter ↩️↔️↪️ 1 Leaves ⌛8.5,Excellent
Tunnel is a show about Police Detective, Park Gwang-ho/GHO (Choi Jin-Hyuk from The Heirs-7.3 & Mr. Queen-8.5) who has 10 years on the force in the violent crimes unit in the year 1986.
GHO is an old school seasoned detective. His well developed instincts enable him to think like the criminals and anticipate their next move. Beating up suspects? It's a given. Fists fly frequently. He is, at times, the very definition of a misogynist, but he is also loving and utterly devoted to his wife. He's a good guy. He's just a little boorish.
He's currently mentoring Sung-sik (Jo Hee-Bong from My Sassy Girl-8.5) who dreams of being the chief one day, but has quite a distance to cover prior to merely reaching competence as a detective. They investigate a string of murders that appear to be by the same perpetrator. In 1986, though, profiling wasn't developed yet. Serial killers had not been studied sufficiently enough to be helpful with the investigation, either. GHO is deeply frustrated as the investigation is dragging with no leads. He decides to revisit the crime scenes near the times of the corresponding deaths. The first stop is The Tunnel. GHO immediately notices a suspicious character and commences chase. He exits the tunnel 30 years in the future.
At first, he doesn't know he's in the future. It's dark. He has a headache. He's frustrated. He's focusing on how he failed to catch the suspect (Where did that guy disappear to?). He returns to the station. It looks different inside, but all he notices is a stranger in his area. They argue, each claims to be a cop. GHO doesn't want to hear it. He handcuffs the guy to the cell and ends up falling asleep at his desk. He wakes up in a different world.
Writer, Lee Eun-Mi (Navillera), has so much fun dropping this veritable neanderthal into the PC climate of 2017. The station believes he's a new transfer, but... He doesn't know what DNA is, or what CCTV or dashcams are. He tells the criminal psychologist (in front of everyone) that it's all mumbo-jumbo and besides… (in an incredulous tone) .... She's a /WOMAN!/. He doesn't know to use gloves at the crime scene (yikes, they really ran with that one. We need an intervention). Computers? What for? The other cops can't understand how strange he is, or how he's making so many “lucky guesses" as a newbie detective. It adds up to lots of laughs and a fair amount of wincing. In the end, it adds up to growth for GHO. He does grow in the course of the show.
They partner him up with the most coldly detached, methodical, intelligent and antisocial detective at the station, Kim Seon-jae (SJAE). SJAE gives a chilly glance and saunters off while ignoring any overtures or questions. This enrages GHO to the point that he eventually starts a fist fight with SJAE. Will they work it out, so they can work together to catch the killer who is still at large?
That's the premise. Now we'll investigate what they did well, and also what didn't work. In short, they excelled in most of what they put into the show. There are no weaknesses in the acting, soundtrack, dialogue, plot, or character development. The needs improvement list is short and largely forgettable.
The show opens up in 1986. The colors are a washed out yellow/greenish, low contrast palate that looks like an old photo or movie. Coloring the past in such a way shows impressive thought and effort. The directors, Shin Yong-Hwi (Bad Guys) & Nam Ki-Hoon (Voice 3) often use color to send a message to the audience. The creators threw plenty of metaphors in the mix. SJAE plays chess regularly with Prof Mok (Kim Min-Sang from Private Lives-8.1 & Rookie Historian Goo Hae-Ryung-7.6). It represents strategy, moves, counter-moves, gaming, competition, rematches, winners, and losers. They are in a chess game with the killer. We see GHO's wife, Yeon-suk, stuck alone in the past doing laundry. She's made a hole in what she's washing. It's the first hole in her hope that she will see her husband again.
They use misdirection by introducing characters that appear one way, and then quite differently later. Elaboration isn't possible w/o spoilers, so we'll leave it there. Even when it's not difficult to see some of the twists that are coming, it doesn't mean that they weren't done well. The exposition of those surprises was riveting. More important than delivering surprises, the director is chasing the theme of FATE through the tunnel.
We also see some impressive character arcs for several people in the show. Whaaaa?? After a couple weeks with GHO, we see the never-a-hair-out-of-place SJAE, phalanges naked & free, go armpit deep in the trash and pull out a bloody weapon. That's the least of it. The audience's dessert is when he acts out in a way that's too much for GHO. It doesn't happen often, but what tasty morsel it is when it's tossed our way. Professor Shin, the criminal psychologist (Lee Yoo-Young from Dare to Love Me), goes through a transformation as well. Once she's able to face some truths, her makeup is done, her hair is silkier and polished looking, and her clothes are stylish. She's looking hot, actually.
The show is brightened a little by the hint of romance. Or was that a BRO-mance? A 30-year one. Anyway, there's some "mance" happening. {BTW, Is there some Bro-code that when men are fighting, they never knee each other in the dumplings? Even the most sadistic and depraved sociopaths seem to adhere to it both on the big and small screen.} Romance or not, as some people draw closer to eachother, they may start to mirror each other, or their clothes might start to look coordinated. The show sends many visual messages.
Now for some negatives.
At one point Prof Shin decides to act as a decoy, or bait, for the killer. Her attempt is so feeble and ill planned that it's exasperatingly out of character. She's smart, so how could she be that dumb? She had been put under pressure and guilted, so that may have prompted her to act foolishly, but it didn't play well. Given how he acted in their first encounter, GHO will have to mature in his interactions with women to which he's not married. Watch and see. It's arresting.
As I watched, I tried to block out how gorgeous SJAE is (Yoon Hyun-min from My Holo Love) so I could pay attention to the show, but it was a challenge. Is that even a negative, I wonder? Perhaps it belongs in both categories. The biggest letdown is that, while we get a filled out view of the past, we don't get any information about how things play out in the future. That seriously shocked and disappointed me. It almost affected my rating.
In the end, this is too good to rate a "7". The last episode is beautiful and moving. If you decide to give it a try, make sure you watch through episode 5; it's an awesome episode. You should know then whether to continue or not.
QUOTES📢
Sometimes memories can gobble up a person.
If everything that happened in the past was gone, and we lived a new life every day, we could learn nothing from past mistakes. We are who we are today because of the past. (Prof Shin).
〰🖍 IMHO
🎬8 🤔7 🎭8.5 ⚡7 💓7 🎨7 🌞 6.
Age 14+
In order of ~lite&trite~ to ~heavy&serious~ you may also like:
Action/Sci-fi/fantasy -
The school nurse files7.6
Glitch8
K2 8,
Private Lives 8.1
Uncanny counter season 1 only °S1-8.4 S2-4
Sisyphus 8,
Tunnel 8.5,
Signal 8.6,Train to Busan-7.8 D.P. 8.4
The Cursed 8.3,
Flower of Evil 8.9,
The Man from Nowhere 8.9,
Black 9,
Squid Game 8.4,
Kingdom 8.3,
Sweet Home 8.4
Dramas -
Love to Hate You 8.9,
Descendants Of The Sun 8.3,
Our Blues 8.7,
Inspector Koo 8.4,
When the Camellia Blooms 8,
Law School 8,
Anna 8.1,
My Mister 9.5,
Mr. Sunshine 9,
Mother 8.8,
The King's Affection 8.3,
Parasite-9
GHO is an old school seasoned detective. His well developed instincts enable him to think like the criminals and anticipate their next move. Beating up suspects? It's a given. Fists fly frequently. He is, at times, the very definition of a misogynist, but he is also loving and utterly devoted to his wife. He's a good guy. He's just a little boorish.
He's currently mentoring Sung-sik (Jo Hee-Bong from My Sassy Girl-8.5) who dreams of being the chief one day, but has quite a distance to cover prior to merely reaching competence as a detective. They investigate a string of murders that appear to be by the same perpetrator. In 1986, though, profiling wasn't developed yet. Serial killers had not been studied sufficiently enough to be helpful with the investigation, either. GHO is deeply frustrated as the investigation is dragging with no leads. He decides to revisit the crime scenes near the times of the corresponding deaths. The first stop is The Tunnel. GHO immediately notices a suspicious character and commences chase. He exits the tunnel 30 years in the future.
At first, he doesn't know he's in the future. It's dark. He has a headache. He's frustrated. He's focusing on how he failed to catch the suspect (Where did that guy disappear to?). He returns to the station. It looks different inside, but all he notices is a stranger in his area. They argue, each claims to be a cop. GHO doesn't want to hear it. He handcuffs the guy to the cell and ends up falling asleep at his desk. He wakes up in a different world.
Writer, Lee Eun-Mi (Navillera), has so much fun dropping this veritable neanderthal into the PC climate of 2017. The station believes he's a new transfer, but... He doesn't know what DNA is, or what CCTV or dashcams are. He tells the criminal psychologist (in front of everyone) that it's all mumbo-jumbo and besides… (in an incredulous tone) .... She's a /WOMAN!/. He doesn't know to use gloves at the crime scene (yikes, they really ran with that one. We need an intervention). Computers? What for? The other cops can't understand how strange he is, or how he's making so many “lucky guesses" as a newbie detective. It adds up to lots of laughs and a fair amount of wincing. In the end, it adds up to growth for GHO. He does grow in the course of the show.
They partner him up with the most coldly detached, methodical, intelligent and antisocial detective at the station, Kim Seon-jae (SJAE). SJAE gives a chilly glance and saunters off while ignoring any overtures or questions. This enrages GHO to the point that he eventually starts a fist fight with SJAE. Will they work it out, so they can work together to catch the killer who is still at large?
That's the premise. Now we'll investigate what they did well, and also what didn't work. In short, they excelled in most of what they put into the show. There are no weaknesses in the acting, soundtrack, dialogue, plot, or character development. The needs improvement list is short and largely forgettable.
The show opens up in 1986. The colors are a washed out yellow/greenish, low contrast palate that looks like an old photo or movie. Coloring the past in such a way shows impressive thought and effort. The directors, Shin Yong-Hwi (Bad Guys) & Nam Ki-Hoon (Voice 3) often use color to send a message to the audience. The creators threw plenty of metaphors in the mix. SJAE plays chess regularly with Prof Mok (Kim Min-Sang from Private Lives-8.1 & Rookie Historian Goo Hae-Ryung-7.6). It represents strategy, moves, counter-moves, gaming, competition, rematches, winners, and losers. They are in a chess game with the killer. We see GHO's wife, Yeon-suk, stuck alone in the past doing laundry. She's made a hole in what she's washing. It's the first hole in her hope that she will see her husband again.
They use misdirection by introducing characters that appear one way, and then quite differently later. Elaboration isn't possible w/o spoilers, so we'll leave it there. Even when it's not difficult to see some of the twists that are coming, it doesn't mean that they weren't done well. The exposition of those surprises was riveting. More important than delivering surprises, the director is chasing the theme of FATE through the tunnel.
We also see some impressive character arcs for several people in the show. Whaaaa?? After a couple weeks with GHO, we see the never-a-hair-out-of-place SJAE, phalanges naked & free, go armpit deep in the trash and pull out a bloody weapon. That's the least of it. The audience's dessert is when he acts out in a way that's too much for GHO. It doesn't happen often, but what tasty morsel it is when it's tossed our way. Professor Shin, the criminal psychologist (Lee Yoo-Young from Dare to Love Me), goes through a transformation as well. Once she's able to face some truths, her makeup is done, her hair is silkier and polished looking, and her clothes are stylish. She's looking hot, actually.
The show is brightened a little by the hint of romance. Or was that a BRO-mance? A 30-year one. Anyway, there's some "mance" happening. {BTW, Is there some Bro-code that when men are fighting, they never knee each other in the dumplings? Even the most sadistic and depraved sociopaths seem to adhere to it both on the big and small screen.} Romance or not, as some people draw closer to eachother, they may start to mirror each other, or their clothes might start to look coordinated. The show sends many visual messages.
Now for some negatives.
At one point Prof Shin decides to act as a decoy, or bait, for the killer. Her attempt is so feeble and ill planned that it's exasperatingly out of character. She's smart, so how could she be that dumb? She had been put under pressure and guilted, so that may have prompted her to act foolishly, but it didn't play well. Given how he acted in their first encounter, GHO will have to mature in his interactions with women to which he's not married. Watch and see. It's arresting.
As I watched, I tried to block out how gorgeous SJAE is (Yoon Hyun-min from My Holo Love) so I could pay attention to the show, but it was a challenge. Is that even a negative, I wonder? Perhaps it belongs in both categories. The biggest letdown is that, while we get a filled out view of the past, we don't get any information about how things play out in the future. That seriously shocked and disappointed me. It almost affected my rating.
In the end, this is too good to rate a "7". The last episode is beautiful and moving. If you decide to give it a try, make sure you watch through episode 5; it's an awesome episode. You should know then whether to continue or not.
QUOTES📢
Sometimes memories can gobble up a person.
If everything that happened in the past was gone, and we lived a new life every day, we could learn nothing from past mistakes. We are who we are today because of the past. (Prof Shin).
〰🖍 IMHO
🎬8 🤔7 🎭8.5 ⚡7 💓7 🎨7 🌞 6.
Age 14+
In order of ~lite&trite~ to ~heavy&serious~ you may also like:
Action/Sci-fi/fantasy -
The school nurse files7.6
Glitch8
K2 8,
Private Lives 8.1
Uncanny counter season 1 only °S1-8.4 S2-4
Sisyphus 8,
Tunnel 8.5,
Signal 8.6,Train to Busan-7.8 D.P. 8.4
The Cursed 8.3,
Flower of Evil 8.9,
The Man from Nowhere 8.9,
Black 9,
Squid Game 8.4,
Kingdom 8.3,
Sweet Home 8.4
Dramas -
Love to Hate You 8.9,
Descendants Of The Sun 8.3,
Our Blues 8.7,
Inspector Koo 8.4,
When the Camellia Blooms 8,
Law School 8,
Anna 8.1,
My Mister 9.5,
Mr. Sunshine 9,
Mother 8.8,
The King's Affection 8.3,
Parasite-9
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