Signal was definitely a worthwhile watch, but the top review does highly overrate it. It is absolutely not the best storyline I've ever watched, although I do feel that K-drama storylines have recently become so trashy that this drama comes off as a ray of sunshine.
This is a crime solving story where there are 5 cases featured throughout the story with one big underlying "final boss" that the main characters are getting closer to identifying. There aren't many action or thriller moments but the suspense is great. There are a lot of flashbacks (there should be a category for rating the quality of flashbacks haha. side note: what's with the popularity of flashbacks these days? they're honestly so annoying to watch) but they're pretty well done and you don't feel like you're watching the same scenes replay over and over again throughout the entire drama.
Characters were pretty good! It was a great display of corruptions vs virtue and I think these traits were well written into the character. Lee Jae Han was the STAR of the story; you can't help but fall in love with him. He's so valiant and virtuous, storming towards justice yet stumbling through romantic situations. While this character is loveable, it is very overdone. That would be my one comment about this drama; it didn't feel "new," but rather you were watching a story and characters that you're familiar with play out in an expected but definitely interesting way. While parts feel a bit TOO clean cut, theres still that sense of you don't know who will live, what will change, and who will die.
Continuing off that, while the story isn't new, there ARE twists that are unexpected (but nothing too outlandish or surprising). I cried episode 5 which I didn't expect to happen so quickly.
TL;DR I'm a kdrama watcher in their eariy 20's, so if you're bored by over-the-top romantic comedies and looking for something more serious (and a story that follows a line and doesnt just implode on itself) then I would highly recommend!
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