"Signal" drama review

"If you don't give up, there's hope."

I guess that sentiment applies for holding out for a season two of this drama? That was an unfinished finish. I enjoyed the whole drama immensely but man that ending kind of let me down a bit.

Overall this is an enthralling, well crafted story. There were very few plot holes. I really liked how one mystery/case seemed to weave into another. The focus on just a few people really made you care about the victims...for me it was Sun Woo, the brother. Talk about life treating you unfairly. I wanted so much for his story to be reversed even more than Jae Han's because I felt Jae Han had done his part.

Hae Young had so much tragedy in his life that for him I was glad in the end he got to have at least his parents back and he seemed to have more hope. Soo Hyun's life though continued to be devoted on finding Jae Han and I was sad for her.

The whole cast delivered and the evilness that was Bum-Joo (Jang Hyun Sung) made me want to throw things. His death wasn't even very satisfying because it happened so quickly and I don't feel like he suffered enough while alive. Cop or not he was just a terrible person and that is the crux is the problem. They could have had any job and they still would be terrible people.

The few quibbles I had regarding plot- how come just Hae Young and Soo Hyun remembered the changes? And when young Soo Hyun heard the static in the car for the first time and wondered about it why wasn't that a memory in current Soo Hyun's mind? Not too major either one but still took me out of the story a bit thinking about it.

The time travel explanation seemed to be "when injustice is done, the transmissions start". The hint in the final scene that Jae Han had started communicating with someone else is intriguing? Who would that be?

The ending was open. Politician Jang was just beginning to suffer, plans were to eliminate Jae Han, and Jae Han was still alive and seemingly well enough to stand and be cognizant to send texts to Soo Hyun. I think if I was watching this in 2016, I would have a lot more hope for season two than I do right now. Five years is a long time to wait so I guess we will just not got the answers we really need.

Kim Hye Soo stellar. Lee Je Hoon mesmerizing. Jo Jin Woong multi-facted emotional acting.

Overall, I give this a A-. It had an A going into the final but the finale let me down a bit because it just wasn't that satisfying and I'm left feeling a bit adrift.