Korean drama series

Last months I found that drama series from South Korea were not always about romance, so I decided to try to watch a few. The first one was Criminal Minds. I think it was a good production with a solid cast, but it was very similar to the American version, including the cases. I liked it, but it seemed like watching a rerun with a different cast.

Next, I watched Signal. This one was very good, although at first I thought the communication between the detectives in the past and the present was unbelievable. But it was fun to watch. The cases were purely Korean, including the famous unsolved serial murders of young women in 1986-1991. It was not that the detective in the present told the detective in the past who the killer was; but both had to complete the investigations in their own times, which could make changes in the past that would affect the future.

There are 16 episodes in Signal. I had finished the 12th episode and recommended this to my sister, and, there, the last 4 episodes were quite slow. I think they should have reduced one whole episode, especially the unnecessary flashbacks.

Those Korean names are not easy to remember. The translations sometimes only mention the family name (one word) and sometimes the given name-- so I have to remember each characters's whole name. The next series I watched, Stranger, had 3 characters with the name Lee.

Stranger (a.k.a. Forest of Secrets) was very good. It was quite slow, though--> perhaps because I had expected to see the hero, a prosecutor, solved several cases - but no, here he only worked on a serial murders - and a complicated case of corruption. It's like a long mini-series, about corruption in the justice system involving a big company, prosecutors and an intermediate. The hero had a problem with his emotions, due to a major brain surgery, and believe me, it was nice to see him smile. He smiled 3 times and raised his voice twice during the whole series.

I liked to watch how subordinates had to bow when a boss / superior passing by. [It reminds me when I just entered elementary school. We bowed our head when teachers were passing by and we raced to be the first to help him/her carry his/her bag.] Also, there was a wake scene when the guests had to prostrate.

In my opinion, Stranger was as good as good mini-series made in England and France. [Can't remember right now if America has made any good mini-series.]

Now I am watching Voice. This was a success -- according to Wikipedia -- so I decided to give it a try. So far I find this to be a good thriller. However the policemen were stupid and there was something wrong with the editing. For example: the heroine arrived in a crime scene. She got past the security guards in the front entrance and soon arrived in the victim's office. She called the local policemen for back-up. They soon arrived at the front entrance and got past the guards, but minutes went past before they arrived to help her. How many minutes a group of healthy strong men needed to run up stairs to 3rd floor?

Voice was about 112 call center --> equivalent to 911 in the U.S. The head of 112 call center, founded the Golden Team, whose task was to arrived ASAP in order to be able to solve the caller's problem.