#signal kdrama

[alwayzraven]

After 8 whole years, Signal S2 was finally confirmed! I cannot believe this 😭 I've waited so long for this 😭

[sadpoetrycore]

i judge a kdrama based on when it was released. so 2016? yeah that’s gonna be a banger

[horror-thriller-brackets]

Propaganda:

The Signal characters: Hae-young is in the future and can communicate with Jae-han through a walkie talkie, while Jae-han is in the past. Soo-young works with both of them. All three are connected and have an amazing bond, an iconic trio separated but connected through timelines.

[accidentallyadramablog]

So Paramount+ added the kdrama Signal (2016) for US viewers. If you haven't seen it yet, I really recommend it. It has timetraveling crime solving with some of my favorite kactors, including Kim Hye Soo and Lee Je Hoon. 2016 was a really good year for dramas imo.

[akirahielo-blog]

Even mom can't stand Hae Young's rizz

[aki-chan2014]

It has occured to me that since I got into k-drama, my top favourites have all had one-word titles (well in English anyway):

Signal

Awaken

Trolley

Mine (I haven't finished this yet, but I am definitely at the point where I am confident it's amongst my favourites)

There are others I've enjoyed a great deal that don't have one-word titles (Extradorinary Attorney Woo, Move to Heaven and Witch's Court) but yeah, that list are all my favourites and they all have one-word titles. Whether that means something or not remains to be seen I guess

[mizldrizl]

My favorite (male) K-Drama characters: How old are they? - Signal (시그널)

*Current year in drama: 2015, 2000

Lee Jae Han: 34 (in 2000) (b. Apr. 9, 1967)

Park Hae Young: 27 (in 2015) (b. Sep. 4, 1989)

[mizldrizl]

This promotional video of Signal is so cute 😊

Signal (2016)

[whenthegoldrays]

PSA for my kdrama mutuals/followers!

I'm doing a little kdrama challenge in December, a roundup of the best (and occasionally worst) things I've seen this year. If anyone would like to participate as well, here's the daily list I'm using:

Best Male Lead

Best Female Lead

Favorite Lead Couple

Favorite Second Couple

Best Male Villain

Best Female Villain

Favorite Bromance

Favorite Sismance

Best Dad

Best Mom

Favorite Actor

Favorite Actress

Favorite OST

Favorite Kiss

Favorite Second Lead

Most Annoying Character

Favorite Supporting Character

Favorite Family

Underrated Show

Overrated Show

Show That Made You Cry

Funniest Show

Best First Episode

Best Ending

Disappointing Ending

Show That Needed More Episodes

Show That Needed Less Episodes

Show you would recommend to everyone

Favorite Sageuk

Comfort Show

Show you never get tired of

This is the general format I'll be using (example from last year), but you can format your posts however you like if you participate :)

And tag me in your posts if you do decide to join!

[fiftytwoeightythree]

some of the many shows that i've actually seen from LEE JE HOON, the king of versatility

[notsocharmy]

But wait, there's MORE. They don't have as much bromance/sismance/queer vibes as the ones above, but they are still so so much worth watching! There are some F/M relationships, but they are either not important to the plot, have great chemistry or are just hinted at!

similar flavours of shows/movies (i'm eating them all up)

[kalena-henden]

While I am watching 2 currently airing shows (My Sweet Mobster & Serendipity's Embrace) and 2 completed dramas (The Crowned Clown & A Shop for Killers), there's still a lull in new shows (especially romcoms) until after the Olympics.

[nikonichothelas]

HIS PLAN WAS SHIT YOUR HONOR (i hope they explode)

[vindicated-truth]

Signal is going to have a new season after NINE years. That’s nearly a decade in between.

What does it mean about the future of Kdramas that only had one season, with this tentative hope of the very real possibility of more now 🥹

[sapongpiepong-blog]

i need to see park haeyoung terrorizing lee jaehan and jaehan realizing that the man who helped him solve countless of cases via a walkie talkie with no batteries is a fucking menace to society :(((

Signal is still living rent free in my head and I can't part with it. I need to see the main cast in character on screen together...

Sometimes a family can be a giant HIMBO, the single brain cell of the group tomboy mom, and their son who has abnormally high levels of spite and snark.

And that's GREAT.

I want to see Haeyoung terrorize Jae-han with memes and slang he's too old and dense to understand.

I want to see Soohyun cringe as her mom tries to dress her up in the most glittery pink thing she can find for her date with Jae-han.

I want to see Haeyoung tease her every time the stone cold team leader he knows gets flustered around her long-time crush.

These 3 would definitely meet up and in the midst of some tense run away, Jae-han would freeze in front of the car and refuse to get in because Soohyun is driving.

Soohyun: IT'S BEEN 15 YEARS. 15 GOD DAMN YEARS. GET IN THE CAR, I GOT MY LICENSE DAMN IT!

[aki-chan2014]

Signal-a small bunch of happily-ever-after headcanons

In lieu of an actual second season for the original version of Signal (at least, that's the case at the time of writing this) and a lacklustre movie follow-up in the Japanese remake I have been thinking about what I imagine would happen next. TBH I finished watching Signal a little while ago, it's just taken me this long to actually make a headcanon post. I'd vaguely been thinking of writing fic, but couldn't quite pull the ideas into fic form so decided a headcanon list was the best way to go. That, and I recently finished a different k-drama and immediately thought I wanted to do some happily-ever-after headcanons for that, too. So that'll be next, eventually.

But anyway, here are all my happy ending ideas, under the cut because spoilers: (as a side note, I might still try and turn this ideas into fic in the future. I just don't know when)

There's no real way around it, in all timelines Jae-han does go missing. But, in the final fixed timeline, it's only a few years.

Most importantly, he's found alive. Injured, most likely, but alive. And he's cleared of murdering Kim Bum-joo and whatever else was pinned on him when he disappeared. The corruption in the police force and government is also exposed and there's a lot to sort out there, but steps are made to sort it.

Jae-han goes back to working as a homicide detective once he's recovered and the stuff directly tied to him is cleared, and builds a proper connection with Soo-hyun. They do start dating, but it's a very slow process. Slow, but steady. They are happy.

They do get married, eventually. They're low-key about this, but they do have a wedding to make their parents happy (esp Soo-hyun's mum, who 100% relishes getting to help her daughter pick the prettiest wedding dress). They do not have biological children, but are foster parents for a while and eventually adopt an older child. Most likely, this child is someone they meet from one of their cases, maybe a dependent of a victim or culprit who has nobody else to take him or her in. They will also probably end up having to occasionally babysit Soo-hyun's chaotic nephews, though they are less chaotic as they grow up, thankfully

Hae-young also gets married, probably either to a journalist or someone who works with children in some capacity. They have two, maybe three children together. Their names aren't directly honour names (from what I understand that isn't really a thing in Korean naming tradtions? Might be wrong?) but one kid's name will probably share a syllable with the names of Hae-young's brother and the other a syllable with girl who'd died in the bridge accident that Jae-han had known. I'm not sure who'd be a good pick for name-syllable-sharing for a third kid, so maybe just two.

Soo-hyun does end up a team leader, and of the Cold Case Team. In this timeline, it's formed in response to a completely different case but seen as a much more positive thing. There are still some snags, a few people who feel it highlights police failures to have such a team. But on the whole, the team is made with an expectation it will last-there are a whole lot of unsolved cases out there, after all.

As for Hae-young, the difficulties in his homelife didn't disappear once his brother was posthumously exonerated. His parents did get back together, and tried their best, but they had their own grief and trauma to unpack and that took a while. So he still needed to be fed by the porkhouse lady, and once Jae-han reappeared he continued to watch over Hae-young. Time would go by, and he'd decide to be a policeman just like the detective who cleared Sun-woo, not yet aware that that same detective was still looking after him.

They would eventually catch glimpses of each other during Hae-young's training. But the first time Jae-han and Hae-young properly meet is when Hae-young graduates his training.

With his memories of past timelines and all he learnt as a profiler there, Hae-young quickly garners a reputation for being 'clever' and 'well-read', 'insightful' and someone who has 'interesting ideas'. Various ways of explaining how he has knowledge someone his age shouldn't have, basically.

Jae-han introduces him to Soo-hyun socially (their first meal as a trio is omurice, which becomes a tradition, though they'll eat other things together on different occasions) she then takes an interest in him professionally and has him work with the Cold Case Team to see how he fits. She then gets the higher ups to send him on profiling courses, so he eventually becomes a profiler.

And after that, the Cold Case Team is a lot like it was throughout the series once the camaderie had been established. [side note: I loved the Cold Case Team dynamics so much they are a GREAT team]

Soo-hyun mentors Hae-young the way Jae-han mentored her. Hae-young gets called '0.25' by most of his close colleagues as a result (after all, Soo-hyun is the only '0.5' they can have).

All three of them garner reputations to be dedicated, hard-working and particularly brilliant in their departments in different ways. As mentioned above Hae-young is known for being clever, while Jae-han is known for persistence/earnestness and Soo-hyun compassion and composure in equal measures. They're all very committed to stamping out corruption and looking out for the underdog.

The walkie-talkie continues to be a lucky charm for Jae-han. It doesn't ever work again...well, not for most of their life. It only works right at the very end of Jae-han's life (illness related, when he's very elderly, so while it is obviously tragic it's more expected and natural, just as it should have been). He gets to say a proper goodbye to both Soo-hyun and Hae-young this way.

But with the goodbye for Hae-young, it happens while he's helping Soo-hyun and their adoptive child (plus one of Hae-young's children, plus possibly grandchildren of both) clear Jae-han's things after the funeral. They had shared the stories of the walkie-talkie but of course weren't really believed. Not that any of the three of them really expected them to believe it (well, maybe Jae-han did want them to, a little), because they told the stories as if they were an unusual kind of myth or something. But they hear the walkie-talkie, and talk to Jae-han one more time, and they realise it is real.

Of course, the walkie-talkie doesn't go off again after that. But it continues to be passed down between their families, and the stories shared too.

There will also be plenty of photographs, because one thing Soo-hyun becomes quite fixated on is having 'proper photographs' of all the people she cares for. It gets to the point that people assume she has a hobby of photography and start buying her cameras and camera equipment for birthday presents and things. She still keeps that silly photograph of her and Jae-han posing, but doesn't hide it behind the batman. Instead, it sits in a seperate frame next to it on her desk.