Tunnel

As much as I love Tunnel, it was so hard trying to tear myself away from Circle. I'm going to be feeling the residual effects of that show for months. Right, okay, it's time to get the Tunnel brain on. Use your tunnel vision.

NOTE: Minor spoilers. I tried to be vague.

Detective Park Kwang-ho's life changes from 1985 to 1986, when a serial killer appears who targets young women in skirts and strangles them victims with stockings. At the time, Kwang-ho was the only one to suspect that the culprit was one person, because serial killers didn't exist back then. He almost catches the killer, only to be plunged thirty years into the future, where the killer is still on the loose.

The best thing about Tunnel was how the main characters were each grounded by love and loss, especially Kwang-ho who was driven by the memory of the wife he'd left in the past, which gave the story direction and motivation. The little revelations of  how the people around him connected to him were unique, and a reason as to why I love time travel drama so much. It gives room to play around with how the characters interact - this is especially funny since Korea is a country so strict with formality. 

  One of my favourite aspects of Tunnel particularly was the evolution of Kwang-ho and Sun-jae's relationship, as they went from enemies to reluctant partners to best friends.Their shared motivation formed a bond between them that I'm not soon to forget. 

  Whilst I loved our detective partners, I was happily surprised with Shin Jae-yi. As a psychologist and criminal profiler, she was often the smartest person in the room, and I liked how she originally was shunned by the team but quickly became an important asset to them. I did some research into Lee Yoo-young, and found this was her first drama role (she has only worked in movies until now), and I think she chose well. She took Jae-yi and made her both reserved and alien, but tender-hearted, and even sometimes electrifying.

  However, some of the cases in the earlier episodes were, sadly, quite predictable. In addition, the identity of the true killer was also unsurprising, since that character had always been a little suspicious and the revelation wasn't as shocking as I would have liked. I say this, but peeling back layers of the killer's facade and questioning their nature and motives made the chase more interesting.

  I only wish the detectives hadn't been so slow, in the past or the present. They often had lapses in common sense which kept them two steps behind him for almost the entire drama - they did risky or thoughtless things on a regular basis, and held onto beliefs even when evidence started to indicate that a different theory was true. I feel like this was done purposely, though, since their methods improved over the course of the story and following Jae-yi's lead helped them to predict the killer's next move on occasion.

  Regardless of this, though, what made Tunnel so wonderful was that our team of detectives didn't just fight to prevent future crimes occurring - they fought to honour the memory of those who had already died, as well, which was sentimental and lovely. Tunnel was equal parts heartwarming and chilling, exactly how I want my thrillers to look, and I'm sad to let it go.