‘Signal’ Starts With A ‘Real-Life’ Love Triangle

At the beginning of the time travel detective thriller "Signal," Lee Je Hoon is trying to make a little cash on the side. As a policeman he should not really be digging through other people's trash but he digs so he can sell celebrity information to the tabloids.

Lee's character Lt. Park Hae Young is good at profiling criminals so figuring out what celebrities are doing is easy. One word from him and the tabloid journalists know where and when to snap the celebrities desperately trying to date in secret.

But, here's the funny part. When he is passing on his celebrity news, he names real actors and uses their headshots. First, he tells the reporters that Im Si Wan, Kang So Ra and Byun Yo Han are in a love triangle. In real life, none of these actors are dating each other, but they did all appear together in the cable hit "Misaeng."

Then he talks about a couple he is sure are dating. It's Lee Bo Young and Ji Sung, who in real life are married. There's no word yet on what Lee and Ji feel about the fictional allegations that they are dating, but these actors probably all think its funny.

The joke barely lingers there before the plot moves at lightning speed on to the crimes that will be its focus. A detective from the past, played by Jo Jin Woong, is helping Park Hae Young, a detective from the present day to solve crimes that have since become cold cases. But it's not entirely a one-way walkie-talkie communication. Not only does Park Hae Young uncover who the killers really were but also the clues he provides to the past help prevent murders from happening.

The combination of actually being on the scene and today's forensic technology is a winning one.

The police department where Lt. Park Hae Young works has not changed much in the decades since Jo Jin Young's character Lee Jae Han worked there. As then there are many kinds of police officers. There are the officers who prefer to let sleeping dogs die and there are the officers who pursue the truth no matter what it costs them.

Once Park Hae Young begins receiving communications from the past, he ends his sideline celebrity detective work and becomes serious about his work as a police officer.

The drama also stars Kim Hye Soo as Cha Soo Hyun and Jung Hae Kyun as Kim Bum Soo, both Park's superior officers.