[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Triangle - Drama" Episode 22

I hope you liked Yeong-dal's ambivalence about his new brotherly bonds last episode, because this time it's pretty much the exact same thing all over again with Yang-ha. I do appreciate that the script itself admits it's hard to know what to call these guys anymore. I've been sticking with their new names since those are the ones that are used most of the time, but at the same time, their being brothers is pretty much the whole point of the drama.

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This is something I acknowledge with a mild point of disdain, because the blood brothers plot device has always worked better as a metaphorical layer that parallels what's going on the lives of these characters rather than the actual essential plot we should care about. The specifics of the police investigation, for example, are more relevant and interesting than Yang-ha's reaction and decision regarding what he's going to say.

Everything is so Yang-ha centered that at times it borders on self-parody. The answers Yang-ha himself receives to the few questions he asks tend not to be very inspiring ones. Yang-ha's family is in a really weird place regarding him. They still love him and care for him as if he were the genuine heir, but they're not going to bother with all the trust and intimacy stuff? What do these people think family means anyway?

That does appear to be the broader point the drama is hitting toward. While Dong-soo and Yeong-dal are obviously self-interested insofar as turning Yang-ha to their side, they've been open about everything they know about as soon as they find out the information, and their only attempts to bribe Yang-ha include the promise of love. Yang-ha's adoptive family, by contrast, is promising him everything except love. Which admittedly is a pretty good deal.

What we're not being offered as an audience, by contrast, is anything much in the way of excitement or compelling reasons to continue watching, even as we're nearing the end. The plot's trajectory is fairly predictable and feels stretched out. The way "Triangle - Drama" keeps repeating the same ground is just tiring. The lack of any particularly dynamic action or storyline movement in particularly makes it difficult to stay focused on the narrative proceedings, or even on the background elements. There's just not much actually happening here. Increasingly I find myself unsure why so many episodes were ordered for this drama, let alone why it was given an extension.

Review by William Schwartz

"Triangle - Drama" is directed by Choi Jeong-gyoo, Yoo Cheol-yong, written by Choi Wan-gyoo and features Lee Beom-soo, Kim Jae-joong, Yim Si-wan, Oh Yeon-soo, Baek Jin-hee, Kim So-hyun.