[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Triangle - Drama" Episode 13

As determined as "Triangle - Drama" was to skip past the prison stuff, in this episode it falls right back to the same slow pacing we'd seen up until this point. There's not even any gambling. Mostly it's just meetings where the bad guys discuss how suspicious it is that Dong-soo is obviously up to something, or where the good guys discuss the plan in just vague enough terms that we'll still be surprised whenever it finally gets around to happening.

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The few parts of the plan we actually do see in action aren't exactly inspiring. Kidnapping and threats of violence? Really? Evidently the writer didn't have a year to put this plan together, because so far it's only succeeding based on the machinations of the script. I guess this is supposed to be symbolic of how Dong-soo doesn't have to play by the rules since he isn't a cop anymore. Although this is somewhat undermined by the fact that his ex-colleagues keep giving him tips, which is probably about as illegal as what got Dong-soo busted in the first place.

The drama does rush in one area where it really shouldn't- the romance. Yeong-dal and Jeong-hee are cute and all, but "Triangle - Drama" is trying to play this off of Yang-ha's jealousy, which really doesn't work because we have no idea what he's been doing in regards to Jeong-hee for the last year. My best guess is he's been doing the whole nice guy thing. Which of course never works, and is less likely to work the longer you do it. Would have been nice if the drama had actually demonstrated this clearly instead of my having to hypothesize.

The weirdest part about this timeskip is how unnecessary it felt. For the most part the characters here all act exactly the same as they did before, and there's no indication anything has even been happening. Even the senior casino dealers have the same snotty attitude. I'm not sure whether Jeong-hee's standing up to them was supposed to be representative of something. It all really breaks down when "Triangle - Drama" is considered as a full product.

There had to have been a better way to get Dong-soo and Yeong-dal working together. The construction as is comes off as really awkward. Take the cliffhanger at the end. This revelation really doesn't mean a whole lot in the context of current events. And it's a little surprising Dong-soo didn't get wind of it sooner having been prison buds with Yeong-dal for a year. That's not even getting into why they're doing hypnotism in the first place...it's all so very, very random.

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, Im Si-wan, Oh Yeon-soo, Baek Jin-hee, Kim So-hyun.