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[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Triangle - Drama" Episode 20

And once again, gambling makes up the dramatic stakes on which the hopes of our characters are hinged. Given the narrative set-up this was probably inevitable. The bad guys were going to have to take on some sort of counter-move in order for there to be any kind of dramatic tension. At the same time, though, when the outcome is quite literally determined at random, it's difficult to take any kind of reassurance in the ability of the heroes to save the day.

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"Triangle - Drama" utilized this metaphor early on too- much more effectively, I might add. At the time the point seemed to be that Yeong-dal's fortunes were fickle and it was foolish of him to put too much faith in his ability to play card games. I guess he's kind of learned his lesson, in that Yeong-dal now has a clearly defined end-game and he's unlikely to try and be a success at life by taking these sorts of gambles indefinitely. In the immediate storyline there's not really much to analyze though.

Criticizing though, that's another matter. Somehow the writer has found yet another implausible way to entangle Jeong-hee in a plot that for the most part she has no business being in. I'm really not sure what's motivating these decisions, although it does fit with the previous narrative inconsistency. If it has to be somebody's fault that the wrong cards came out, why not blame the dealer? She's superficially connected to the events. Obviously she doesn't control the event, but why should that matter?

All of a sudden it's a lot easier to understand why Yang-ha is suddenly in the doghouse for a storyline event that blindsided everybody else just as badly as him. Let's just heap abuse on the one person least likely to be able to get back at us. While this does serve the purpose of making the bad guys look bad, it also really calls into question their competence. In any high stakes battle like this where you're losing about half the time, the turnover's going to get pretty ridiculous if you insist on kicking someone off the team every time something bad happens.

So, not a good episode. Still better than a lot of what we've had lately though, mostly because I can at least understand the character actions. They just don't make for a very good story, since the consequences by design have no relation to the moves that provoked them. At least the romantic aspects here are somewhat passable. Yeah the kiss came out of nowhere but at least there was mild restraint with the love theme this time.

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.

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