The Series : 9
As "X" points out in his excellent and detailed review in Twitch Magazine, Goodbye Solo is about loneliness and our fitful attempts to have relationships with friends, family and lovers because and despite our separateness. The story is also about how we deliberately, though often unwittingly (if you'll permit the possibility of both at the same time), create our own loneliness and ensure its longevity, despite our hopes and dreams.

As I watched the series, one (of several) things that impressed me was the diverse ways separateness can be depicted photographically and dramatically. It occurred to me that this is the key creative challenge for the filmmakers. It is not enough that two people are shown on opposite ends of couch, or not speaking to each other after a fight, or that when they do speak, their demeanor cools. While seeking a fresh language to express separation, in distinction from loneliness, the actors should also express subtle degrees of fear, anger, resentment, anxiety or loss. The audience, for its part, should be able to sense that two or more characters while sharing the same space, are unreachable, one to the other. The possibilities are many, but not endless – and, to be effective in a drama, they, must be artistically related.

It seemed to me that this was the special gift of Goodbye Solo. I can't speak to its language – a feature that I commented on second-hand in regards Ruler of Your Own World – but I did recognize and resonate with the varied, but singularly uncontrived, ways in which alienation and abortive attempts at reconciliation were laid out and dealt with. It was this very lack of contrivance that separates Goodbye Solo from your usual television drama – Korean or not. And it extends right through to characterization and performance.

Unlike plot-driven drama series – even good ones like Winter Sonata or Dae Jang Geum - Goodbye Solo is character-driven. So many Korean dramas hang their characters onto a dynamic, modulating plot, without much care to character consistency (unlike Winter Sonata or Dae Jang Geum). If we weren't so caught up in the passionate emotions generated by the heartfelt performances of many Korean actors, we would doubtless cry out "But that character wouldn't respond that way!" (This was one of my complaints of One Fine Day.) Not so, Goodbye Solo, where the drama is all about character development, with just enough plot to keep us dramatically involved and anticipating resolution. In this way, Goodbye Solo has more in common with Yellow Films TV dramas, Someday and Alone in Love.

When we see friends or lovers together in Goodbye Solo, it's not just another ruse to sneak in some brutal piece of scene chewing news causing a character to race out the door to head off some perceived catastrophe, but an opportunity to get to know them better. For these are complex characters, indeed. There are no default good guys or bad guys, but people with varying degrees of disabling histories, whose stores are told in the briefest possible series of flashbacks throughout the 16-hour drama. We meet people of various ages, from their early 20's to 60's, with different degrees of maturity and wisdom – some friends since high school, others just having met. Insecurities and weaknesses abound, but, for a change, not for the sake manipulating the audience, but to help us
grow in toleration and wisdom.

In short, Goodbye Solo is one hell of an adult drama – with adult issues, adult themes, and adult resolutions. There are neither fairy tale endings nor twisted ironies. While there still persists vestiges of the Korean habit (in this case, a very bad habit) of reprising the dialogue and/or image of the previous scene over a reaction shot of one of the affected, generally the camera lingers tenderly or painfully on faces and postures in casual caress or geometric isolation with only the help of the score, the lighting, and the actor. And, for the most part, that acting totally supports the intent of the moment and the arc of the character's life adventure.

I don't recall a Korean drama series where we get to know so many characters – and of such a range of ages - so well. Usually, the focus is on two pairs of would-be lovers. Alone in Love manages a third, but I would not go so far as to say that all had nearly the equality of weight or interest as in Goodbye Solo.

So let's take a moment, please, to single out Bae Jung Ok (42, More Beautiful Than a Flower) as Yeong-Suk, the very picture of the changing faces of the moon and one of the most fascinating characters ever met on Korean television. Then there's Na Moon Hee (65, You Are My Sunshine; Crying Fist) as the immutable Granny Mi-young, whose decision to remain mute for decades is tested repeatedly; Lee Jae Ryong (42, The Immortal Lee Soon-shin) as Ho-chuel, the gangster, whose pride runs deeper than any gangster's code; and the effervescent Kim Min Hee (24, Best Actress Award for "Some Like It Hot" 2008), the young woman who loves him, despite their on again/off again love affair, and who brings Ho-chuel's pride to the breaking point.

But Goodbye Solo centers on none of these well fleshed out characters, but on the triadic relationship between Min-ho (Chun Jung Myung, 26, Fashion 70's) and Su-hee (played by Yoon So Yi, 21, Shadowless Sword), who is the girlfriend of Min-ho's best friend, Ji-an, (Lee Han, 25, Be Strong, Geum Soon). While this triangle seems at first blush to be the very kimchi and ramyeon of Korean melodrama, it is their past stories, how they came together and are tested that sets it apart from the usual fare.

All of which means, that Goodbye Solo is not for everyone – not even the usual K-drama addict. In its television run, Koreans never warmed up to the show as they do gut-wrenching, page-turners, or over-the-top comedies, granting it only a 12% average share. You have been warned: Are up to living with real people for 16 hours?