Happiness

Is this Fascist Propaganda or Nihilism? Or Anti-Capitalist? It certainly isn't about happiness.

Happiness begins as a generally competent zombie infection drama, but swiftly becomes a frustrating watch, and one consistently haunted by Sweet Home. Seriously, if you freeze frame at certain scenes you'll probably catch the shadowy specter of Sweet Home giving double middle fingers to the proceedings.

Which, frankly, if it had just been a rip-off I could have dealt with it. BUT Happiness fails to understand the messy, sincere humanity of Sweet Home which made it successful, and instead rams occasionally contradicting, tactless messaging down our throats. Almost all of these characters are the worst kind of people, and not in any thematically fulfilling or narratively sensible way. They just suck and have no skills, because it's their sucky decisions and lack of teamwork which propel the stumbling inbred beast I will call 'the plot' because I have to, not because there's any cohesion or thought to it. Most of the 'plot' is just our cop couple running to different ends of the building to put out assorted fires caused by all these sucky, venal, stupid, selfish people. Of which more than the average number are murderers.

Money and social hierarchy are the primary messaging here- not happiness and the avenues through which it can be achieved. Rather than understanding the complexities of financial situations, the plot fixates on the money- there is almost no character motivation that isn't about monetary (and therefore social) advances to an almost satirical degree. They keep mentioning fees for things, stealing other people's cash or property, specifying that those who rent their condos are less worthy of resources than those who own, or otherwise centralizing money in the narrative in a way that makes no sense given the literal apocalypse going on outside. 'Oh, but you're living here for free' the HOA woman points out to two cleaners. BITCH You're all quarantined under indefinite martial law?!

So, while taking people to task for overt greed instead of financial desperation, fascist undertones can't help but manifest. The two police are essentially the only smart, capable, good people. They also represent the ultimate hegemonic family unit; a straight couple with a child. I know the kid is adopted, it still stands. The other residents, if left to their own devices, will hurt each other; the viewer is supposed to go 'this is dumb, just do what the police tell you!'. Their constant disobedience of the police and government edicts is painted in comically bad strokes; in service to hubris and the chaos of the plot, and not for any good character reasons. It also ignores the subtly that, yes, sometimes you should obey what an authority says, but also you have to be able to tell when that authority does not have your best interests at heart. The fact that our leads are both cops/special forces makes this messy; the turning against them in the building serves as the people turning against the force for law, order and salvation. Not that the government has been doing anything sensible anyway. What are you saying about cops? Government? Civil Obedience? Do you even know?

I'd be remiss in mentioning the strong theme of men being terrible to women. Which was something. What, I'm not sure. I do enjoy media being critical of gender inequity, but this was weird. You have at least three spouses showing differing levels of neglect, abuse and disregard of their often inoffensive to sensible female partners. Men are impulsive, self-serving and tunnel-visioned. The women are weak and inefficient. Even here, Happiness has feelings about gender dynamics, but doesn't know what it wants to say about them.

At episode 7 I was really done with this. It hates all it's characters, it thinks people are the worst. It has nothing to say as it makes you sit through excruciating moments of dumbassery and ham-fisted stupidity, but with no pay-off and no justice. The ending is just as forced and hollow, not even the tepid love story is tied up in a satisfactory way.

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Great Opening Hook and like One Kiss

This drama has one of the best opening hooks in a television show. It's a meet cute and a falling in love at first sight (literally) all in one, and it's accompanied by a sweet song that will have you rewinding that scene a few times because it's very cute. That hook is what reeled me into Happiness, but unfortunately I wanted to unravel myself from that noose after I got to the 10th episode. Overall the show is entertaining and it has a lot of positive things going for it, like the acting, OST, and some decent directing. It seems like this may have been filmed during the pandemic as there are several reference to Covid-19, which of course makes this drama very meta to our current times. Again, there s' a lot to like, but what doesn't work is the story and characters. I've never met a zombie story without plot holes the size of the Grand Canyon, so that's not my main complaint. My real issue is the theme of the drama is lost amongst the repeated antics of characters who surround the main couple, and because of that there are only three likable characters in the ENTIRE drama. The ML, the FL, and the Kid. You start actively rooting for everyone else to die around episode six if you have a heart, and far earlier if you're heartless like me. By episode 10 I started leaning on the FF button because I was ready to get to the end, and to my disgust far too many of the unlikable characters were still alive by that point. The sweet moments between the main leads and my desire to finish this in drama in its entirety kept me through to the end. It wasn't a bad ride once all was said and done. The acting was was top notch, which is why I hated so many of the side characters. They did a good job of making me hate them, and of course the ML and FL have really good chemistry, which was shown very well throughout all the times they worked together as a team, and during their one kissing scene...lol. Would I watch this again? Probably not, but I would watch the actors again in another drama.

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Why is it getting so many bad reviews??

guys, I actually liked this kdrama. it's a bit confusing at first, but then you start to get it. the neighbors are really annoying, but they're the comedic part of the drama. it's good because it hooked me from the first episode, great way to kill the time. people are being way too critical, but I think it's because they start watching expecting intense horror, and it's not quite like that... anyway, I loved it, it was a great way to spend some time!!
p.s: the main couple is awesome, the actors act really well. the soundtrack isn’t that great, but it works.
p.s²: I’m just not giving it a perfect score because the ending wasn’t very well explained — I was like ?????? trying to figure it out what exactly happened.

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The title threw me off but overall SO UNDERRATED!

Perfect quick paced mini-series with a lot of action, sweet sweet romance build (nothing intense but just the RIGHT amount from beginning to end) and a roller coaster of emotions.

Truly love how this drama depicts MENTAL, PHYSICAL, EMOTIONAL, AND SPIRITUAL abuse, trauma, fortitude etc!! Really loved how it also showed the importance of family, love, trust vs betrayal, hatred, and desperation!

Also loved ALL the cast + characters, really befitting, and honestly such a charismatic female lead and loved Han Tae Seok!!

The chemistry between the two leads were absolutely adorable, charismatic, yet such a sweet romance (nothing cringey or lovey dovey sorts).

Overall, if you're looking for a quick, straightforward drama this is IT! However, be prepared!! :)

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Had me on the edge of my seat!

Gah! This was such a great show! I of course decided to watch this for Mr. Park Hyung Sik, I love him and was dying to watch his latest show, and I have to say he didn’t disappoint! If you are on the fence about watching this just take the leap! It’s not a normal role for Park Hyungsik, and that all the more exciting, he really killed it! Happiness was Amazing! It’s Thrilling, keeps you on the edge of your seat, will put you in all the feels! I would go from heart pounding scared to raging mad and then swoooooooon!!! The entire cast really did a wonderful job! This is definitely one of the best zombie/outbreak shows I’ve seen yet!

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SO MUCH POTENTIAL...WASTED

Happiness was a genuinely enjoyable show to watch. I had a lot of fun with it, even though I got incredibly stressed by the stupid decisions the characters made throughout the drama. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough. What could have been a groundbreaking drama in its genre turned into a typical zombie plot, riddled with plot holes halfway through, and capped off with a nonsensical ending. Here are the things I liked and didn’t like about Happiness:

What I Liked:
-The acting: Most of the performances were top-notch, with convincing and memorable characters. In particular, some supporting roles stood out, like Oh Yu Hyun (Baek Hyun Jin) and Oh Yeon Ok (Bae Hae Seon). They made me feel levels of frustration I didn’t know were possible. Honestly, I felt like all the apartment residents were completely insane—some of the worst people humanity could conjure up.
-The portrayal of the disease: The visual representation of the infection was well-executed. The makeup and the performances of the "zombies" were incredibly convincing. Even the infected characters felt believable to me.
-Overall engagement: The drama was smooth and captivating to watch. I was never bored and stayed hooked until the end. I genuinely wanted to see how the story would unfold, even though the evolution of the plot and its conclusion were ultimately disappointing.

What I Didn’t Like:
-The main couple: Sadly, the romance, chemistry, and the process of them falling in love felt underwhelming. I didn’t feel any sympathy for them during the emotional moments or hardships they faced as a couple. Whether they stayed together, broke up, or one of them died, it made little difference to me. This was especially true for the female lead. Despite Han Hyo Joo being an excellent actress (as proven in W), her performance here, particularly with the male lead, felt plain and shallow. The romantic moments lacked impact and emotion, leaving me completely unmoved.

-The serial killer subplot: This part of the story left me completely baffled. It took the narrative in a direction that felt disconnected from the main plot. It raised so many questions: Why did he only start killing in the second half? Why didn’t he kill everyone who knew he was a serial killer? Why did he occasionally help the main leads if he lacked empathy and enjoyed causing pain? To me, this subplot only existed to justify why the character constantly wore a mask and goggles. It felt like filler to pad out the remaining episodes. Instead, the show could have used this time to address more important aspects of the story, such as:
- How the virus worked.
-The timeline for the infection spreading through the body.
-Why Sae Bom was the only one with antibodies capable of producing a cure.
-The political implications of the cure or even how food and water were managed during the lockdown.
These would have been far more relevant and interesting than a serial killer roaming a building filled with egotistical, selfish people.

-Plot holes about the infection and the virus: This was the most disappointing aspect. For a zombie drama where the central plot revolves around a deadly virus threatening the world, it was frustrating to see the disease become almost irrelevant halfway through the story. The explanations we were given felt shallow and unconvincing.

For instance:
-At first, the virus was portrayed as highly contagious, potentially leading to a global apocalypse. But by episode 11, it seemed like the only people still in lockdown were the apartment residents. How did the rest of the world suddenly recover and go back to normal?
-In the final episodes, everyone seemed eager to become blood-drinking zombies to avoid death and gain "power." Yet, no one addressed the consequences of those actions. Strangely, the pills didn’t infect everyone who took them, contradicting the earlier episodes that implied the pills were a primary cause of infection.
-The inconsistency in controlling the infection was also baffling. Early episodes emphasized how hard it was to resist the thirst for blood, with infected individuals losing all moral sense at the sight of it. But later, characters like Sae Bom could "de-monsterize" infected individuals, like Jin Yu Hyun, just by talking to them or patting them on the back.
-The rushed ending only made things worse, especially the female lead's decisions. The "happily ever after" conclusion felt forced and left many unanswered questions like:
What happened to those who took the pills, did they transform?
How did Jin Yu Hyun magically recover, so the found the cure?
How did the world return to normal so quickly? wasn't the virus spreading like crazy?

In the end, Happiness was a watchable drama that kept me hooked for all the wrong reasons. While I enjoyed it overall, its wasted potential and focus on irrelevant subplots were disappointing.

That said, despite my rant, I still recommend giving it a watch and form an opinion for yourselfs

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There were some things that were brought up briefly in the show that seemed as though they were going to be important but then they were never brought up again. Such as the building manager losing hair. There were also some characters that I would have liked to see how they turned out after everything and would've like to have gotten some sort of resolution for such as the doctor who was just a horrible person. In all, the ending felt just a little rushed to me. I also felt like I wasn't really that connected to the characters. It was a very slow burn but I think it was a cool concept for a zombie-type show as it isn't something that we have really seen before in many ways. (Also, the reason the rewatch value is so low is because I do not really rewatch things so that can be ruled out.)

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The series is really about stupid characters wanting to get rich

Watched the Train to Busan and Kingdom, thought it would be at least good but this was so so bad.
The writers were probably having a competition to see who could write the worst and stupidest character because there was not one decent character in the series. The smartest character in the series was probably the old lady that got a scratch on her back ( she kept an eye on her symptoms, gathered information and laid low ) other than her the rest are complete idiots.
Yoon Sae Bom is one of the worst characters I've seen in a long time, if she was in charge of finding a cure and keeping the ,,infected,, isolated from the healthy people in the general population most people would be infected in a few days. If she did not have ,,plot armor,, she would die in ep. 3.
There is no tension, characters keep their backs to open doors, they never keep their guard up, look worried that an ,,infected,, might be behind a corner, getting sick is even seen as a solution to fixing problems. Characters are more concerned with getting rich rather than keeping themselves safe.
As an action series it fails so hard, the main characters do not act as trained professionals, the ,,stunts,, are too obvious, they try to make scenes dramatic but they look silly.
There is no romance, the main leads are very cute but have no chemistry, their ,,love story,, never develops but we are told they love each other . Watch ,, Containment,, made in 2016 if you want to see a couple that has so much chemistry when they never even touch each other, that is how it is done but even that series is not great.
Would have been a lot better as a movie ( a mediocre movie ), I regret watching all of it, should have dropped it after ep 3 but had the morbid curiosity to see how bad the series really was.

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If conforming to madness is a way to achieve happiness, you can give this a try.

/ Actual Rating: 7.5/10

/- I find it a long drag determining the turn of events between the chaos and the development of the characters during their lockdown. The writers probably cannot figure out where they will put the plot twists especially with the "psychopath stereotype" fiasco it had at the latter part of the show. I seemingly thought I will have the suspense of what I had with Money Heist Korea (might just be the intro similarities).
/- Nevertheless, they missed the opportunity to develop Kim Se Hoon's character. Poor guy.
/- Lastly, Lee Bo Ram had the chillest role on the rooftop.

P. S. Commendable if this was filmed at the height of the emerging CoVID-19. They did a great job with the normalcy of the setting.

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