Happiness

Happiness (2021) - another zombie type drama. I like it but I think I was not as excited for this as with other zombie type dramas. Both leads are great and I am in awe with their acting, coming from a fan of Han Hyo Joo. As for the other actors in the drama, very good as well, I really felt hatred towards the "villains" in the drama. It’s a good watch but I have some disappointments with some of the characters. Some characters in the drama have not been given the justice to be a significant persona that is why I felt dismayed with their roles. The ending is fine with me. In between recommended and not.

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Great Potential, Sad Let Down

I had high hopes for Happiness. The premise of the show was exciting and unique for a K-drama. The lead actors were great, with fantastic chemistry and good supporting actors. However, the plot tanked this great project for me. There are many gaps in the story-telling that took me out of the drama too often. Characters would do these outlandish, reckless, and unrealistic things time and time again. The plot armor was aggravating. The main leads relationship is the only reason why I managed to finish the series but I don't recommend this to anyone unless you have nothing else to watch.

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I came for the romance but the side characters frustrated me so much

I happened upon a random Youtube clip of this drama which made me absolutely bawl my eyes out and want to watch this drama. I can say that the best parts of the drama are the vulnerable scenes with only the main leads as that's where we see the actors' good chemistry and skills.
The story has a good premise (basically a pandemic but with zombies) and I did read some of the webtoon it is based on. The side characters make really stupid decisions which I know is supposed to illustrate the classism between the more rich tenants and the poorer tenants in the apartment building, along with other personal issues the characters have, but goddamnit this is a zombie apocalypse and these people don't have a single ounce of logic. The main leads are officers so they use their power to boss around the tenants for the safety of the community, which can be considered abuse of power, but these people are so stupid, I can almost excuse this.
Overall, I would say watch this if you like zombie stories or a couple who are ride-or-die for each other, and maybe skip some parts by reading summaries.

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What a great watch and a little more "slice-of-life" than the usual zombie type shows

Loved the interesting take on the zombie theme. I've gotten tired of watching a lot of shows and movies with zombies and they pale in comparison to KDramas with zombies, especially Happiness.

Depending on my mood, The pacing is what I always look for in starting and finishing a series. Glad the pacing for this show was incredible! From strategic action scenes to comedic relief to light romance, the journey of watching through episodes made it easy to digest. Every watch "session" with this drama had me feeling contented yet intensely curious on the next episode.

As someone who keeps up with politics, it feels refreshing to see a character in power doing their job and actually showing that he cares about the public and doing things for the good of society. Seriously, the main general's character was really satisfying to watch. He would be my favorite character but most the characters were impressive as well! All of them (yes, even the annoying ones) had great character development and really made the story come to life.

Of course ML and FL were incredible! Both actor and actress were so cute individually AND together, I can't--!! The annoying characters really had me annoyed yet the pacing kept my anger at bay soon after being given hints or reminders of their parts in the story.

Give it a try, hope you all enjoy it as much as I did.
I can't get over it yet but that's when I know it's a work of art, when it lingers in my thoughts haha.

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go watch all of us are dead if you are expecting a bloody zombie drama

if any of you are thinking to get into it because of zombies, blood, scary scenes, then don't, but you should watch all of us are dead, what you are really looking for

all of the characters for me are based on something from covid, such as the vlogger kid, who is selfish, but still a kid somehow, in an adult body

the building representative lady wants to become that for power, so she lies and does everything to seem like the right one, and who has not ever lied to an extant to get what they want.

all of the characters are dumb, yes, but it is based on covid once again, just with zombies, and who has not stocked up on toilet paper like its pure gold, or wanted to hide that they got covid to stay with there group, it is a good show for the people that understand that it was not suppose to be bloody, if not, this is not for you

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A slice of happiness with zombies

This is not a zombie apocalypse drama but a slice of life story showing how people deal with each other in the midst of chaos. Influenced by the events of Covid-19, the drama somewhat delves into the problems society faces when having to deal with an unknown deadly disease, the balance between safety and individual liberties, and people's biases.

The show starts off with a virus putting people into a zombie-like state making them crave blood. The first two episodes are about the spread of the disease until the plot switches to the main characters getting quarantined in a massive apartment building with no access to the outside world. The story mostly focuses on the best and the worst of human nature showing various residents dealing with their own problems and human-made happenings around the building. This reminded me of the movie "Clue" where a group of strangers got stuck together trying to solve murder-mystery.

If you are looking for passionate romance, you won't find it here. Although, the two main characters eventually kiss and become a couple, the romance is very subtle and focuses more on how Yoon Sae Bom and Jung Yi Hyun treat and protect each other without the use of cheesy romantic cliches. There are no tropey moments of staring and forlorn glances. The characters are very mature. They are not afraid to be alone and have physical contact without awkwardness.

The biggest problem with the drama is pacing which slows down somewhere in the middle. This is not so much about the plot, but the setting never changing. Characters run around various locations around the building and do the same things in every episode. This makes the show a bit tedious to watch.

The best thing about the drama is Park Hyung Sik. He truly shines as a serious character proving that he can play something other than stereotypical semi-comedic heroes. Here, he is a badass cop and a total stud. I want to see more of him playing generals, kings, and other males in positions of authority.

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Is this Fascist Propaganda or Nihilism? Or Anti-Capitalist? Or just stupid and unsubtle?

Happiness begins as compelling, 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 way 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. You get ONE person without a conscience, Happiness, not the bulk of the cast meant to represent society as a whole.

Money and social hierarchy are the primary messaging here. 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 or 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 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 you're living here for free' BITCH You're all quarantined under indefinite martial law?! They can't go anywhere, what is this unfathomable bullshit?

Money goes all the way to the top, because this is all happening because a CEO believes that he has the money/power to inflict germ warfare on a populace and get out unscathed if it heals him faster. We watch the wealthy become literal blood-sucking monsters with all the subtly of a baseball bat to the face. While bits of the message seem anti-capitalist, the theme never solidifies. Rather, these people are being painted as greedy for the sake of greed, as opposed to living in a horrifying system that will demand payment from them even while people ARE EATING EACH OTHER.

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 hegemonistic 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. While the the couple are good, there is a definite Might makes Right to their actions. 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- from a grade of I Killed My Wife to Nagging Husband to Adultery. 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. Every single thing here is forced and hollow. 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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I enjoyed this more than I thought I would, party because of Han Hyo Joo and Park Hyung Sik. They both play likeable and relatable characters whose friendship to lovers story is natural, despite the unnatural setting of the story. I've always enjoyed Han Hyo Joo's dramas. Park Hyung Sik is more hit and miss for me but this one is a hit for me. The drama raises interesting questions about how a government might respond to a frightening and highly contagious epidemic, how infected people are treated not just by the government but also by each other, and what people might do to fight for survival. It can be ugly -- people can behave pretty badly when they're frightened -- but this drama shows that people can also be surprisingly generous and self-sacrificing. I suspect that the inspiration for this drama comes from the first major COVID epidemic before vaccines were developed and the world was terrified.

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I can't feel invested when a story ignores logic just to create some drama and conflict

As stated above, characters making wrong decisions is great when handled well, but characters making brain dead decisions just to make tense moments, takes you out of the story and makes key moments pointless. I don't really give low ratings, this is as low as I've gone, but I just couldn't bring myself to engage with what I saw.

The "villains" in the story were weak, and yet they got away with countless things not through ingenuity but through shitty writing. A man is a murderer and you caught him trying to poison everyone... do you tell people? Nope, keep it to yourself and let him continue to influence morons. Other man points a gun to your wife's head and leads a mob against her because he's an easily manipulated blob, do we get angry and do something about it? Nope, place a hand on his shoulder and say - not cool man, you're wrong about her trust me - this is a guy that described himself as hot headed and having a bad temper by the way.

There were countless actions that a real person would not make, and when they lead to danger, am I supposed to care for the characters? How can I, when for all I know in the next scene they might randomly trip and fall off a building, with no build up, because that's the level of writing being displayed. Sometimes important things aren't communicated, sometimes someone with no social rapport is suddenly believed wholeheartedly when they make things up, and we're supposed to just accept that and keep watching.

It was a tough watch. A comedy or romance can get away with being unrealistic, but when a show like this wants to create high adrenaline moments, it has to arrive there through good writing. This one did not.

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