Happiness

Great cast, poor execution

Honestly, I don’t understand the hype this drama is getting. I had high expectations but something was missing and made me lose interest. I pushed myself to finish it until the end but still.. What bothers me is the lack of explanation of some events, the plot holes, the poor character development. ML and FL didn’t show a great amount of chemistry. Some characters were too much and useless. Many times, their actions didn't make sense at all. Like for real, it made me angry cause it wasn’t that realistic or logical. I know it’s fiction but would you rather trust cops or a murderer? However I would say the cast nailed the acting. The ending .. disappointing. They skipped many major unresolved plots and left many questions unanswered. Although it is a happy ending, I wasn’t moved at all. Seemed too good and easy in my opinion. Finally the music, I enjoyed it. Overall: this drama doesn’t deserve the hype surrounding it AT ALL. I got a headache instead of being entertained. Waste of potential cause the synopsis seemed promising and the cast was great.

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An important drama for the world during the pandemic

Having been a long time fan of both Park Hyungshik and Han Hyojoo, I had really high expectations going into this, considering it was their first drama comeback in a long time. And did they deliver? Hell yes.
Now that I introspect after having completed the drama, I think about how if this released pre-pandemic, I would've called it unrealistic and exaggerated. Now post the pandemic...It's a realistic depiction of the human race and the values it upholds in the face of calamity.
It is a gripping, well-written plot that keeps you on edge and immersed in all the characters and the story. A large part of the tension present in the story is delivered with the help of the music which is anxiety inducing to say the least. (I mean can we talk about the 'real eyes, realize, real lies' soundtrack?? Brilliant if you ask me.)
Our main characters are intelligent, brave professionals while a large portion of the supporting characters are all driven by their own personal greed and needs, which don't halt even in the face of imminent infection. There are very few characters who actually follow what the leads instruct them to do while most are focused on their own ulterior motives. You can watch as the characters' humanity slowly slips away, leaving them with nothing but pure horrendous greed, stopping at nothing to reach their goal. Now think of the world during COVID. How many people REALLY just stayed at home? How many people were out partying, complaining about quarantines, refusing to wear masks and endangering others all for their own sakes? How different really are we from the characters in the story? How many actually followed what the authorities told them to?
Hyungshik's acting performance in this is incredible and unexpected from an actor who tends to choose go-easy, prince charming like characters usually. Hyojoo's performance... to say I'm in love with her character and how she's portrayed is an understatement.
The explicitly romantic scenes in the series are very few but the chemistry between the characters, the way they are constantly caring and looking out for each other all seem natural to the buildup in the end episodes.
The re-watch value is probably not a 10/10 mostly because the plot relies on the suspense factor which is lost after you've finished watching the series.
SO, should you watch the drama? Yes. However, I would not suggest watching it if you have an issue with excessive gore/blood.

P.S : Kudos to the writers and production team for cutting down from 16 to 12 episodes, the plot has so much more substance and is so much better qualitatively. Good call.

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A decent zombie Kdrama but plot action seems forced

Overall: I enjoyed it, I liked the two main actors their screen chemistry was definitely there. I liked about 90% of the plot but some things could have been written better.

The issues: A lot of the side characters made decisions that made 0 sense. Which makes the plot seemed forced for action.

The girl uncuffing the gym guy when clearly he’s infected (and they’ve seen the video) and she’s already running from another infected person. How is an infected person going to help you run from another infected person?

I also dislike how they let the doctor get away with a lot of stuff like trying to poison everyone else and murdering his wife. Wouldn’t you tell the rest of the group this guy tried to poison and infect them? They just completely let it slide and kept him until the end. Also the fact he tried to trap them outside and get others infected on purpose. The level of shit this man did he deserved the death penalty on the spot. He didn’t have the group’s interest anywhere in mind and that is not someone who lasts very long.

I also hate how they threw in the serial killer randomly in the last two episodes. Like what made him suddenly just “snap”. Everyone knew he had something to hide.

Also why didn’t the main characters ever defend themselves from being accused of killing the pastor? They just let the wife (wannabe building rep) build resentment towards them.

There’s quite a few issues with the show and could’ve been written better. If they redid some things to make it seem more natural I think I would’ve given it a 9-9.5. Just some glaring issues in the characters.

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So many plot holes

I thought this started off well, though I’m going to say I found PHS miscast. I never fully bought him as a detective, especially a “bad cop” type.
That is not to say his acting was bad. I just didn’t think he was right for the role.
This may also have to do with not being a PHS obsessive as a lot of fans of this drama seem to be. Actually I didn’t recognize him at first because he put on a fair amount of weight and his face looks very different.

I initially fell in love with Sae Bom’s character, then got kind of annoyed when she made rather silly decisions early on and the show did that typical thing that kdramas and to a certain extent most tv shows do now where female characters are never taken to task for their poor decision-making. She got back on track as the show went on, though.

I took issue with the general attitude both protagonists had with the infected. They were cops, not doctors, so it seemed weird to me how self-righteous and ready to protect the zompires they were from the get-go. I could have understood it after more exposure to them, but from the start it didn’t make sense that they were so ready to protect them at all costs.

The illness makes no sense whatsoever. A drug can give it to you? And then you can spread it to someone else? Really? At certain points you have characters plotting to use the situation as an excuse to get rid of other characters. But when does anybody actually die from this thing? People get bitten and everyone just becomes a zompire. Except when the plot requires otherwise. Why even worry all that much if eventually they’ll all be the same and there will be nobody left for them to feed on? You’re telling me Dong Hyun, who was surrounded by at least a dozen of them, didn’t even die but just came out infected from presumably getting attacked by all of them at the same time?

Finally I get what they were going with regarding the residents (btw even with the excuse they gave, there should have been a lot more residents in that building), but too much time was spent on them and I just wanted more SB/YH relationship exploration. It still turned out pretty satisfying overall, but I went in excited about the contract marriage aspect and then I eventually got very bored of the residents. Why did we spend so much time on the old lady only for her to not appear at all as the show went on?
They were often stupid to an absurd level. Yes, in crises the ugly, and often short-sighted side of people comes out, but these people went beyond that. Who sides with a serial killer against the two people who have shown themselves most capable of handling disaster? I was close to dropping it, but by episode 10 I found myself interested again. Even with only 12 episodes this show sorta dragged.

Still, it had great acting, was wildly funny at certain points, had two likable leads even if they did annoy me, and overall was pretty entertaining. I just don’t think it’s a masterpiece by any means, as I’ve seen a few people claim.

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Excruciating episodes of seeing people go crazy either due to the disease or just them being insane

While the story is continuously progressing, it kind of felt boring and lacking plus I am mostly annoyed because most of the characters seems to be villains. More than the disease, people are worse than viruses or whatsoever. When people become greedy and selfish, no other thing could be worse than that. Watching those long 12 episodes felt like a torture and a compilation of how humanity is dead and I was honestly holding on hoping that everything will end well and fortunately it did end well. So a big sigh of relief that I didn't waste half a day for something not worth it.

To be honest, I'm not really into 'zombie' / 'apocalyptic' type of series or movie so that's why it's really rare for me to review it highly unless it really amazed me. Unfortunately, Happiness fell short on my list but big consideration that everything ended well. It still gave me hope and definition the last episode was the best so far.

Acting wise, the characters did well specially the villains who annoyed the sht out of me. Kudos to the well-executed portrayal. The infected also acted well and the action scenes are also of great quality so I commend that. Background music also blends in well with the scenario keeping the tension going and the thrill.

Overall, I feel like the journey of watching it although a bit painful for me, I still enjoyed it. So if you're into zombie/apocalyptic type of genre you might love this more than I did.

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When stupidity is scarier than the vicious virus.

Not gonna lie, at some point I kind of wanted the drama to end with the end of the world. Watching all these characters behave the way they did make me think: maybe the world would be better without people in it.

That said, what a ride this show was. Not one episode was boring with all the zombies, scheming and danger. Adding great chemistry between the cast made this drama a pure joy. Sure, I wanted the majority of the characters dead by the end, but how much fun was it to watch the chaos unfold.

Happiness has this uncanny, surreal vibe to it - no one reacts to any given situation in a realistic manner, the society deals with it in the most chill way possible, there is little to no information about what the government is doing with the guy working for pharmaceutical company (given he is associated with military)making all the important choices that involve worldwide survival. Nothing about this show is realistic, little to nothing truly makes sense and yet… I liked it a lot.

Production value was top notch. Sure, they overdone the “zombies'' with funny eyes, but at the end of the day, the infected were not supposed to be the scariest part of the show anyway. For me, they were adorable and had many comedic moments. Face covered in blood, but they will be like: I’m fine.

Isaac Hong’s Pain was probably the best song of the whole OST. Listening to the soundtrack while writing the review, it hits me how dramatic it is compared to the drama itself.

The show sends a vaguely clear message - happiness is not defined by where and how, but with whom. It’s the people in your life that can make it or break it. That said, with all the awful characters in the drama, I rather stay alone and not risk it…

Overall, I started to feel far more frustration in the 2nd half, since some of the choices the characters were making (including our main duo into that mix) just made no sense and showed complete lack of planning and ignorance towards the obvious dangers, both in the form of the virus and the residents themselves. The last episode was a bit disappointing, not delivering a conclusion the show deserves. Even with all that, I would highly recommend it. The entertainment value was so high, I will gladly turn a blind eye to the things that bothered me.

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U DONT UNDERSTAND, IM OBSESSED!!

this show is actually amazing. obviously its a zombie apocalypse type show but I love how its written in a way to centre the show on the livelihood of the apartment community and how the disease is affecting them rather than the show be centred on the disease. AND I LOVE THE MCS, the duo are just MUAH *CHEF'S KISS*. Han hyo jo's character is so nice and refreshing and park hung sik's character is so god send as always (right now at ep 8 - the romance is so minimalistic yet the cutest thing ever, like as an adamant romance kdrama lover I will watch this for the romance) , but someone you cannot miss is Jo Woojin as Han Taesok, I love him as an actor and once again has amazed me!! genuinely I love this drama so much, I'm still watching it but i love it so much!! WATCH IT!!!

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Good Enough

Korean Drama "Happiness" is a dystopian drama that feels, nevertheless, close to home. The drama doesn't focus too much on the horror aspect, with the zombie-like disease, that could have been easily overused with loads of gory scenes and bloodbath.

Rather, the drama opted for a more character-centric story, with the focus being maintained on the neighbors and their dynamics when a crisis hits home. The addition of the corporation mystery, along with the family drama, were all a nice touch that added more twists to the main plot.

However, the drama missed making the conclusion clear, or more dramatic. Everything was actually too conveniently solved when everyone was straggling to come to a conclusion all throughout the drama. Also, the drama felt like it was missing something, like the story needed something more to leave a bigger impact.

Nonetheless, the performances were great and aided the entertainment value of the drama a lot. The CGI were also well made.

So, overall, 6.5 out of 10.

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Good start

This started out well, with a stylish opening sequence, a less common take on a monster theme, and a cool FL (Han Hyo Joo, who I almost didn't recognize - I didn't like her much in W, but she's great here), who continues to be cool all the way through! - and doesn't turn into a crying fainting jelly, as so many of them do. It is a fairly silly plot with many holes, but hey, it's a monster show, I can hand-wave that if the pace is good enough to glide me over them. Unfortunately, the storytelling in the middle fell rather flat. There are a lot of side-characters - naturally, as it's the story of the apartment block - but none of them felt compelling: no solid arcs, just randomness and dead ends, and too much time given to the least interesting and most annoying of them. (actually that was almost all of them! and they killed off 15th floor guy, who I kinda liked) The spurious melodrama with these unappealing goons messed with the momentum enough for me to get bored and abandon it on-hold for months before finally finishing it. It does pick up towards the end: the last two eps were better, and the finale tied up some of the essentials, including the romance arc, but that felt unsatisfying to me and I would have liked to have known what happened to other characters.

Still worth watching, but I'd keep the skip button handy.

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Featuring Baek Hyun Jin's insanely dramatic shrieks

Before I talk about the show, let's talk about Baek Hyun Jin and his screams/hollers/shrieks... that little dude is part Velociraptor, right? He makes noises I have never heard a human make on screen or off. It's massively entertaining and only sometimes obnoxious. I've seen him do it a few times in other dramas, but Happiness provided him with a great many opportunities to implement his raptor shriek, and it fit very well with his character's cowardly evil personality.

Happiness was ok. It was, for me, just a tad over acceptable but not epic. As other reviewers have pointed out, there are a lot of minor inconsistencies, plot holes, and confusing logic leaps. There are some elements I just cannot wrap my head around the logic of....like why was this apparently government boss dude the literally only guy in charge of the whole outbreak. I can't think of any government that would work that way, there would be lots of officials involved in an operation of this scale. Also why did the relationship develop between the detective and this military boss dude, that part really seemed to stretch the bounds of logic for me. Why too, if the side character brother also had antibodies was his wound purple and diseased looking where the FL's wound was not, where they multiple times in the script bring up the color of the wound's surrounding area as an indicator of infection.

The direction crew did a really terrible job with consistency, so many shots will have the actors holding a prop in their hand from on angle, but when it cuts over to the next angle the prop is gone or in the wrong hand or different. It's pretty jarring and there are multiple examples of this in every single episode. The attention to detail in this Kdrama was pretty bad, and those things break immersion which definitely reduces my impression of a drama.

The acting was pretty good, there were a few sort of one-note bland characters and it was a little disappointing that they didn't delve into any of the backstory on side characters at all, which made it difficult to connect with them emotionally. The ML and FL had good synergy. The FL especially did an awesome job representing her character's personality consistently, so you truly believed her as a character. The action scenes were pretty well done for the most part, though there seemed to be some inconsistency around when a lead could attack a gun holding person vs when they just stood there at gun/knife point. There was a really awesome scene the ML does (or his stunt double probably) where he in one swift move drops to the ground and grapples the preacher zombie's leg, spinning around it to take him down, it was pretty badass.

Overall, it was a pretty good show, though the lack of consistency in the script and directing limited the potential of the actors. Even so, 90% of this drama takes place in hallways, and it's pretty impressive that you can keep people immersed well enough that they remain watching with such dull scenery.

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Bloody, brutal, beautifull... ha ha

This drama really has a little bit of everything showing humans at their best as well as at their extreme worst.. Showing us that some people truly are scary, but in a good way...

What I liked about this drama was that its twists where slightly less predictable than I thought, don´t get me wrong some twits where highly predictable and at some point I found myself telling my husband not only what but how the next scene would be cut, sunds and angles... And well I was not that far from it... Even tough there where a few characters that were annoying at times I kind of got used to them and actually started enjoying watching them develop and humorously adapt to their extremely evil nature.... And was a lot less annoyed at the character portrayed by Baek Hyun Jin here than I was in The Devil Judge.


The message here is not very clear but kind of sweet in a way, and so are the interactions, choices and relationships between the characters. Who are the real monsters? Will you try to eat the person you love if you get infected with a virus that effects your brain? Will a person with rabies just bite any one or do they have preferences too? How much stress can a person take before they loose all sense? what is being the building rep really worth? are some people worth more than others?

The female lead is as cool as cool and fun gets, she has humour, she is strong and she does not take any crap from any one..... The male lead is just too cute, also strong but more willing to take crap, actually he is said to have a bad temper but considering the people around him I am willing to say he is more of a saint than anything else. Even if I do not agree with all his decisions...

The kid is sweet and a fun addition to the cast.

All in all this is a show that will keep you biting your toe nails, make your heart flutter, make you laugh at the evil and have you yelling profanities' at the screen while hiding your face from the blood splatter and those bloody teeth... yuck...

Edit: I forgot to mention that I have renamed this drama zoom zoom because they LOVE zooming in and out...

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Completed - 2/7/2022 - 8.75

I want to preface that I am usually not a thriller/horror/suspense drama watcher. Therefore, my review is very subjective and I don't have many thrillers as a reference to compare how good "Happiness" is. The reason I am interested in this drama is because of the overwhelming positive reviews and because of Park Hyung Sik. I haven't seen him since "Strong Woman Woman Do Bong Soon" and I find him absolutely adorable. 🥰

For the most part, I enjoy the plot and the pacing of the drama. I think there's a good mix of action and drama in each episode to keep me interested and engaged. Towards the middle of the drama, I feel that the pacing slows down just a tad bit and you could somewhat expect that you will see the repetitiveness of infected humans + neighbor selfishness + leads heroic efforts. Having said that, I think this drama finishes very strong. Episodes 10-12 are very exciting and keep me entertained for the whole 3 hours.

For those who are scaredy cats like me and don't like horror stories and zombies, there are quite a lot of scenes of zombie-like infected humans in almost every episode. So, be warned! I am still OK with it but others might not. Moreover, though there are many "scary" scenes, the main focus of the drama is more about how humans will react to such a crisis. You see human greed, selfishness and evilness all come out when everyone is in lockdown mode. Luckily, we have our leads and a couple neighbors to bring some positive human nature to brighten the ugly selfishness. For some reason, the drama reminded me of Agatha Christie's book, "And Then There Were None".

I enjoy seeing two smart and independent leads. They are both strong mentally and physically, and are such great partners-in-crime, or shall I say heroes-in-crisis. If you are looking for romance, it is understandably a very small part of the drama. However, I do want to see more of the affection shown from the FL to ML sprinkled throughout the drama. I don't think there's enough to show me how devoted FL is to warrant her sacrificing quite a bit for ML in the end. I don't need/want a lot of romance, but just a little bit more would be nice.

As we see greed and selfishness during the lockdown, it's inevitable to have some annoying characters in the drama. This might be one of the few dramas that I would tolerate characters that I don't like, because that's what the drama is all about. I won't deduct points because of them. LOL However, that doesn't stop me from hating a few of them. 😁

Acting is great all around, from the youngest little girl to the amazing veterans such as Jo woo Jin (Infectious Disease head), Lee Joon Hyuk (detective) and Bae Hae Seon (building rep). Everyone is great and I love and love-hate all of them. It's so great to see Park Hyung Sik's cute, shy smile again.

Other Observations:
1. Does Park Hyung Sik seem buffer than before? Such wide shoulders. Must be all that military training!
2. Han Tae Seok as the head of the Infectious Disease investigation should really wear a mask more often. 😷
3. A few scenes have very abrupt cut or transitions
4. They don't seem to use soap when washing blood off their hands and face.
5. Aside from the English song, I don't see to remember much about its OST and BGM.

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