Happiness is a survival drama about a people amidst zombies, but it is also about the evil that lurks inside human beings. This 2021 Kdrama went viral for the chemistry between the couples and, to an extent, for its plot; it is the creation of Yang Ji-eul and Lee Myung-han.
The drama comes under thriller and is set primarily in an apartment complex where the main leads live. It aired on TvN from November 5, 2021, to December 11 for 12 episodes.
The drama features Han Hyo Joo, Park Hyung-Sik, and Jo Woo-jin as the main leads alongside Na-Chul, Ju-Seung Lee, Bae Hae-sun, etc.
The drama, being in the thriller genre, deals with people’s reactions during an outbreak of a deadly infectious disease. The disease affects people severely, making them bloodthirsty, and in the final stage, they turn zombie-like.
Apart from this, the drama also deals with many social evils and prejudices not often shown in apocalypse dramas, which primarily focus on survival alone.
Plot and Review of Happiness
The drama begins with the iconic scene that went viral on social media platforms; Jung Yi Hyun, played by Park Hyung-Sik, sits on the edge of his school’s roof. The fire force is trying to get him down. That is when Yoon Seo-bum, played by Han Hyo-Joo, comes up to talk to him and then pushes him down to the cushion. At the end of that scene, he asks her out (love at a first push).
The drama then takes a time skip of 12 years; We see Seo-bum working as a special agent for the Korean police force and Jung Yi-Hyun as a detective investigating a murder scene.
The murderer bit a man’s neck and drank his blood; he said he was thirsty and admitted to taking a pill. He got the pill from Lee Jong tae, someone in the special Force where Seo-bum works. Yi-hyun informs Seo-bum about this, and she goes to investigate with her colleague, but they are attacked by Jong Tae, who turns Zombie-like.
In the attack, Seo-bum gets injured and is isolated and observed. When the camera zooms out of the building, we see that what we saw was not an isolated incident, as there are so many human zombies in the building.
We find out that Seo-bum is resistant to the disease, which makes the Lieutenant, who handles this issue, curious. Yi-hyun also arrives at the isolation facility by tracking Seo-bum’s cell phone. He also brings the Lieutenant the drug, named ‘next. (produced as a cure for pneumonia but was taken out of the market due to its side effects), which he believes causes the ‘Mad Person disease.’
Seo-bum uses her connection with the lieutenant to get an apartment she has wanted for a long time; she also fakes her relationship with Yi-hyun to get the apartment. So, the two of them move into the apartment, and slowly the show introduces us to the residents living there.
The rest of the story will have them solving murders and discovering how the drug(next) is distributed. Thus, the apartment and the people living there are important aspects of this drama. This is just the basic plot of the first few episodes. So, we are not spoiling much here, but please prepare for more spoilers in the review section.
An evil worse than the living dead.
When the story begins, we focus more on infectious disease and their impact. We were worried about Seo-bum’s colleague who died while trying to get money by selling the video of those affected by the mad person disease. Even though we were worried, we were also frustrated by his action. But trust me; he is not the worst humanity you will encounter in this drama.
“I am getting more disappointed in humanity every day,” Seo-bum said after a day of stay in the apartment building. And she said nothing but facts; you will get disappointed in humans with every passing episode, and you know what is the worse? The characters in this drama represent real human beings we live with.
Some of the residents in the building are very bad human beings; their lack of empathy makes us wonder if they are human beings. Usually, in survival dramas, the villains are cruel and unsympathetic to the suffering of others; it is the same here too.
I liked the reference to the pandemic and how they replicated how many of us behaved during the pandemic to fit into the context of this drama—hoarding, isolating each other, and treating the infected as if they were not humans anymore. The drama held a mirror to society and asked us to look at ourselves. But we do understand why some characters do what they do. If we are put in such a situation, we will probably do the same as them.
The way people in power get their way, class discrimination, selfishness, and lack of unity during a time when humans should be sticking together were beautifully portrayed in the drama. I am impressed by the plot too. Even though it shared a lot of features with other survival dramas, it had a unique touch and plot points of its own.
But not everybody in this show is bad. There are good characters and characters we cannot categorize as good or evil. Our main leads are good people; they get angry and have outbursts but never lose their humanity.
The chemistry between the main leads is good. I won’t call it great and out of this world, but they had a very comforting and cute chemistry. There is a saying in Kdramaland that non-romance shows have better chemistry and romance. This holds here. There are a lot of moments in this drama that went viral, and all of them are for the right reason.
There are characters you may get attached to in the drama, but my advice is not to get attached because you may not know who will end up dying—the one character I found myself attached to ended up dead.
Coming to acting, I liked the performance of all the characters here, from Hyo-Joo as Seo-bum to the minor characters; they all did a good job.
But the drama has its flaws too. I am confused about the whole virus and its mechanism. The show could have explored it more because the virus seems to have different characteristics based on the person they affect. The ending felt rushed, too; they could have wrapped it up better.
Our Verdict
Creating a drama involving zombies, cures, and antibodies is difficult because you need to put in much effort. I understand the effort put in, but I wish they handled it a bit better. It felt rushed, and the ends were loosely tied up. Nevertheless, it was a good watch with a good plot, characters, and execution.
Our Rating: ⭐ (3.8/5).
