K-drama midseason recap: Happiness – Han Hyo-joo shines in breezy zombie survival drama that remains appointment television
- The zombie attacks in Happiness hit closer to home for the residents of Le Ciel 101 and tensions run high as the end of their quarantine is delayed indefinitely
- Han Hyo-joo and Park Hyung-sik have been terrific as the leads in Happiness – now all we need is a punchy ending to the series after its strong midseason run
This article contains spoilers.
Given its bright apartments, sunny days and occasionally ebullient characters, you could be forgiven for mistaking Happiness for something other than the survival- horror drama that it is. Zombies lurk around every corner, but they only appear sparingly and in well-executed set pieces that punctuate a series that remains breezily enjoyable two-thirds of the way in.
Soon after they move into a public housing unit in Tower 101 in the Le Ciel flat complex, Yoon Sae-beom (Han Hyo-joo) and Jung Yi-hyun (ZE: A’s Park Hyung-sik), along with their neighbours, are forced into a 10-day lockdown when a resident became afflicted with a virus that prompts its hosts to intermittently manifest zombie-like symptoms.
The tables turn when a mass infection spreads through the other buildings in the complex, which has been sealed off from the outside. Suddenly, the danger within is superseded by the danger without.
Sae-beom and Yi-hyun lock the doors in the lobby and the basement and tape drapes on the windows over the protests of some of the other residents, including the hoity-toity Oh Yeon-ok (Bae Hae-sun), who acts as the representative of the building – a position she doesn’t yet hold, but desperately covets.
