[HanCinema's Drama Review] "Happiness - Drama" Episode 7

By William Schwartz on 2021/12/01 at 19:40 PST

Se-hoon (played by Han Joon-woo) lives on the penthouse floor of the quarantined apartment complex. He's the guy who asked Sae-bom for an authentic special forces jacket. His character hasn't really been very important so far- although last episode he did make a special effort to vouch for Seung-beom (played by Joo Jong-hyuk) who had been confirmed as infected with madness rabies. This defies Se-hoon's status as the presumed wealthiest resident of the complex. It was mainly other owners calling for Seung-beom's expulsion.

Anyway, despite the cliffhanger of the sixth episode implying that Se-hoon had a sinister motivation for inviting Sae-bom to the penthouse we amost immediately learn that this was just a false alarm. I get this feeling about a lot of the plot points in "Happiness - Drama" lately. The story feels laboriously explained, yet without much of an actual point whenever it's time for something to actually happen.

I'd managed to completely forget about the other two things that had been ongoing- online streamer Dong-hyeon (played by Kang Han-saem) accidentally allowing an intruder into the building. Also novelist Hyeon-kyeong (played by Park Hee-von) messing around with Seung-beom for poorly conceived reasons. There's a lot of characters in "Happiness - Drama" although the weird part is that the apartment building feels too empty, if anything.

But all these apparently petty dramas are rendered irrelevant by the surprise reappearance of Colonel Han for reasons that don't really feel like much of a spoiler. Sae-bom appears to be immune to madness rabies. Frankly it's a bit remarkable he ever let her out of his sight once, and Colonel Han doing so again feels just a tad reckless. But only because the situation in the apartment building remains such a huge mess, which Sae-bom and Yi-hyeon aren't doing a very good job cleaning up.

I am referring, of course, to Joo-hyeong, who continues to show suspicious interest in the Next drug. It's still not clear whether Yi-hyeon has taken preventative measures about this, despite his also knowing about the drugs in the car. Sang-hee is also sneakily implying she might have been the real mastermind behind the murder of Joo-hyeong's wife. More importantly, Pastor Seon appears to have discovered a means by which the mindless zombies can be easily repelled. But our heroes simply blow off this revelation as soon as they learn of it, making no further effort to investigate.

Review by William Schwartz

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"Happiness - Drama" is directed by Ahn Gil-ho, written by Han Sang-woon, and features Han Hyo-joo, Park Hyung-sik, Jo Woo-jin, Kang Ji-eun-I, Lee Joon-hyuk-I, Park Joo-hee. Broadcasting information in Korea: 2021/11/05~Now airing, Fri, Sat 22:40 on tvN.

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