How can one resident building hold so many devious people, from the creepy lawyer to the psychotic killer, and the con artist resident representative, even the cleaning duo -- they are the epitome of evil. It's true when they say, an idle brain is the devil’s workshop. Rather than try and help each other, they scheme for their own survival. Sae Bom and Yi Hyun are much better people than I. There is no way I would've continued to talk to Jeong Gook after what he did, let alone give him a place to stay. But I understand it's the message the drama is trying to push in times of crisis. The wise build bridges, while the fools build dams. And that's what I like most about them, their ability to see the human in humanity, even in the midst of a crisis.
The resident of this happiness apartment must be the stupidest ever. I can understand that fear and survival instinct can take over, and cloud one's ability to judge a situation. But to continue following and listening to the people who have done nothing but put you down, time and time again, is simply idiotic. How could they as grown adults not realize that the only reason they aren't all zombies is because of Sae Bom and Yi Hyun; even Seo Yoon, the child recognizes that. It is so true when they say the mind can either be a beautiful servant or a dangerous master. The best part is the wanna-be resident representative is so busy trying to con and scheme that she can't even see what is happening in her own home. People who create their own drama deserve their own Karma.
I expected Yi Hyun to get infected before the end of the drama. It was inevitable, since he and Sae Bom were always in the front line. And despite expecting it, it still hurt as much as if I hadn't expected it. Even with that, though, the type of person Yi Hyun is, I believed he had the strength to keep the thirst at bay. I had faith in him. I knew he would endure until Tae Seok had the cure. If Ji Seong Sil (Lee Joo Shil) can withstand the thirst as long as she has, I am sure Yi Hyun as good hearted as he is will too. As much as I love Han Tae Seok, he sometimes makes it hard to like him for the choices he makes. I understand he wants to save the people most dearest to him, but so do most of the people in his situation. Sometimes, he doesn't seem much different than Chairman Seo.
They say the function of wisdom is to differentiate between good and evil. But the residents of happiness do not make it easy to do that. It's crazy how some infected seem to have more humanity than the so-called humans. Whoever said I see humans, but no humanity must've been talking about the true nature of humans in a crisis, just like the one Happiness depicts. I must commend the writer, I didn't expect the twist about Andrew and Kim Se Hoon (Han Joon Woo). And I hate that it had to turn bad, just as I started to appreciate them. But looks can be deceiving, and there is no better camouflage than a crisis situation to serve as a cover for evil. And as strange as Kim Se Hoon was, I knew he wasn't necessarily a bad guy and thought the same of Andrew, but I couldn't have been the furthest from the truth with my assumptions.
Everything about how the story unfolded, from the time Yi Hyun is infected to the time Sae Bom returned to the resident building, spoke directly to how infinite the greed of man can be even in an emergency situation. Despite being infected, Yi Hyun proved to be a better human than all the non-infected combined. The hardest thing to comprehend was that even as people were fighting to stay alive, all Representative Yeon Ok, Joo Hyung, his shady girlfriend Woo Sang Hee (Moon Ye Won), creepy lawyer Hae Sung, and SY cleaning crew Gi Se Gyu (Kim Young Woong) and his wife Ji Moon Hee (Lee Ji Ha) could think of was how to personally benefit from the situation regardless of the danger the posed to others. So it was only fitting to finally see them get what they deserved. Their greed in a way was their own self-punishment. This was an exciting drama, I enjoyed every minute of it. A thousand kudos to the writer, director, all the actors, but especially Han Hyo Joo, Park Hyung Sik, and Jo Woo Jin for keeping invested to the end.
Happiness as a drama made me realize that the events that seemingly brought out the dehumanization of humanity and fundamental ills of society weren't in Next as a drug, but in mankind's selfishness, hatred, anger, jealousy, fear, stupidity, distrust, greed and love of power. I like the message Happiness advocates. It's true that crisis situations expose mankind's struggle to deal with sudden changes and unexpected events, and there will always be those who try and benefit, be it the elites of society or even the government. But just as there are people and institutions driven by their fear, greed, hatred and selfishness, there are those driven by their desire to help others in a time of need. Most human beings are like that. They want to live by each other’s happiness - not by each other’s misery. They don’t want to hate and despise one another, because even in a residential apartment building, let alone the world, there is room for everyone. The ending of this drama is what happiness is about, because in life it's not where you live, but who you live it that matters. Watch Happiness here.