Before completing, I had tried to watch Happiness twice before but just couldn't get into it. Once when it was airing, and another after—but the first 2 episodes were just too high a barrier. I'm glad I finally pushed through to the end—and I think at its core Happiness's high rating is in large aprt due to its potential.

When I think about happiness, I appreicate the concept and what it wanted to achieve—the execution however was lacklustre—not TERRIBLE, but not absolutely amazing.

❌ THE BAD:

❌-- The poor characterization and backstories of the leads
I love that Happiness has a slow burn romance that's a subplot and not the main focus of the story. The thing is, when its a slow burn you need to have leads with strong back stories and characterizations for the viewers to condstantly turn over in their head for why these two people are so compatible, and what about their personalities has been keeping them from getting together right now.

Sae Beom and Yi Hyun are great characters, but the flashback to high school provides little info on their characters—and barely any of Yi Hyun's home life or backstory is ever explored. He seemed too perfect, besides his baseball injury. I wish there had been more core memories of their flashbacks besides Sae Beom pushing him off a building—(also, is Yi Hyun human? How can you not even get angry or terrified when someone pushes you off a building? At least see him get upset or shocked at Sae Beom—instead of being instantly smitten with her 💀)

They've been friends for YEARS, are you telling me there are no other important moments they've shared over their decade-long friendship? How and why have they built such trust till now? What is Yi Hyun's reason (well, we sort of learn this, but it feels a bit shallow). What are Sae Beom's reasons? What conflict have they had that they overcame and brought them closer together? We need to see their bond! I wish they fleshed out their past and their characters BEFORE all of this happened more.

❌-- Terrible supporting characters that hang around way too long
I think we can all agree that some of these supporting characters needed to be out of the picture since yesterday. I think Happiness would have really benefited from having a more morally grey character in Yi Hyun—he had potential in a few scenes where he snapped and would really threaten or hurt the doctor guy. He always spoke about being the bad cop, but he was still pretty lukewarm. I wish Yi Hyun was more flawed and less perfect, and that a bit of karmic justice could take these villains OUT! (where's the white truck of death when you need one)

❌--Han Hyo Joo
Han Hyo Joo is stunning and beautiful to look at—but in W and now in Happiness I have a hard time believing her chemistry with any of her co-stars. I think she's a bit stiff when it comes to romance and really letting go and selling the believability with her chemistry. This might just be me lmao but that's what I think—she didn't add much 3-dimensionality or uniqueness to Sae Beom, and idt it's just how the character was written.

❌ -- Longer than it needed to be.
Idt happiness made use of its 12 episodes. Idt it needed anymore, I think the episodes in the middle could have been merged. Some stuff get drawn out for way too long—scenes are repeated, it's just screen time where not much things of importance are happening. Either they needed more families to follow the lives of, or they needed to cut their scenes down!

❌ -- The ending
The last 20 minutes of the final episode are way too rushed? Like hello? We needed at least an extra 30 minutes of screen time after the episode ended to actually flesh out and explain what the hell just happened! I know this isn't a romance kdrama, but right when everything was getting good it ended ;-; We need an explanation for how the solution came about, the aftermath, a proper epilogue that's not like 2 minutes long!

✅ THE GOOD:

✅-- the concept of the story
Again, I think Happiness is great in theory. Hopefully another show comes along that remakes this or does something completely new but of a similar premise or formula. This is like a sweet home meets Reset (don't ask how this reminds me of Reset, it just does).

✅ --The actor for the doctor
My god Baek Hyun Jin does an amazing job of absolutely getting on my nerves! When he was writhing in pain on the floor? Absolutely pathetic this actor does an amazing job of making viewers want to reach through the screen and just punch him lmao

✅--OST
Idt there's even a proper song I heard being sang, but I like the opening credits and I think the sound design was well-done enough since it's never bothered me.

✅-- Park Hyung Sik
I think he did the stunts himself?! Apparently he actually knows taekwondo (or so I've heard). I appreciated the fight scenes and the added level of immersion. He also bulked up for this role—a lot of people were calling him fat, but when you bulk up in muscle some of that fat's going to go to your face, it all just depends on your body! I think people were giving him too much shit, he still looks handsome and I appreciate his dedication to actually looking like a baseball player. Do you think we'd all believe he's a hulking, strong baseball player if he was still skinny like in Strong woman do bong soon? Go back and watch clips of him back then. Imagine him doing his current stunts with that same physique. Humans change and get older and he looks more mature now. Let's be realistic here.

🌻 Anyways, I liked Happiness because of what it could have been if it had just tweaked and improved a few things. I think as it is now, it's probably about 50% of it's full potential. But I'm glad it has such a high rating, hopefully dramaland sees that stuff like this will do well and make more similar productions!