The thread is now open for spoilers and discussions.
Please “spoil” me with spoilers. Tell me when the scary/gory parts come up so I can fast-forward.
Not today, zombies!
source: wifflegifs
@Cleopatra, here’s the gif I mentioned. 🙂
Let’s enjoy the show!
Thanks @pkml3. How’s your holiday going?
If I can watch the episodes early, I’ll happily spoil you LOL.
@PM3, have a good break on Veterans’ Day. I don’t get the day off else I would have suggested a joint watch/rewatch with you which is always fun.
Will catch up with Happiness this coming weekend. It’s an interesting title for this kind of a show, it must mean something deeper. Will join you @Cleo! Hope you are doing well today, too!
PS The “e” in Happiness is flipped. In the opening credits
https://i.ibb.co/d7LW8nG/C8-ED28-B7-E793-4-EEF-AA73-E630-C1-F0748-D.jpg
Titles
Ep1 – Public Rental Apartment
Ep2 – Thirsty patients (tell you what, every time I see someone take a sip of a bottle of water I think…hmm…is he/she infected? 😂)
Kalimera @Packmule3,
Thank you for the gif! I have seen that scene in the teaser, but I didn’t know it was that you were referring to!
My agapimeni @Janey, I am fine and good to know that you will join us for “Happiness”!
@nrllee Thank you for the episodes’ titles!
Let us see what else will be showed…
I’ve never connected with the belief system underpinning the zombie phenomenon, so I’ll give “Happiness” a miss, and while baseball costume is attractive in its own way, my preference is for cricket whites, which to my knowledge have not featured in anything other than a cricket game. But I’ll read the comments for interest.
@nrllee I’m drinking Japanese green tea, which has a drying effect on the throat, which makes me keep wanting to drink more…. LOL so I become a candidate for ‘maybe infected with zombie virus!!’ LOLOL.
I left my comment on the 1 and 2 page. Hopefully they’ll have subs up on VIKI more quickly this week than last. @juriel, I’ll miss hearing your take.
I’ve speed watched and skipped through many c and k dramas the last few weeks, but this is the first one I’m excited about—And I don’t even like zombies. I’m so glad you all are watching and will be discussing.
Ep3 – Moments when I did this 🙄
Hmmm….Ep3 start was… underwhelming because… well… SB dove into the refrigerated container full of zombies to rescue her coworker? 😑. And they proceeded to lock her in there with them? Had YH not arrived… and he too proceeded to open the container (did I mention they were full of zombies?) and drag her (and her zombie friend) out of there, I guess there would be no more story. 🙄. He pops a canister of tear gas/smoke (?) into the container which magically subdues the zombies. And they share a moment before opening credits. (Correction – it was a flash grenade)
Mistress is alive? And cheating hubby is trying to get her an apartment downstairs? On the first floor? 🙄.
Doctor hubby didn’t bother to send zombie wife to hospital? Thought she was a psych case? Huh? The door to the bathroom (where she was confined)…was…unlocked? How else would SB just open it like that? 🙄. Hubby proceeded to lock SB in with his demented wife? And then he dials 119? Okay… To report that his wife has the mad person disease? And SB is in danger too? Then SB opens the bathroom door instead to have aforesaid wife set upon her hubby instead? Hubby opens apartment door 🙄 and runs outside (way to go SB for securing the premises – just set the zombie loose on civilians?)… SB decides that a pillow (Huh?) would be the best weapon of choice for a zombie. Thank goodness (?) YH uses his shirt (?) to subdue the zombie. So maybe blinding the zombie is what subdues them? Because he wraps his shirt around her eyes? And did she only set upon her hubby because she was mad at him for cheating? So she was lucid enough to process that in her demented state? But she lunged at the little girl too? And decided to try to bite SB too in the pillow fight? And just to complicate the issue more, the virus keeps dead people alive… hubby took a swing at her head with the golf club. Virus activated in her dead body…and she lives again…wife is a true zombie. When she “gets better”, she dies. Okay that makes so much sense. YH promises to bring the person who did this to her to justice. 🙄 3 guesses who that could be? Hubby is scrubbing bloodied bathroom walls with bleach…looks annoyed with the mess his wife made. Seems totally unperturbed (as a doctor) that he could potentially be aerosolising the virus (no mask or hazmats) and catching it.
Why is hubby of Christian woman so terribly uncharitable? 🙄
Last scene was… kinda funny… the only saving grace is their (SB and YH) banter, otherwise I am finding this drama similar to Sisyphus. It beggars belief. Ep3 ends with everyone sealed in the apartment complex. SB decides to stay despite HTS offering her freedom.
PS @packmule3 I didn’t have any jump scare moments in Ep3. I was more incredulous the whole way through so I think you’re safe. The bathroom scene with the zombie wife wasn’t particularly scary.
Hi @nrllee, oh dear, I have to agree with you.
I wasn’t sure what I was watching in Ep 3. The reactions and decisions did not seem logical. I was dismayed that SB let the zombie loose. The bathroom door was not locked, so how was she contained? The zombie disease seems to make simple stuff like opening doors, (or removing the muzzle) impossible for the zombies to do, while they simply lunge for someone’s neck. At first I thought the muzzles were so well tied down that the zombies could not remove them, but then I saw that they could be easily slipped off the head, and yet the zombies were trying to bite while wearing the muzzles.
What an interesting disease that only activates the parts of the brain to attack necks and not know how to do anything else.
So if Min Ji was only aiming for her husband, she must have had some cognitive abilities left.
The overall lack of horror on the part of those who received the news or saw the zombies is also dissonant. Has dealing with Covid inured everyone to all variants of viruses so that horrific manifestations are met with relative indifference?
Sigh… I think I’m gonna drop this. No matter how good the acting or cinematography or editing may be, if the action is driven by plot rather than authentic choices of characters or internal logic, it’s quite painful to watch =(
I loved Episode 3,especially the ending… 😊😁
I just read your comments and I want to say the following.
Sae Bom is the impulsive type. She went in because she saw that the chair was spread out. That means her friend in there was not a zombie himself and he wanted to be saved.
If I agreed that she went in? Nope. I am glad Yi Huyn went in to save them.
The fact that the infected are packed in a truck in low temperatures is not a good thing. I am glad Yi Huyn told Han Tae Sok his thoughts about how they are dealing with it.
I have to admit that Yi Huyn is very smart. He saw the blood marks in the hem of his blouse while they were all in the elevator and realized that something was very wrong with him.
The same observation Sae Bom did that’s why she went into the apartment.
I think that Sae Bom unlocked the bathroom door in order to go in and then the cheating husband called 911.
I was impressed that Yi Huyn realized that the infected woman was murdered by her husband BUT she was already infected and turned into a zombie. Hence she was not that violent towards others. For instance, she didn’t attack Sae Bom but she was looking for her cheater husband.
My guess is that she found out that the dermatologist was in their apartment and a fight happened along the way. She was attacked but she didn’t die because she was transforming.
Yi Huyn went over there to tell her that he will bring to justice her killer and later on she died. That’s means something.
I am waiting the subs for Episode 4. It is up on Viki but not subs yet!
correction: his blouse i.e. the cheater’s blouse.
Episode 4 – Not scary although there are a couple of attacks.
Weird Eye Roll Inducing Scenes
I still wonder how to interpret the reactions or lack thereof in this Show. There are reactions but they are muted. There is not as much worry or fear as one would expect. There is a lack of urgency and a degree of nonchalance in practically everyone. I feel that I, too, should not be taking the Show too seriously. Maybe the horrors of Covid has reduced the fear factor of new infections instead of making people more sensitive!? But it should be the opposite.
Ji Hyun notes that the cashier at the apartment’s supermart is alone but calm. That’s because she’s getting paid 3 times the usual.
Like @pkml3, I’ve noticed too how there’s an almost zero of mention of the government being involved in seeing to the well being of citizens. Everything feels a bit dystopic and unreal. It’s weird that HTS can threaten and carry out the cutting of cable and Internet connection of the whole apartment complex. It is the military who appear at the residents’ meeting to promise compensation and meals. Rhetorical Question – Do they have the right to disburse government/public funds or is the CDCH/military responsible for the support of all crisis situations? Anyway, the news did finally mention the government locking down 8 places.
There is so much military presence but so little security. The YouTuber can send out his live stream. The complex is very large, which means a few hundred people are left to survive inside without any outside help in terms of keeping them safe from each other. The Chairman of the Pharmaceutical Company can get the drugs distributed far and wide to infect the whole world. And we don’t even get hand wringing over these things, just resignation (especially on the part of HTS but also to an extent JH and SB).
Mistress, of 601 Oh, Woo Sang Hee, is allowed to stay in the apartment with a killer, that she is the witness and accuser of. Shouldn’t they be separated as a matter of course? Of course this gives Oh lots of time to bribe her to change her testimony. Once she changes her mind about being the witness to his crime, Oh is free to wander around if he wishes, presumably because he only wanted to kill his wife, but still!
SB is really into her meals. She’s allowed to handle a gun that’s not hers and to point it at civilians just because she must go get her breakfast.
For a busy person in charge, HTS is able to get around a lot to do much of the leg work himself. All SB has to do is call him. Similarly, his main right hand woman actually does food delivery herself? It should be the job of the soldier minions. 🤔 🙄 😬
I can enjoy tabulating the eye-roll moments.
Spoilers for ep 4 start
The scary moments for me are in ep 4:
1. The boss of the pharmaceutical company. His moments are longer than I planned to look away so unfortunately watched a few unwanted scenes.
2. Also, the elevator part at the end of ep 4. I mostly looked away. Were the people outside of YH and SB’s building infected? The security guide and the vocal guy? I looked away and didn’t want to go back to check >.<
I was somewhat excited when seeing YH and SB holding hands at the end of ep 4. It shows that they are in it together. Despite he was disappointed that he got kicked out of the bedroom earlier, YH reached out to her hand naturally and they hold hands just like that. I think that is a step closer.
Also that Andrew is so calm and perhaps too calm seeing the infected chasing their victims. Why the name Andrew? Wonder if it is some sort of reference?
Spoilers for ep 4 end
Otherwise, yes I watched this for Park Hyung Sik too! He always arrived at the right moment to save SB.
@Cleo They gave us some sweet moments at the end of ep 3. Happy to see a softer SB. It is progressing well. Subtle romance is my cup of tea!
YH’s character is really smart and not to be fooled. Observant and a planner, usually comes with a good strategy. He is a good partner to compliment the brave SB, who is hot headed, generally misses the details and not thinking that much of the consequence later on.
I think I get SB’s decision of saving Lee Seung-young. It is her partner at work. It is one of those moments – if it is your family or close friend, would you really leave them in danger? It is much easier if you have no relationship with them. Or, seen too many of them like Ji-soo and HTS.
I looked away during the wife zombie part so didn’t really think too much of the logic there 😀
It is interesting to see people’s decisions about getting back in the sealed off apartment:
The old couple – the husband decided to go back in. Didn’t think twice of not going in.
The brother – didn’t think much and still get in. The greed/desperation of borrowing money from his sister blinds his assessment of danger.
The parents of the young girl – didn’t seem to be that desperate to get in. I felt the girl felt unloved and somewhat abandoned?
Would the desperation of finishing unfinished/unfufiled businesses the trigger to turn into zombie?
A quick note before I come back to write more (and read you):
I haven’t been so thrilled to watch such a series before. I think that is of our Main Leads. I really enjoyed episode 4 as well…Let us see what it will happen next!Now the good part is going to start!
I agree with @Packmule3’s 3. Class Divide.
What we have seen so far is that those who are powerful and rich can do whatever they like and get away with it.
Example #1 : The Pharmaceutical’s CEO who was the first who started this Infection bit Colonel’s pregnant wife. He is taking all the treatment (even Seo Bom’s plasma?) available to stay lucid except the times he craves blood. He is a wolf dressed as a lamb. Hence his killing spree. For that reason he made available the Next pill to the public, in order to bring havoc until his Pharma brings the trial mecidine out.
Let’s talk about corruption and unethical people.
As @Packmule3 said evil people will always be evil. They don’t care at all about the people, but for their pockets. That scene for me was too powerful. Colonel’s words to his Liutenant were prophetic.
Example #2: Those who are apartment owners tried to keep locked in the renters. That means they are not in a society where law and order exists, but the law of the powerful, those who can and do whatever they like.
In that part, I don’t mind at all that Seo Bom as a S.O.U. reacted like that. There were two police officers and a S.O.U office locked in the apartment. Still the rich acted as they were not government officials or public servers.
They wanted the poor to die on their own. That bite them in the a$$ though, since the rich were infected first with that Next pill.
Dystopian future is not dystopian that much. It is kinda near us and I prefer to focus to those things that shows that beneath our society norms and etiquettes, when havoc spreads there are those who continue to be humans and those who are not. The infected might not be the real monsters, some others truly are.
Dear @Viva,
Andreas is a greek name and it comes from the greek Ανδρέας, ανήρ (anir) i.e. man and means ανδρείος < andreios. One who is strong and manly.
I don't know if it has a specific meaning, but it could be that he will have a superpower as it seems.
Yes, they gave us some sweet moments. I have realized that by the end of this, they will become a true couple and not only in papers.
I think that the young girl will stay with Seo Bom. If you see Episode 4 you will realize why I am saying that.
@GB Unnie,
Regarding the mistress in Unit 601. As I have written last night, she was present when the killing happened. That means they were discussing about it beforehand. She gave away the cheater husband in the cops, in order not to go in jail.
I don't think she didn't know. She knew and she seems to be bad as well. She went to the bedroom to retrieve something from there. Was it her scarf? I think that both of them are really evil. They killed the wife in order to have the clinic and her insurance's money.
Generally speaking, @Cleopatra, disaster films have the same underpinnings. They will invariably show:
1. In the face of adversity, true goodness and true character come out. If a hero (or heroine) is truly principled, then he’ll undergo conflict and have his principles tested, but in the end, he’ll stay good.
2. Kindness is still present and will appear from unexpected and random sources.
3. The unpredictable, unseen forces will push people to value what’s really important to them. Like SaeBom hugging YH at the end of Ep2. She was putting on a brave face when she decided to stay in the apartment complex. But she realized that it was endurable as long as YH was with her.
It was quite telling when she told him “not to fight” his way in to her. She knew that he was going to move heaven and earth to reach her side.
4. The underdog, the weak, the poor, the struggler, the brains, the creative thinker, and the outcast will win the day. Kdramas like to “flip the script.”
5. The true degenerates are humans, not the zombies, monsters, or diseased people.
6. To be human, you have to be humane.
@Packmule3,
I agree with you. I mostly like those shows because it has to do with Ethics and the battle between good vs evil.
I look at it as a case study. I like those stories who can be didactic, especially at a time when a Pandemic hit us all.
What should we learn from that?
What should we do?
What should we not do?
We should become better and not worse to each other. That’s my take.
I will keep your number 6, because it conveys it all:
To be human is to be humane. Amen to that…
Ep4 is getting interesting. And exciting towards the end. I am finding it hard to follow who is infected 😂. Again, the other apartment blocks who opted to lock the rental block 101/2 in are themselves the ones who ended up being overrun with the disease? It’s ironic? By trying to segregate the ones they thought had the virus, they were the ones who succumbed first?
The Andrew guy with the mask? He thinks he’s a superhero. My Secret Identity was mentioned when the cleaner couple talked about him. So I think he may have delusions of grandeur, believing that he can save the world?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Secret_Identity
Didn’t like that snooty Ahjumma was married to a man who studied theology? 🙄. Another pot shot at the religious. Caricatures with no semblance to reality. Sigh…. Honestly the only “real” faith I witnessed was the little girl when she prayed at night that the lock down would end.
@Cleopatra, I agree about the mistress.
I haven’t watched Ep 4 but as of Ep 3, I do think the mistress was in on the crime and YH KNOWS this.
YH most likely gave her the “prisoner’s dilemma.” He probably told her (or impressed upon her) that if she confessed and turned the husband in, she’d get off, and the husband would get time. Otherwise, they were both going to jail together as they both planned and/or committed murder. Of course, the mistress would want to save her skin so she betrayed him.
Now that YH “got” the husband because of the confession from the mistress, he’d try to get the mistress, too. Maybe the husband would rat on her.
The crime scene was weird, too. Oh well, we’re not watching a police procedural so I gave the show a pass.
Ep 4 is 98% subbed now on Viki. I’ll go watch it now and look for this Andrew you all keep mentioning. 😂
@nrllee, the snooty ahjumma/apartment representative is married to a theologian??! 🙄 So, are we supposed to infer that the couple became rich enough to buy a condo unit because of religion and their “fanatics”?
Sure. Whatever. Nice caricature.
Episode 4 Random Thoughts
Familiar Conspiracy
Pharma Boss is practically boss also over the one huge section of the military which services the Crisis Management Center (CDCH). He gets to tell the authorities whether or not to let HTS do his job.
Yeah, he’s spreading the infection in a pill to drive research to make the as yet undeveloped new drug-cure super urgent, plus to raise its price and to sell it to the world for monumental profits.
Writer seems to have grabbed hold of the usual conspiracy theories and worked them into making this Show. It hits pretty close, because right now we have people who believe this about Covid.
Parallels
Funny scene – Unit #601 Oh Joo Hyeong calls #602 Attorney Kook to get a consultation and immediately Kook tries to get out of his pajamas bottom to change and meet up, but he gets back into pajamas when he hears he doesn’t have to meet Oh. Best part is that at the same time, Oh is trying to contort himself to bring his handcuffed hands to the front of his body. It also looks as if he is trying to put his pants on.
We see on a spider’s web, a large spider slowly approaching its prey which is stuck fast, and we cut to people running from their zombie predators. The speed needed to run away from zombies is worrying. At the same time, both YH and SB realise that it’s too dangerous for them to go out to save victims or contain the infected. The guy who wanted to lock them in, is the one getting mauled by a fast-moving zombie!.
A Little Mystery
Why does Sae Bom prefer to avoid her mother? Although she calls her ‘Oma’, she saves her name as Kim Bok Nam, as if distancing herself from her mum should other’s see her caller ID. She is also often short with her Mum and does not want to speak with her at length. Her mother is in a hospital/nursing home somewhere but seems independent enough and able to know what’s happening.
The Group
Our bunch of resident protagonists are only from Block 101, units 1 and 2. There are 21 persons. The lockdown took place when children were in school and some families were at work.
Owned Apartments
1501 (Kim Se Hun, the Guy who wants T-shirts)
1202 (Apartment Rep Oh Yeon Ok and Bible-wielding husband)
601 (Doctor Oh and Mistress Sang Hee)
602 (Attorney Kook and wife Shin So Yoon)
Rented Apartments
502 (Girl Park Seo Yoon and parents)
501 (Sae Beom and Yi Hyun) + Officer Kim Jung Look
401 (Writer? Na and Brother)
302 (Elderly couple Dad Kim, Mum Ji and bratty son Kim) Elderly mum looks like she was scratched by Min Ji in her zombie state
201 (Empty but the 3 external cleaners stay there. Cleaner Ko, Cleaner Ji (his wife) and employee Ahn Guk Jin/Andrew
Management : 1 cheerful cleaner
Gym : 1 staff Kim Seung Beom (Suspected of being infected but he does not seem to be. He claims to have not taken the drug.)
We get to see the pictures of empty thoroughfares in Europe, and an empty airport (Russia)… I laughed because they are probably last year’s Covid photos of the cities.
An interesting side comment about the aftermath of Covid, is that masks are now so accepted that even the presumably much scarred Andrew, dares to come out to work with a mask on. In a society that values beauty, having the freedom to wear the mask without exciting comment must actually be very freeing.
@Viva,
Yes, I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised to see the old man return to their condo. Where else would he go?
Too bad that his wife is infected. Not sure if I want their annoying YouTuber son bitten though. On one hand, good riddance to him! He’ll definitely get a lot of views when he becomes a zombie but he won’t be there to appreciate it.
But on the other hand, if he gets infected, he’s more difficult to hold down than a 70 year old woman.
Not sure what’ll be Andrew’s role (or contribution) in this drama.
Thanks for the list, @GB. I guess, we’ll have to make a list of possible infected people later.
@Packmule,
I will be waiting your thoughts on Episode… 😀
@pkml3, You’re welcome! 🙂
Correction: On Episode 4. My number lock was off… \
@GB Unnie,
Great list! Also about the mask and the message on beauty. This shouldn’t be ignored. I agree with you. It is liberating up to a point. The real issue is to do something about this eternal beauty madness.
@packmule3 affirmative about the theologian hubby with the snooty Ahjumma. 🙄🙄 ⬅️ My face when she revealed him at the “resident” emergency meeting at the gym.
Thanks for the list @GB. I was starting to lose track of the people and who they were. After Zombie detective and his whining about how slowly he moved, I was rather taken aback that the zombies here seemed to move pretty fast 😂. I thought SB didn’t get along with her nagging mom. And there’s some water under the bridge from her unhappy upbringing where her parents seemed to fight constantly and she (SB) walked out just to get away from their arguments. She seemed happy enough to indulge YH’s mother when they FaceTimed? Even went as far as to get all dolled up? So I don’t know if it’s just how she deals with her past. It reminded her of unhappy times so she chooses to ignore references to it (her mom potentially could be a trigger for those unsavoury memories).
It’s interesting how the writer has almost caricatured the reactions to the new disease? Hyperbole maybe? The pace of the drama and the lack of mass panic is what makes me think so? Everyone seems amazingly calm about it? And there isn’t really a one size fits all response (wild panic and running) to the zombie apocalypse.
– The YouTuber just films it with macabre glee
– SB’s coworker made money from the scoop (initially I thought it was so he could leave his wife and kids with money because he thought he was as good as dead anyway but now I am not so sure)
– snooty Ahjumma just worries about property prices
– YH and SB who battle the zombies and keeps civilians safe but also act as our conscience
– Pharmaceutical CEO who uses the drug and unleashes it (like some giant human live experiment) to profit
– the child who is just caught up in it and bewildered.
– and of course the religious bent thrust in there with the old lady handing out tracts and more recently the Ahjumma’s hubby.
Dear @Nrllee,
I don’t think it is a Hyperbole, but what is happening already. As it seems, we have become accustomed to death. We hear about people dying from Covid and they are just numbers.
Last week in Constantinople, a woman was murdered with a samurai sword in the street by a stranger. It was a brutal murder and it was captured in a video – possible from a CCTV and it was out in the news. They had a disclaimer about the sensitivy of the matter, but was it enough? It is like they want us to become insensitive about it when it is not healthy to watch people slaughtering one another.
It is like we are indifferent as long it is not near us. If it comes in our immediate cycle we can get emotional or I don’t know how we will react.
I think a term suggested in another thread appropriate, so I’m going with the word zompire (zombie + vampire) to describe those infected with the madman disease.
Each episode begins with a disclaimer, “This drama is a work of fiction. The blah blah religion blah blah have no connection to real entities.” I call bullshit. If Show wants to depict a fictional religion, don’t use a symbol recognizable as Christian (cross), quote from Hebrew/Christian scripture (2 Chronicles 7:13-16 was being read on the TV, beginning of Episode 2, as HTS inspected the homeless shelter after a zompire rampage), or use a word from Judeo-Christian scripture, music, and worship (hallelujah). You want us to believe you’re depicting a fictional religion, Show, and not painting Judeo/Christian tradition in negative light? Come up with your own symbol, quotations, and exclamations. Might I suggest something in Klingon?
The apartment representative’s husband, as subbed on Viki, “went to a seminary in Kentucky in the US.” That places his studies in the Bible Belt, where “socially conservative Christianity plays a strong role in society and politics” (per Wikipedia). The implication is that he embraces evangelical Protestantism. He looks like an archetypal Bible thumper. And the information that he went to a seminary could be misleading: studying at a seminary and graduating from one aren’t the same.
Having noticed the flipped letter e in the drama’s title Happiness, accentuated because the other letters in the title fade leaving the backwards e standing alone, I thought I’d look into whether it had any significance beyond looking irregular. I’m not sure if this has any connection, but in predicate logic (mathematical logic way beyond my comprehension) a reversed E symbol is used as an existential quantifier and interpreted as “there exists,” “there is at least one,” or “for some.” I think it would be cool if this Drama’s title could be read: “There exists happiness,” “There is at least one happiness,” or “Happiness for some.”
@pm3 I was hoping for a romantic spin that the old man wants to be with his wife no matter what – but yes you rightly point out he has nowhere to go. 😂
@Cleo I also think the idea of this drama is to show people’s tolerance level is ever changing. People adapt. This is what we are facing here in our country. At first, we were trying to eliminate COVID, and now we are told to learn to live with it. We are told not to worry about the case numbers now but should focus on the vaccination rate. Accept that more people will die of COVID inevitably. What used to worry people will change after a while. Knowing there will be more deaths, we still have to live on.
In this drama world, if there is a new mad man disease, it is just another new disease. People are still trying to earn more money out of it. The supermarket worker is happy to get paid more. The CEO is trying to make more money out of it. Same as the lawyer and his wife etc.
I felt the drama makes me think and redefine happiness. I found that there is a pattern. Amongst the chaos, there can always be a pause. When there is uncertainty living in the infected area, SB and YH hugged. Or after confronting the other hostile residents, they found out about the rooftop and appreciated what they have got. They found the emergency meals are pretty good. They didn’t complain! They enjoyed a happy moment when YH was sharing his meal.
I can somewhat relate that happiness is redefined. After a lockdown, a takeout meal seems extra delicious. Seeing friends in real life is that much more precious. Also, gone are my work clothes, people dressed a lot more casual. Like @GB said, a mask is no longer weird. Our new normal is now redefined.
@Viva,
🙂 I was just keeping it real. The family pics were shown and it seemed like there’s only three of them: the old lady, the old man, and their son.
But you know what? He really did try to buy her a hamburger.
Too bad he couldn’t figure out how to work the self-service kiosk. He should have asked for help.
Or the young person behind him should have offered to help him. 😐 Honestly, that scene bugged me. If that were me, and I observed an elderly person getting confused with “modern technology,” I’d step in to offer assistance. It wouldn’t cost anything to be kind to another human being in need.
It’s a sad world when we can’t show courtesy or care to our senior citizens.
Sigh @packmule3 I agree about the person in the queue and the old man. The pandemic brings out the worst and best in people. Although at that point in time when he was buying the burger they were in theory out of the pandemic (COVID). Which makes me wonder if we will emerge the better or worser for it. 🤷🏻♀️.
I am with @Viva. I think the fact that writer nim seems to have stripped all the extreme emotions out of the whole situation actually helps us focus on the different responses? Had everyone just dissolved into a panicked screaming mess (which is so obvious in zombie apocalypse type movies), we would not be having these conversations. How SB’s coworker pretty much resigned himself to the fact that he was “as good as dead” after he got infected? How some profited and made money from the outbreak (CEO). How some still persisted in business as usual (the lawyer and his wife promoting his services). How some just lived day by day (SB) and made the most of it.
I’m having trouble falling asleep tonight, and my musings as I lay in bed are turning silly. Or very, very practical.
–Perhaps those huge neck ruffs worn by Europeans in Elizabethan days were for protection from their era’s zompires. Perhaps what HTS should do is issue a ruff mandate. Or a cone mandate. Of course that’d start a shopping frenzy at veterinary offices until the production of cones for humans ramped up.
–If a scratch leads to infection, gloves should be mandated.
–Bite guards shouldn’t just be worn to prevent nighttime teeth grinding, but worn round the clock by anyone potentially exposed to the madman disease.
See? Although these aren’t cures, technology already exists to lessen the person-to-person spread of the virus. And everyone should be warned against taking Next.
But evil pharma CEO wanted HTS to combat the disease quietly. No coordinated efforts across agencies. No communication between governments. No opportunity given to the public to cooperate and behave responsibility. It’s hard for me to believe one pharmaceutical CEO, no matter how rich or politically connected, holds that much sway over the entire world.
Dear @Viva,
I agree with you and @nrllee.
I liked your last phrase the best: “a new normal”. I will add to that that is neither new or normal. We make ourselves believe that this is a new normal.
@Packmule3 also said : “It’s a sad world when we can’t show courtesy or care to our senior citizens.”
If we are heading in a world where we don’t appreciate little things and be happy about them, as you described “the precious moments”, then we are becomine less humane and more calculative.
Yes, I agree with your argument that “I felt the drama makes me think and redefine happiness. ”
We should rethink and redefine happiness. We have to be grateful that we are alive, the people who are around us are well in their health and that we have a roof above our heads. It might sound simplistic, but during the Pandemic we are looking in the base of Maslow’s Pyramid.
We need to add more to this. Every single person should self reflect and be grateful about all those things that makes us happy.
I am glad @nrllee that we are discussing like these. That means that we are thinking about values that are not forgotten for us, but still valid and strong.
So, yes it is good to know that people like us still exist in the world. Then I can be more optimistic, enjoying one day at a time. 🙂
Right, @nrllee.
One reason I’m enjoying this drama is because it allows us to talk about Covid without really talking about Covid. In the drama, the disease is not a virus but a drug. And like I said, it’s ridiculous how our society is drug-dependent, pill-dependent.
Like LtCol Han naturally assumed that the little girl’s parents took the pill as stimulant because they were overworked. He stated it matter-of-factly like that’s how people manage and operate, like it’s a social norm that people in a hyper-stressed-out society take pills to cope.
On a personal note… a loooong time ago, in my son’s elementary school, his classmate gave him a pill. The classmate said it was a memory/concentration enhancer. Of course, my son didn’t accept it but he “reported” it to me right away. He told me that his classmate was sharing ginseng.
Now, if the boys had been in middle school or high school, I would have investigated more closely if there was clear intent to distribute this pill.
But since they were in grade 2 ~ 3, I regarded the incident as a kid showing him a “dietary supplement” that was acceptable in his family because his parents wanted him to grow up “smart.” My son had never heard of ginseng before because his daily vitamins came in the shape of Flintstones. It was the first time my son heard of a pill to make someone smarter. I had to explain that no, studying makes him smarter, not a pill.
Long story short, I did call up the parent of the boy and I “chatted” about the danger of bringing pills to school.
😂 I like the cone guard suggestion, @welmaris!
Yes, I mentioned before that there’s no inter-agency communication which is an odd response in a crisis like this. The task force is just the military. But SK is a democratic country, not China or North Korea. One would expect that a few residents in the apartment complex would have connections in the government or media who’d raise a big stink about the lockdown, and the killings. The mayor of that place and LtCol Han just gave the zompires free rein to kill defenseless and uninfected people.
True, @nrllee, @viva.
On one hand it’s jarring that there’s a zompire epidemic yet people are proceeding as if it’s normal, and they’re not asking tough questions and demanding hard answers from their leaders.
But on the other hand, the lack of hysteria allows us to see how people “naturally” or “rationally” responded to situations. They can’t excuse themselves that they were acting out of the ordinary because we saw them acting indifferently to the situations.
Take the grocery clerk. YiHyun found it odd that she wasn’t panicking and her response was:
a. She was being paid triple.
Yes, I appreciate workers like this but she lacked awareness. Even if she was offered a gazillion dollars, it was immaterial if she was dead. At least, she should have armed herself against the zompires, and thought of an escape plan.
b. Being at home was worse (or something) than being at work.
She’s going to regret this. There should have been dire music blasting in the background when she said this.
@pkml3 It was precisely the ‘continued normalcy’ and lack of melodramatic reactions to the horror of being attacked by zompires or becoming one that hit me with a strong dissonance. Isn’t this disease far worse than Covid, eventhough it does not kill that many, that soon?
This 2023 post-Covid South Korea seems to live as if each community is not inter-related with everyone else, and that the new disease (new variant… but variant of what???) does not merit a total lockdown and concerted, joint efforts to stamp it out.
It is such an opposite response to what we have been facing with Covid, that it’s surreal.
I agree that Show has probably been written in this unrealistic way, in order for other aspects, (which are a comment on upheld values that might be lost in a suspense-filled fight to survive) to be highlighted. What is valued, is what gives ‘happiness,’ or so people think. However Show is likely to also examine what ‘happiness’ really is, and how we re-evaluate what is valuable as we redefine ‘happiness’.
About the tepid or seemingly inappropriate response of the public to the rumors, mobile phone alerts, and initial news reports about the danger, I think we often see such behavior, at least here in the United States. Another massacre, innocents mowed down as they go about their lives? Those not immediately affected might post a commiserating sentiment on social media, then forget about it. Even if news of mass deaths does cause deep emotion in some people, they can become desensitized as a survival mechanism if they are repeatedly exposed to such stress. Empathy fatigue is real.
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/empathy-fatigue-how-stress-and-trauma-can-take-a-toll-on-you/
I have personal experience of preternatural calm. Back in 2008 and again in 2020 I was ordered to evacuate my home as wildfires approached. In the 2008 incident, after seeing a plume of smoke in the distance–not an unusual sight where I live–I inexplicably knew this was different and began to load irreplaceable items into my car. After a few hours of watching and preparing, hoping for the best, the order to evacuate came and I drove away through thick smoke. What struck me was how calm I felt, even while thinking that might be my last moment with my house–where I raised my children–and most of my possessions. Without consciously choosing to, I worked my way through the experience like an automaton, doing what I needed to do with no fuss. I was lucky: I had a house to return to after the fire passed, but houses to the east, north, and west of me burned, the closest a three-minute walk from my home. In all, 118 houses in my town were burned, but there was no loss of life. During the 2020 incident, because much had been learned from our community’s previous disaster, results weren’t as dire and my house was again spared, but I recognized myself entering the same state of calm acceptance as the danger approached. Last year’s fire got as close as an 11-minute walk from my house, but no structures in my immediate neighborhood were burned.
I think that’s what it is @Welmaris @GB. Fatigue. Numbness. What used to shock us doesn’t anymore. I guess it’s just our body’s way of coping with repeated stressors. We can’t function if we’re constantly in that fight/flight mode long term. So we have to find a way to cope with it and we block it out. I think it’s only when we pause to reflect that the scale of it hits us. But as @packmule3 says, we need to maintain our humaneness right through it though. Finding that balance is hard. 🤔
Hi dear @pkml3, may we have the Episode 5 and 6 OT for Happiness, please?
Hugs and thanks!