While the pandemic is not over, with the new year, I no longer feel the need to call this a Pandemic Diary.
I’m just going to review the dramas I am watching or share
my thoughts about them informally. And anything else that pops into my head.
Happiness
If the premise of a zombie-esque epidemic, makes you want to
run away after two years of your own exhausting pandemic experiences I hear
you. But Happiness is actually a show that acknowledges our present
moment and wants to have that conversation with the audience. It’s well-timed,
smart, funny, tender-hearted, and walks a well-drawn line between social commentary,
action, and romance.
While certain zombie/monster epidemic series pre-date COVID
(Kingdom, Sweet Home) and parallel lessons could be drawn from
them, Happiness is the first post-COVID drama I’ve watched that focuses
on what we have learned about human behavior from the pandemic itself.
Turns out people are often terrible, selfish, self-interested, and a little fed-up and exhausted with lockdowns, government alerts, and more restrictions
on their lives. Nevertheless, Happiness is
not interested in blanket condemnation or moralizing around infectious
disease. Rather, it tries to remind us that that behavior co-exists with people
trying to help.
It is set in a world where COVID is over, but a mysterious “madman
rabies” plague is spreading. Yoon
Sae-bom (Han Hyo-joo), a solider in an elite unit, and her long-time friend Jung
Yi-hyun (Park Hyung-sik), a police detective, get swept up in this plague. They
find themselves living in a new housing development which without warning gets
put under military lockdown to try and contain the spread. Trapped inside, they
are trying to find a way to organize the tenants and resources, protect the
people there, and survive until hopefully they can be safely released. Meanwhile, the government isn’t particularly
focused on helping anyone. They just want to curb the disease.
Where Happiness really blossoms is in its ability to
somehow maintain some lightness about a rampant plague, pandemic exhaustion,
and the nightmare of neighbors misbehaving at the worst possible moment. It
also creates characters who, despite all this, believe that things can get
better and we can work together to survive. It lights this flame of hope, that frankly
in 2022, is pretty damn welcome. But it’s a snarky, knowing bit of hope which
is what makes the series so satisfying. There’s no pretense or glossing over.
The show is constantly reframing the epidemic to remind everyone
that even if someone is infected, they are still human. They also weave in
issues of Korean housing scarcity, class issues, and strained family relations.
Most of all the show is led by two characters we just want
to root for. First, Sae-bom is a feisty
woman who will not give up on her dreams no matter what monster, criminal, or
government tank stands in her way. Yi-hyun, who has been in love with her since
high school, will do anything to help her.
And nothing has come easily for either of them. You want this one thing
to go right for them…but this one thing is surviving a zombie plague.
The show uses drama tropes we’ve seen before (pretend
marriage, vampire/zombie outbreak) but tweaks them in a new way. The textured sound
design and score incorporate breathing and scraping adding to the atmosphere
and tension.
This series is less about the outbreak itself and more about
people attacking each other. There’s no need for Sweet Home violence or
gore. There is meaning beyond just the
horror and this crisis.
Somehow in the midst of all of this chaos and struggle, the
show just wants to remind everyone about how precious life is and how hard it
is to find any shred of happiness. Not
everyone’s dreams work out. Not all
paths end up fulfilling. But these
setbacks, defeats, and diversions are simply life.
Maybe all the things we think are important, or are told by
society are important, are not as important as living with compassion and
kindness and fighting to help people. And love.
My Name
Sometimes I get very frustrated that Netflix focuses on
surface flash, action, and violence as a substitute for actual character development
in the shows it distributes/produces. My Name is an intriguing revenge
drama with a female lead that starts off with great promise. But with only
8-episodes, it rushes through an outline of plot points and negates its
achievements. And in the end it did not feel all that liberating.
Having an action series led by a woman feels unique in the
K-drama landscape. Han So-hee plays a woman who is seeking revenge for the
murder of her father. She joins an
underground gang where she is mentored by the gang boss himself. The gang then sends
her into the police force as a secret agent to find the killer and protect
their interests. She is partnered with a
detective (Ahn Bo-hyun) who questions whether she is up for the job, but he
sees she is driven by a passion similar to his, having also lost a family
member to crime.
As annoying as it is, one aspect of her revenge story is
also rooted in sexual assault and violence. This just tends to be a lazy shorthand
with female characters. And the dynamic with the gang boss is so personal and
intense it’s hard not to read something lightly sexual about it.
With only 8 episodes, there is a lot dedicated to the set-up
only to have the unwinding be inartful, fast, and furious. All the twists and turns become a very
obvious and direct straight line in the final reel which is frustrating and disappointing.
And there’s an element of sexism still kind of built-in. She’s turned into this lethal fighter, but then it’s shown she doesn’t have the killer instinct? She still human and soft and a woman. I’d like to think she can be a woman and still murder whoever she needs to. Hashtag equality.
Now We’re Breaking Up
This is a classic melodrama that starts with a lot of sexual
heat only to get lost in its own internal logic.
A fashion designer(Song Hye-kyo) has a one night stand with a fashion
photographer (Jang Ki-yong) only to discover later the intricate ways in which they are
actually connected. A sort of doomed fate besets them and they can either avoid
romance or give into it. But they set up obstacles for themselves that don’t
quite make sense.
For the first half of this series, there was just a lot of standing around projecting smoldering hotness between Song Hye-kyo and Jang Ki-yong. 75% of this show is Jang Ki-yong walking towards Song Hye-kyo looking goooood. And I’m not complaining about any of that.
And there are real issues that stand between them (family
objections for reasons and also some truly needless parental meddling). But
they are also two independent adults who have not always followed the straight
and narrow. Yet, somehow, they keep
letting things get in the way of their relationship and the issues start to
feel quite strained. At some point, it
seems like the circumstances keeping them apart are simple phone calls.
Also, there is an answering machine in this show. Do they
not have cell phones or voice mail in Paris? It made me laugh.
Nevertheless, there are many things to like here. With older
characters, there’s just a whole other layer to their past and their love lives. The weight of their decisions and the feelings
do come across deeper and the struggles have more heft. I like that Song Hye-kyo's character fights back against workplace
sexual harassment.
I didn’t love the false equivalence the show sets up between
her friend dying of cancer and breaking up with this guy where the
circumstances are complicated but not impossible.
So enjoy the smoldering while it lasts...but this may lose its effectiveness over time.
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