WARNING: This article contains spoilers for Sweet Home season 3.
Summary
Sweet Home’s final two seasons failed to meet the same critical success as its first, but there is a zombie K-drama from three years ago that fixes some ofSweet Home’s biggest mistakes. Starring Song Kang, Lee Do-hyun, Lee Jin-wook, Go Min-si and Lee Si-young,Sweet Homewas one of the first Netflix original K-dramas to capture international attention. The K-drama depiction of a battle between humans and monsters is entirely engrossing and has quickly made its mark as one of thebest K-dramas of all time.
Sweet Home’s first season deals solely with the effects of a monsterization outbreak on the residents of one apartment complex, Green Home, before expanding its story into the world in its later seasons. This new direction was a risky move forSweet Home, particularly as the newer seasons focused more on military and scientific responses to the outbreak. As a result,Sweet Home’s final seasons lack the same nuance many loved from its first. However, there’s azombie K-dramathat manages to do whatSweet Homecouldn’t in just 12 episodes.
Sweet Home’s Most Controversial Decision Makes Way More Sense After Season 3
Sweet Home’s most controversial story decision almost ruined the Song Kang K-drama, but it all made sense after the events of season 3.
Happiness Treated Its Main Characters Better Than Sweet Home
Sweet Home Underused Many Original Characters
WhileSweet Home’s first season soared thanks to its ensemble cast,Sweet Home’s following seasons failed to capitalize on the brilliant characters it had created. This first came with the shockingabsence of Song Kang’s Cha Hyun-su inSweet Homeseason 2. Despite being the show’s main character, he only appeared in half of season 2 and still had a relatively short storyline in season 3. His character’s unique position held a lot of potential inSweet Homeseason 2’s change of direction. However, this was ultimately wasted in favor of the introduction ofSweet Homeseason 2’s new characters.
Out of all ofSweet Home’s original characters introduced in season 1, only four make it to the end of the series alive, but none of them make it to the end as humans.
Sweet Home’s new characters greatly helped in expanding theSweet Homeuniverse but came at the expense of the original characters, many of whom were killed far too soon. Yoon Ji-su (Park Gyu-young) died only three episodes into season 2 despite her importance to the webtoon.One ofSweet Home’s biggest webtoon changesalso saw Yu-ri (Go Youn-jung) and Sang-wook (Lee Jin-wook) die in season 1, despite surviving in the webtoon. Seo Yi-kyung’s resurrection was another wasted opportunity, as Hyun-su returned her humanity only for her to be killed a few episodes later. Fortunately,Happinesssolves this issue.
ThoughHappinessandSweet Home’s season 1 premises are strikingly similar, their handling of their characters is very different. Character deaths are a necessary evil in an apocalyptic genre, butHappinesskeeps these to a minimum. This could have been a clear weakness compared toSweet Home.Yet,Happiness’scharacter-focused narrative ensures each death has a meaning in the overall storyline, rather than just for shock factor or storyline reduction. Plus,Happiness’ssocial commentary relies heavily on its cast, who are given ample opportunity to show the best of their abilities in a uniquely tense environment.
Happiness
Cast
Happiness (2021) is a South Korean drama series directed by Ahn Gil-ho. Set in a post-apocalyptic world plagued by a deadly virus, the plot centers around a group of people quarantined in an apartment complex as they navigate survival and psychological challenges. Park Hyung-sik and Han Hyo-joo lead the cast, portraying characters who face moral dilemmas and societal breakdowns while striving to maintain their humanity.
Happiness Balances Multiple Storylines With Great Success
Sweet Home Fails To Capitalize On The Stories It Creates
Much likeSweet Home,Happinessneeds multiple storylines for it to succeed. Fortunately,Happinesseffectively uses its ensemble cast. WhileHappiness’s central storyline revolves around Yoon Sae-bom (Han Hyo-joo), Jung Yi-hyun (Park Hyung-sik), and their attempts to survive the impending zombie threat, their actions are also heavily questioned by other members of the apartment complex, adding an interesting new dynamic to the series. Plus, other characters inHappinessare given ample screen time, which lets their individual storylines flourish and makes the K-drama all the more tense and unpredictable.
Jung Woon-sun
Shin So-yoon
WhatHappinessalso succeeds in adding context to the origins of the zombie virus, somethingSweet Homesorely missed.Happiness’s virus comes from a drug named “Next,” which turns users into zombies. The army’s efforts to contain the crisis are constantly monitored but also questioned as Sae-bom’s significance to the cure becomes more apparent. This is almost a parallel toSweet Home’s Hyun-su, who was also thought to be essential to curing the monster virus. However, efforts to understandSweet Home’s virus were sorely squandered.
In comparison to Happiness,Sweet Home’s virus was more ambiguous. This was a deliberate decision in the webtoon, yetintroducing the military and scientific aspects ofSweet Home’s outer universe removed the same suspense the source material had, thus making the subplots feel unfinished and the virus' origins a missed opportunity. Plus, this crowded the show overall and left it struggling to finish the storylines it had created.
10 Best K-Dramas To Watch After Sweet Home
Sweet Home’s third and final season draws Cha Hyun-su’s story to a close, but there are plenty of other K-dramas that match its unique appeal.
Happiness Delivers The Romance That Sweet Home Couldn’t
Sweet Home Missed Out On A Big Opportunity
Romance isn’t necessary for a K-drama to succeed. In fact, many choose to forgo romantic subplots altogether and focus on more pressing themes.Sweet Homedidn’t decide to go in this direction and hinted atwho Hyun-su ends up with inSweet Homeseason 3. However, after several teases that suggested that Hyun-su and Eun-yu’s relationship would develop into something more than friendship,the K-drama squandered its opportunity and instead chose to keep its options open.
WhileSweet Home’s Cha Hyun-su certainly didn’t need to end up with someone at the end of the K-drama, the budding subplot was another wasted opportunity, particularly asSong Kang’s K-drama couplesare incredibly popular.Sweet Homedid introduce some other romantic subplots, i.e., Yu-ri and Sang-wook’s ill-fated relationship in season 1, but the show didn’t give them enough screen time to make a significant impact. However,Happinessfixes this with its stellar leading couple.
Sae-bom and Yi-hyun’s romantic subplot doesn’t take away from the series, but instead enhances it by giving the two leading characters and the audience something to root for.
A fake marriage trope shouldn’t work in a zombie K-drama, but inHappiness,it absolutely does. Sae-bom and Yi-hyun’s close relationship already hints at the development of something more from the flashbacks in the very first episode. Still, the combination of such an out-of-pocket trope adds a lot of much-needed humor and potential to the series. Sae-bom and Yi-hyun’s romantic subplot doesn’t take away from the series but instead enhances it by giving the two leading characters and the audience something to root for.Sweet Homefailed to capitalize on this, adding even more disappointment to the final two seasons.
