S1E1 Episode 1

Happiness Episode 1 aired November 5, 2021 on tvN and established the series' structural premise with precision: the apartment building as a pressure cooker before the Lytta Virus was confirmed, with class tensions between floor-level residents doing as much narrative work as the outbreak mechanics. Director Ahn Gil-ho's decision to ground the horror in the social architecture of the building - who gets which unit, what resources each floor controls, who already hates whom - gave the zombie premise a layered foundation that distinguished it from contemporaneous Korean genre entries. The Fangirl Verdict's assessment of the series as 'the zombie show I didn't know I needed in my life' accurately captures a premiere that arrives as a contained social thriller rather than a spectacle. Han Hyo-joo and Park Hyung-sik's chemistry is operational from their first shared scene, and the first infected resident in the stairwell is the episode's commitment point: the show declares its horror register without softening it.