Best Single Episodes of 2021

Episode 9 - things between Yumi and Wung are extremely strained as Sae Yi's passive aggressive ploys with Wung have boiled over. Yumi is livid and Wung is caught between the two with no clean exit from the situation available. Director Lee Sang Yeob and the screenwriting team brilliantly sequence what happens next - Yumi waits for Wung to act. And waits. There's a flash forward to Yumi reminiscing about her lost romance with Wung. Then a spool backwards. A slight jump forward. Then back again as Yumi confronts both Wung and Sae Yi, ripping through the things not being said out loud. It is a master class in how to manipulate a non-linear timeline and it features Ahn Bo Hyun's best work.

Episode 4 - life for Jung Kyung Ho's Jun Wan, so blissful at the end of season one, has almost completely cratered. His girlfriend, Ik Soon, is abroad and the long distance relationship isn't working and as the episode begins, he has just learned that she's been injured. As brilliant as he might be as a doctor, he has a young child that needs a heart transplant and has a dim prognosis. It's enough to test even what even the most resolute human can withstand. His unwavering perseverance in his efforts to save the young patient and restore the hopes of her mother who was on the precipice of giving up are the apex of this landmark production. There's also excellent work here from Ha Yoon Kyung and Jung Moon Sung. 

Episode 10 - with each episode of "Happiness", director Ahn Gil Ho had steadily shrunk the safe areas and what viewers could see and in this episode, the claustrophobic vibe has unrelentingly set in. The desperation for food and water throughout the building is boiling over. Lee Joon Hyuk's Jeong Gook is losing his grip leaving Sae Bom and Yi Hyun isolated as the remaining voices of reason. That's not all as it seems there's a serial killer hidden amongst them. And, oh yeah, any doubt about whether or  not Yi Hyun is infected and about to become a threat to Sae Bom and Seo Yoon is out the window. Tension anyone?

Episode 14 - youth sports can be incredibly rewarding and uplifting or it can be dangerously toxic. "Racket Boys", while focused mostly on the former with its primary group of young protagonists, did not shy away from the darker sides of both success and failure. Episode 14 swaps out the boys team to spend a day in the dynamic between Lee Jae In's prodigy Se Yoon and her best friend Han Sol, played by Lee Ji Won. Se Yoon is pulled away from her team as she's been bumped up to a national competition and Han Sol is left to fight their scholastic nemesis and her own conflicted emotions - jealousy to Se Yoon's success, loneliness from her best friend and her own family's absence, anger that she's seen as an unworthy competitor and a sense of betrayal that her own coach is mentally AWOL. Meanwhile, Se Yoon desperately wants to support Ji Won but the circumstances of her own success leave her powerless. The superb portrayal by Lee Ji Won is exceptionally moving. 

Episode 7 - early in this episode it is Nam Gyu Ri's oddball celebrity Ga Young that shines as she playfully torments Seo Hyun Jin's Da Jung and then matter of factly recounts how Kim Dong Wook's Young Do saved her from being consumed by her own demons. It ends with Young Do explaining his own medical backstory to Da Jung and cutting short the possibility of a relationship between them. Along the way, the supporting cast of Kim Ye Wan, Han Min, Yoon Sang Jung and Kim Seo Kyung also contribute some lovely scenes. Meanwhile, the direction is sharp and the photography is stellar.

Episode 5 - beginning with episode 3, the story of Yu Ra conscripting her athlete childhood male friend Jae Min to pretend to be her boyfriend has an entirely predictable narrative. They'll realize they have feelings for each other. They'll miscommunicate and misunderstand. They'll struggle with, first, keeping the artificiality of the relationship a secret which will then become clumsy attempts to drop the illusory side of it for an open, real relationship. Even though it's easy to see what is coming, the dialogue is exceptionally well written, the diversion by Choi Yeon Soo's Se Young is a refreshing twist and Jo Yoo Jung simply blisters the screen as Yu Ra in every frame. This drama measured as a whole from beginning to end may not rate highly, but this episode is exceptional.