Syfy’s latest TV adaptation, Happy!, premieres in just over a week and let us just say: You’re in for a wild, f@#!ed up ride.
For those of you unfamiliar with the source material, Happy! follows Nick Sax (Christopher Meloni, Law & Order: SVU) – an intoxicated, corrupt ex-cop-turned-hit man – who is adrift in a world of casual murder, soulless sex and betrayal. After a hit gone wrong, his inebriated life is forever changed by a tiny, relentlessly positive, imaginary blue winged horse named Happy, voiced by no other than Patton Oswalt.
‘Happy!’ TV Review
Let me start off with this: Yes, this show is just as crazy, weird and dark as it seems. The opening of the pilot episode starts with Nick on some crazy head trip, blood spewing everywhere and Christmas lights all around. You immediately get the gist that this show is going for dark, colorful, edgy and just a little weird. Okay, a lot of weird.
It’s the holiday season and there’s no coincidence this show is getting released three weeks before Christmas. After all, the main plot of the series so far revolves around a little girl named Haley getting kidnapped by the creepiest, dirtiest, foulest looking Santa Clause I’ve seen on TV in a very, very long time. If you have Santaphobia then bow out now, folks.
There’s a lot of information to process in this pilot and it leaves me with oh so many questions. Viewers who haven’t read the source material will find themselves in the middle of a story that seemingly makes no sense. What happened to this ex-cop to make him an ex-cop? How did he get involved in the world of hired killers and mobsters? And why is Nick Sax seemingly invincible?
This ex-cop has skills that would make you think he’s an ex-warrior. When he has men after him he fights like a bad-ass comic hero would. When he gets shot at he doesn’t falter, and when people threaten him? His threats are far, far worse because he actually goes through with them.
There’s a point in the pilot where the only good cop in the series, Det. Meredith McCarthy (Lili Mirojnick), who clearly has a history with Nick, says “he’ll survive. He always does.”
But really, why is he actually invincible?! The questions just keep on coming the longer you watch.
It’s those very same questions that keep me wanting to tune in, though. It’s clear that this show is setting up Nick’s arc for a long haul and it’s one I’m ready to see all the way through, in no small way thanks to Meloni’s performance as a crooked man and badass. This ain’t Law & Order: SVU, folks — it’s a whole lot grittier.
There are two main story lines that you’ll need to follow through the first two episodes: Nick’s kill job on three mafia brothers, and the kidnapping of that little girl.
When Nick goes to complete his job, given to him by someone I can only assume pays him extremely well for the work he does, he’s reluctantly given information that puts him on the top of every single criminal’s hit list. Cops want this information, thugs want it, the mafia wants it, but no one knows what it’s for or what to do with it. It’s certainly a clever way to keep you watching, if nothing else.
That information will have Nick having to go through enemies and torture and a whole lot of bloodshed, and it isn’t anything he asked for. But that isn’t the only thing that came flying into Nick’s life that he never asked for – so is Happy, the blue winged imaginary friend.
Remember Haley, that kidnapped little girl? Well, that’s where Happy comes from. He’s her imaginary friend… but he is in no way imaginary. Somehow, some way, Nick Sax is one of the only people in the world who can actually see this flying, fluttery, kid-friendly creature. Add these questions to the list: Why can Nick see him?! And how does Happy exist?!
Oswalt does a fantastic job at making this character immediately lovable. This is a kid’s imaginary friend after all, and he can do anything. He’s able to whiz into buildings and through walls and seek out people and things like no other normal non-imaginary character can do which makes him incredibly useful.
As soon as Haley gets kidnapped she sends him off to help, and he knew exactly who to seek out: Nick Sax, the seemingly invincible man. Why? Well, you’ll need to watch the pilot for the details!
Happy is fun, quirky, innocent and therefore not at all suited for this world filled with prostitutes, murder, cocaine and sex. He wants to use kid-friendly ways to get Nick to save Haley but, naturally, he’s pulled right on in to the dirty, fucked up world that Nick Sax lives in. You haven’t lived until you’ve seen an imaginary friend accidentally ingest cocaine.
It’s that exact juxtaposition that makes this show so unique, and why I love it so much.
Syfy is already known for combining whimsy and darkness with The Magicians but this takes that combination to a whole new level. I didn’t realize that I needed a show with a blue imaginary friend helping a murderous, morally bankrupt man kill other murderous, morally bankrupt people…but I do, and I’m happy I have it.
Happy! is going to be the weirdest show you’ll seen all year. It’s going to confuse, shock and might even horrify you, but more importantly — It’s going to entertain you — and isn’t that we want with the TV we watch?
With only the first two episodes out for review it’s hard to say if this show will become a success, but if you want something to fill in that Barney-shaped, bleeding hole in your heart (while still wanting it to also satisfy the gore-lover in you) then you’ll be crazy to miss Happy! when it premieres next week.