HAPPY!: Riotous Fun but Not for Everyone

If the Christmas table reminds you of boredom, family quarrels, and the traditional pair of socks as a gift, then imagine how you would feel at Christmas if you were a drunken ex–supercop, now working as a mafia errand boy, your shady employer was currying favor with a guest dressed in a latex insect costume, and your only companion was an animated winged unicorn. On top of that, you suddenly discover that you have a young daughter who has been kidnapped by a disgusting caricature of Saint Nicholas. Do not know who I mean? Just watch the series Happy!

The SyFy station, known primarily for Z-grade shark movies and mercilessly mining cinematic hits (Stargate) and reboots of cult television series (Battlestar Galactica), this time decided to tackle the excellent, dark, and insane comic by Grant Morrison, who also co–wrote the script. Moreover, they handed the reins to the man partly responsible for the Crank starring Jason Statham. The creators of the series seized upon the antihero motif and cranked it up to the maximum, dousing it with a generous portion of black humor, grotesque imagery, and the classic approach of B-movie cinema. It is bloody, it is funny, but there is also room for a touch of holiday warmth and love.

Across the course of the episodes, the fates of the characters intertwine—characters who are unlikeable, evil to the core, yet so fascinating that each appearance brings a smile to the viewer’s face. The story of the protagonist, Nick Sax, a former police officer turned contract killer and full-time alcoholic with suicidal tendencies, intertwines with that of a local mobster who delights in extreme violence—Blue; his henchman, an ever-smiling psychopath who finds happiness only in elaborate torture of others; Nick’s former police partner; and his daughter, who was kidnapped by an unhinged, mentally unstable Saint Nicholas.

And to cap it all off, there appears a blue flying unicorn who is as annoying as it is adorable.

Happy! is a fusion of the unfettered world of childhood imagination with grotesque gore, where each subsequent murder or torture scene is downright riotous. Comics by their very nature can be over the top, so it should come as no surprise that the series also balances on that edge. In the end, however, it achieves a level where gleeful violence merges with pathos in a perfectly balanced way.

Christopher Meloni steps into the title role—until then, he had mostly played supporting parts, but here he proves to be an extraordinarily gifted comedic actor. Nick is a quintessential killer with a dark sense of humor, who does not only drink but also snorts cocaine, murders random people, and never calls home to say that he will be late for dinner.

He is also a thoroughly tragic hero. Moreover, he may well rival Tom Cruise himself when it comes to immortality. His character is insane, but not nearly as much as his facial expressions, which only prove that the actor has an extraordinary vision for his role.

The series takes on the myth of American Christmas and all the possible tropes associated with it, employing them in a not always subtle manner. Beneath the layer of violence and suicidal thoughts, above all, we have the story of a man who on one hand is fighting his own demons of past and present, and on the other hand needs the warmth that only family can provide.

Caught in a conflict of conflicting interests throughout the first season, he must decide what is most important to him this holiday season—ending his own life or recovering the daughter whose existence he did not even know about until now.

The style of the series is above all aesthetic haste, where narrative is not really that important. Thus we have gangster cinema, torture, Christmas lights, gunfire, and screams accompanied by holiday carols.

It is an explosive mixture. On one hand, the strength of the series lies in its spectacular killings; on the other, they have been reduced to absurd limits in the style of Commando, where we do not even remember who was killed—and we do not care. There is also a wealth of ingenious and bizarre touches, such as a reality show featuring mob wives or the matriarch of a crime family performing dark magic in exchange for a hamburger.

Is it a good production? Undoubtedly. Nevertheless, it is not a series for everyone. Lovers of humor as black as pitch and macabre murders will rejoice like children, while the rest will switch off Happy! after the first five minutes.

And it is worth embarking on this wild ride with a blue unicorn, because it combines an original concept and dynamic action with strong acting and characters for whom we root—even when we are not always rooting for the “good” ones.