Netflix’s comic adaptation, ‘Happy!’ is an enjoyable train wreck
- harrypd21
- May 4, 2018
- 2 min read
The latest in Netflix’s comic book adaptations, based on the graphic novel of the same name by Grant Morrison and Darick Robertson, is a whacky adult romp through a seedy and supernatural version of New York. Helmed by Chris Meloni as ex-cop turned full-time booze hound and contract killer, Nick Sax, you can imagine that the content of Happy! would gravely belie its title. Ostensibly about the MacGuffin of a top-secret password passed down the succession line of the mob, and child trafficking, Sax is pulled bloodied and inevitably hungover from a near-death experience by the titular Happy to save a little girl. Happy, played by Patton Oswald, is a miniature flying unicorn with an often infuriatingly optimistic zest for life that only Sax can see. The foil of Oswald to Meloni’s dry self-deprecating humour actually comes off well however, as the sudden appearance of a children’s toy-come-conscience and the extra-dimensional interplay could well have put audiences off at first glance. It works especially well when the goody-two-shoes character is forced down into the mire of Sax’s world of casual death, drugs and sex. The content of Happy! however continues to get weirder and more supernatural, not always with seemingly enough motivation or explanation though, to throw the terms “demons” and “bug sex-parties” out there to give you some idea; and could well have benefited from more exposition or knowledge of the source material.
Sax and Happy (Photo by: Syfy)
Because of the un-called for addition of new elements every other episode, the menagerie of colourful characters sometimes becomes wasted, though those such as Ritchie Coster‘s archetypal mob gangster “Blue” who lives in a world of plastic goons with bleached hair and whitened teeth, and Patrick Fischler‘s sex-pest Doctor “Smoothie” stand out in the sea of supporting characters. Within this, we never really feel like we get invested in any character other than Sax, who is both enjoyable to watch as he toes the line of SyFy show Happy!‘s age rating with engaging and humorously slapstick yet graphic fight scenes and able to elicit empathy as the we glimpses into the humanity of this ex-cop is emotionally and mentally broken, as well as often physically, as the series continues. Hopefully going forward the series can focus more on the detective elements of Sax’s train-wreck journey through his own underworld, and make the character interactions between the protagonists more elucidating and worthy of screen time in what is otherwise a surprisingly fun hit.
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