SNAPSHOT
Happy! will follow the journey of Nick Sax, a disgraced ex-cop who, as intoxicated and corrupt as he already is, keeps falling into his old habits of murder, sex, and betrayal and doesn’t seem to be getting out anytime soon. After suffering a heart attack, he finds himself visited by an imaginary blue horse named Happy! that ultimately turns his life upside down. (synopsis (c) Geek.com)
Life is a hard thing to ever get completely right.
Most people, get it more right than wrong; Nick Sax (Christopher Meloni) is not one of these people, a disillusioned ex-cop-turned crappy private eye with a predilection for lots of booze, sex and casual murder.
So not about to get humanitarian of the year award then.
At his lowest point, and you’d have to say near-death counts as a pretty rock-bottom kind of place to be, he has an epiphany … in the form of a small, blue-winged unicorn named Happy (Patton Oswalt) who is, delightfully and deliriously, as you’d expect him to be.
Thing is, only Nick can see him, leading to all kinds of hilariously oddball situations where by dint of Happy’s imaginary status, Nick begins to look even more unhinged and off the rails.
Which in his case is saying a lot.
Honestly, it’s highly likely that Nick could look any worse in peoples’ eyes, given this take on his character by Comics Beats makes abundantly clear:
“Nick Sax is a bastard. A killer for hire, a waste of space, an ex-cop, an alcoholic mess, and as far from handsome as you care to throw him. Living in a city of paedophilic Santas, mafia hitmen, random sex killers in lobster costumes, and missing children, Nick’s world is every grim and gritty comic of the ’90s (and ever after) thrown at the page and left to coalesce in a swearing heap of blood and phlegm.”
Evocative huh and not exactly a sterling affirmation of character. By way of contrast, here’s their take on Happy the Horse:
“And so, this Christmas tale of redemption and hope in a particularly grotesque gutter of human life is wrenched from the familiar by the appearance of one Happy the Horse, a bright blue flying cartoon creation who bursts from the grim pages in an explosion of colour and puppy dog eyes. While Nick is blasted by guns, fists and knives, Happy flutters about, yelling encouragement and really believing that the sad git in front of him will rally himself and save the day. A small force of eternal optimism, found even in the darkest of places, determined to never give up.”
Like the proverbial night and day, yin and yang, Mother Theresa and Trump aren’t they? The wizened old cynic and the bright and bubbly newbie, the odd couple for our time with all the drama and humour that entails.
Watching what people of the calibre of Meloni and Patton do with these characters should be a treat, and while we only have a 20 second teaser trailer to feast our eyes on for now, Happy! should definitely be worth programming into your DVR/PVR/clay tablet.
Happy! premieres on syfy in the US autumn.