So I'd like to take a moment to talk about... HAPPY! · 8:35pm Jan 28th, 2018
WARNING: The subject matter of this blog post is not for the faint of heart. If you're under 18 or prone to projectile vomiting, nightmares, or Christianity, do not click through to this post.
There, that should've gotten rid of all the pussies.
So you may or may not have heard of the new Syfy series HAPPY!, based on a Grant Morrison graphic novel of the same name. It premiered in December and has, as of this past Wednesday, aired 7 episodes.
HAPPY! is...many things. Many of them groundbreaking and unique for primetime basic cable.
The first and most important thing I have to say about this show is that it's historic in terms of what a basic cable network is willing to show on air in primetime. HAPPY! airs completely uncensored, and in terms of violence, profanity, and sexual content, it's pretty much on par with any Robert Rodriguez grindhouse movie you can name.
But what IS HAPPY!, you might be asking?
Well, put simply, it's the very demented lovechild of Machete and Who Framed Roger Rabbit?.
Ex-cop turned hitman Nick Sax is a mess. He dresses like, looks like, and smells like a bum, has a gravelly voice, is perpetually drunk and/or strung out, has a cynical, "fuck everything" attitude towards life...and can turn a room full of armed mobsters into mutilated corpses in a matter of seconds with startling violence and any random thing that happens to be lying around. His former partner, Merry, is a mostly honest cop who's reluctantly part of a system of corrupt cops on the take for a mob boss, "Mr. Blue", who often comes off as a rather comedic take on Walter White. The setting is New York City, right at Christmas.
The story kicks off with two events happening at the same time: while Nick is involved in some unpleasant business with some Mafia roughs, which leads to him becoming public enemy number one due to Mr. Blue believing Nick knows a password that could destroy him, elsewhere in the city, a little girl named Hailey is kidnapped by Very Bad Santa, a mentally ill, deranged man in a filthy Santa costume. Hailey's imaginary friend, a blue winged unicorn named Happy (voiced by Patton Oswalt), searches the city for the one person that can help save her:
Her dad, Nick Sax.
From there, events spiral out of control, escalate, and come together into a massive conspiracy in which Mr. Blue is middle management for a massive child trafficking operation whose ultimate boss may or may not even be human, Nick repeatedly clashes with a sociopathic sadist, Smoothie, who longs to find a way to break a man who literally does not fear death and cannot be broken with pain, and Merry struggles to find a way to help solve the multiple child abduction cases the police are turning a blind eye to. Along the way, Nick kills a whole lot of people in really gory, brutal, creative ways, Mr. Blue has numerous psychotic breakdowns that lead to him shooting people in the head, various secondary characters do things that leave you wondering what the fuck, a baby is microwaved by an abusive father, fetishists cavort in an frenzied orgy around a cult leader whose public face is a Pee Wee Herman-esque children's entertainer, Happy walks on the wild side when he's captured by a child who tortures and kills imaginary friends for fun, and menstrual marinara brings the dead back home for Christmas dinner.
HAPPY! is a wild ride of excessive violence, gore, profanity, bizarre imagery, sociopathy, sick, diseased characters, depravity, psychotic behavior, death, drugs, alcohol, mayhem, and the frequent use of soundtrack dissonance--most of the most violent or depraved behavior in the series happens to a background of beloved holiday music or soft pop hits from the 80s.
Seriously, after episode 7, I'll never be able to listen to Spandau Ballet's "True" again without remembering why they call him Smoothie or Nick getting anally raped with a massive strap-on.
If you're a fan of AMC's Preacher or Robert Rodriguez's Machete films, chances are you'll enjoy HAPPY! Check it out wherever you can access Syfy content.
It's pretty faithful to the tone of the source material, which was really good stuff.
Not the best work Grant Morrison has ever done, but then, nothing else can really be The Invisibles, or his run on Animal Man.
I'll pass.
I'm simultaneously terrified and intrigued. I might check out the graphic novel first, though.
Wow. The trailers showed basically none of that.
You've done a better job advertising the show than the actual channel, and now I wanna watch it.
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SyFy is really good at that. They're also really good at cancelling great shows after half a season to free up their budget to make a dozen more Shark Weather movies.
For a show called Happy it sure is anything but.
This is like putting a big RED button next to Pinkie and saying DO NOT PUSH THIS BUTTON!, becuase I bet every one who read that part clicked on it no matter what their age was
Anyways thanks for the synopsis of the show, I'll have to go check it out when I have a little bit of free time.
Now thats something I want to watch.
moment i hear "uncensored sexual content" i go oh great prime time porn, ill skip it.
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If by "prime time porn" you mean "middle-aged alcoholic getting sodomized by a man with no genitalia", then yes.
Also, judgmental much?
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more like everything you've described the show as having isn't something that interests me. rather makes me want to avoid the channel its on completely. if being judgemental means i'm not someone who enjoys watching others in severe pain or such than i guess i am.
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Do you have any idea how much of a snob you sound like right now?
Oh yeah, I think I remember hearing about that show!
Sounds insane in the most (wonderfully) wrong way. And hey, I like Grant Morrison, so there's that too.
I believe I've seen all but Episode 6, the one before Smoothie reveals why he's called "Smoothie." You're correct: It's a huge ball of WTF-ery, and you feel compelled to keep watching just to see how much more depraved the show can get.
It's also interesting to see how Nick subtly corrupts Happy's naive innocence as they hack, slash, stab and shoot their way through the underworld on their quest to save Hailey. It makes you wonder how Twilight would react if she were subjected to prolonged exposure to someone like Nick Sax.
Oh, and it's a bit surreal to hear Quibble Pants' voice coming out of Happy's mouth.
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Apparently, it's been renewed for a second season. At least, according to a thing I saw on AV Club.