a curated selection of thoughts collected within a 1 gb limit
long before the fabled internet flick, there was this american television network called scifi, now known as syfy. syfy is one of those networks that nobody in the world ever thinks about. it’s definitely got a better reputation nowadays. i think when they do it right, they can prove that they’re more than just shark movies and geek news on the side.
there’s resident alien. i thought it looked pretty cool. i heard chucky was pretty good as well. oh and there’s tzgz, except not really. it was like their own adult swim or animation domination hi-def, where they played a lot of adult animation at midnight. they had this show magical girl friendship squad which everyone who had no other problems got mad at because it was the spawn of satan probably. but in reality it’s just kind of a whatever show with a cute redhead. i only say tzgz is not really there because the whole brand just kinda fizzled away. the rest of syfy just never really gripped me. maybe the nerd stuff just wasn't for me. so when i say happy is one of the first of their shows that actually had me interested, that’s saying a lot.
but enough rambling. what is happy? it was originally a graphic novel from writer grant morrison and illustrator darick robertson, but was later turned into a tv series made by those guys who made crank. it features nick sax, played by chris meloni, and happy, played by patton oswalt. while chris meloni was stabler in law and order, both of them, and james gordon in harley quinn, patton oswalt, from what i can assume, has been competing to do every possible character he can find. he was max in secret life of pets 2, modok, remy from ratatouille, he did one of the white voices in sorry to bother you, he did some stuff with redlettermedia, and he played nom nom in cartoon network's we bare bears. all with the same voice as well. it’s like he's slowly repopulating the world so that everyone can sound exactly like him.
the story is, this girl named hailey gets kidnapped by santa’s drug dealer brother and she sends her imaginary wopey dopey horse friend, happy, to find someone for help, who just so happens to be nick sax, an ex-cop turned hitman. i think he almost dies and get drugged and that’s why he sees this cartoon horse tech demo. happy then tells him “hey so there’s this girl and uhh we gotta go save her because uhhh he’s your daughter.” and i guess there’s this other stuff going on, but i kinda forgot some of it. but from what i do remember, it was much more engaging than the premise made it out to be…except for that one mute guy who only said “blue”. i remember he became famous, but his subplot didn’t really stick with me.
i can definitely say this: blue scaramucci is one of my favorite characters on this show. his voice is like ASMR tony soprano and he’s just so messed in the head by season 2. this other guy smoothie is a great character. his lips are simple to read but you barely want to read them because you know he’s going to tear off your skin and put you in a giant chocolate easter egg for all the children to just look at you, knowing the fear you’ve caused but it wasn’t your fault. that’s real. that’s exactly what he does. there’s also amanda, hailey’s mother, and this other detective, meredith, and they’re both really interesting characters to follow as their stories unfold. all of this, and yet happy and nick are still the most interesting to follow. their dynamic clicks the moment they meet, and you see them going around wondering what the hell could possibly happen.
and for a tv show with animation involved, this animation is actually really good. it’s almost like something you’d see in a movie. then we find out there’s like a whole species of imaginary friends. it’s quite an interesting angle the more i think about it. obviously, happy ain’t real. duh. but the fact that there’s basically a whole sub-community of imaginary friends that deal with other children around the world leaves a lot of story potential.
now, is there anything more general that i like? well, the acting is superb. everyone brings their a-game here. the editing, too. sometimes it changes style like with the "blitzkrieg" episode. don't ask. i don't like the cheap digital zoom-ins, but it ain't all bad. and above all else, the action is worth staying for. that's to be expected from the crank guys. you look up any clip and you'll be guaranteed bloody mayhem and guys getting smashed into a wall. it's honestly incredible for cable.
however, there are some things we need to discuss. in the show, there’s this dude called sonny shine who i really loved as this big bad guy who pretty much causes all of this to happen. anyway, he has these aldi-brand teletubbies called wishees, who are actually weird demon things from the planet…thing. okay, fine. that is at least something. the only lame thing about these wishees, who look like overgrown chickens, is that they have all this lore about them being demon creatures or whatever who want a human mother to give birth to their eggs. again, don’t ask.
i know i’ve been saying this show has a lot of good things going for it. but that’s mostly season 1. season 2, however, not so much. i don’t even know what the plot is at this point. i suppose it’s a story about sonny trying to have the best easter special of all time and there are exploding nuns and also smoothie was never dead and now he’s getting revenge on sonny shine and also blue now has a british accent and now amanda has to- jesus christ, cut it out.
so, yeah. season 2 is a weird one. but it did leave on a light cliffhanger and a big fat wink, so let’s see if it gets another season. aaaand it’s cancelled. alright let’s look into this. after the show ended its second season, syfy cancelled both this show and another short-lived show, deadly class. while happy had about 18 episodes, deadly class had only 10. poor things. anyway, my theory for why this show was dropped so quickly was due to the dwindling viewership. actually, that might as well be a fact. throughout its whole run, it went from 1 million viewers to only .29 million. it’s not even because tv is dying either. resident alien right now seems to be a big money maker with at least a million viewers per episode.
obviously they didn’t wanna risk losing more, so it’s no wonder why they canned the whole thing. now, it’s obvious that with declining viewership and not much marketing behind it, i do think happy deserved better. but did it need a new season? well, part of me says yes only because they forced my hand with that cliffhanger, as light as it was. but part of me also says no because it really did peak with its first season. it really did feel like a complete story that didn't need much expanding. maybe some parts had potential, like the whole imaginary society thing, but not much else. look, the fact of the matter is that when it comes to entertainment, we are in hell. i mean, the current landscape of streaming is getting more concerning day by day. price hikes all around, massive layoffs, and now companies like warner bros. discovery can take off their own projects that have no other home. so maybe the end of happy was an inevitable one. there's just no winning for this guy, or any guy for that matter. there were talks of bringing it to netflix or peacock, but the future seems to be very uncertain. i come from a place of understanding so i see why people would want more out of this show. but maybe it's time we lay it to rest, as a solid show that was too good for streaming and way too good for cable. this has been more of a nutshell kind of review so there's a lot that i left out for the sake of spoilers. definitely check it out on netflix because at this point, it might not be there for long.