Even if you haven’t read Grant Morrison and Darick Robertson’s comic book, there’s a lot about Syfy’s Happy! adaptation that will feel familiar. The gritty underworld, an indifferent or oblivious populace, and the one man keeping the darkness at bay can all be found individually or in various combos on everything from procedurals to Marvel’s The Punisher (not to mention a wide swath of films). But the most immediately recognizable element of this demented little drama is Chris Meloni as a conflicted (former) cop. The Law & Order: Special Victims Unit alum has taken up residence in the violent, hyperkinetic playground of Morrison and Crank director Brian Taylor’s making, which also, intentionally or not, serves as a continuation of his most famous role to date.
As Elliot Stabler, Meloni played good cop/worse cop on Dick Wolf’s Law & Order spin-off for 12 seasons. That dedicated detective was aggressive from the start, but several episodes centered on just how tenuous Stabler’s hold on his anger was after a decade spent dealing with sexual predators. The character even admitted to fantasizing about going full vigilante, which became an increasingly pressing concern for his superiors and partner (Mariska Hargitay). He walked away before crossing the line (and after contract negotiations between Meloni and NBC fell through), leaving a void that the series has never been able to completely fill in the intervening six seasons.
In its first two episodes, Happy! promises to unleash Stabler’s dark side once and for all. And though that arc doesn’t come from the source material, it’s easily the most compelling thing about the show, Patton Oswalt’s charming voiceover aside. Morrison and Robertson’s four-issue series still provides the framework: Nick Sax (Meloni) has gone from hero cop to hired gun for reasons not yet fully known. He’s a drunk so used to being unceremoniously dumped at death’s doorstep that he wonders if he isn’t “un-killable.” The indiscriminate hitman is too miserable to make a real go of his life post-divorce and police career, but there’s also something preventing him from offing himself, a level of consideration he gives few others.
Nick’s yanked out of his booze- and pill-filled purgatory following two significant developments. The first is, he may have been made privy to something that, according to a nameless henchman, is like “the Ark Of The Covenant for hoods.” No one really knows what that means, but everyone from foot soldiers to capos are trying to get their hands on it—and Nick. But he’s also roused from his wallowing by a little winged unicorn named Happy (Oswalt, who may as well just voice the nation’s conscience at this point.) Oddly, the animated creature isn’t just a result of Nick subsisting on a steady diet of well whiskey and painkillers. He’s the imaginary friend of an adorable little girl named Hailey (Bryce Lorenzo), who’s in very real danger.