Latest news with #HappyFace
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Happy Face' Canceled at Paramount+ After One Season
Robert and Michelle King's crime thriller 'Happy Face' has been canceled at Paramount+ after just one season, Variety has confirmed. The news comes roughly two months after 'Happy Face' wrapped Season 1 on May 1. The show tells the real story of Melissa Moore, who in 1995, learned that her father, Keith Hunter Jesperson, was the then-infamous Happy Face Killer. The series is based on the 'Happy Face' podcast from iHeartPodcasts as well as Moore's autobiography 'Shattered Silence,' which was co-written by M. Bridget Cook. More from Variety 'Tulsa King' Spinoff 'NOLA King' Starring Samuel L. Jackson Ordered to Series at Paramount+ 'Tulsa King' Spinoff 'NOLA King' With Samuel L. Jackson to Change Showrunners as Dave Erickson Exits (EXCLUSIVE) 'Yellowstone' Alum Finn Little Joins Beth & Rip Spinoff Series In the eight-episode series, which premiered March 20, Melissa changes her name and distances herself from her father as an adult. Despite her best efforts, Keith, who is serving life in prison, tries to weasel his way back into her life. As she reconciles with her past, Melissa 'discovers the impact her father had on his victims' families and must face a reckoning of her own identity,' according to an official logline. Annaleigh Ashford and Dennis Quaid star as Melissa and her criminal father Keith, respectively. Other cast members include James Wolk, Tamera Tomakili, Khiyla Aynne, Benjamin Mackey, Connor Paton and David Harewood. The real Jesperson is currently serving life in prison in Oregon penitentiary. He murdered at least eight women, and earned his nickname from drawing smiley faces on his letters to the authorities and media. CBS studios produced 'Happy Face' in association with iHeartPodcasts, King Size Productions and Semi-Formal Productions. Jennifer Cacicio served as showrunner and executive producer with Robert and Michelle King, Michael Showalter, Conal Byre, Melissa G. Moore, Will Pearson and Liz Glotzer. Jordana Mollick executive-produced the series and directed the first episode. The series is distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution. Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week 'Harry Potter' TV Show Cast Guide: Who's Who in Hogwarts? Final Emmy Predictions: Talk Series and Scripted Variety - New Blood Looks to Tackle Late Night Staples
Yahoo
26-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Kathy Bates, Minha Kim, Elisabeth Moss, and the best of our Emmy Drama Actress interviews
Over the past two months of Emmy campaigning, Gold Derby has spoken with several contenders in all categories. Now with voting underway ahead of the July 15 unveiling of the nominees, we have compiled 16 interviews for stars vying for Best Drama Actress, including: Annaleigh Ashford (Happy Face), Kathy Bates (Matlock), Morfydd Clark (The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power), Nicola Coughlan (Bridgerton), Tawny Cypress (Yellowjackets), Emma D'Arcy (House of the Dragon), Shanola Hampton (Found), Minha Kim (Pachinko), Ali Larter (Landman), Britt Lower (Severance), Melanie Lynskey (Yellowjackets), Helen Mirren (1923), Elisabeth Moss (The Handmaid's Tale), Niecy Nash-Betts (Grotesquerie), Sophie Nélisse (Yellowjackets), and Carrie Preston (Elsbeth). Read on for highlights from each interviews and links to watch our full video Q&As. More from Gold Derby An 'honored' Denis Villeneuve will direct the next James Bond movie: 'To me, he's sacred territory' 'I was taken with the idea of a spy show': How 'Talamasca: The Secret Order' showrunners expand Anne Rice's Immortal Universe in new AMC series For the Paramount+ series, Ashford plays Melissa Reed, the daughter of Dennis Quaid's Keith Hunter Jesperson, aka the Happy Face Killer, who's in prison for murdering eight women. "My mom is actually the true crime aficionado in the family," she explains. "So, I called her right before I read the script, and she gave me the lowdown. But the podcast is quite extraordinary. Not only do you get to hear Melissa's journey, but you also get to hear her navigate her conscience, her relationships with the people in her family, and also the relationships that she has to the victims' families. What was the most interesting to me about the real Melissa is how she's become an advocate for people who've been touched by the trauma of crime." Watch our complete interview with Annaleigh Ashford. For the CBS legal series, the title character is a smart, savvy, 70-something lawyer who takes a job at a firm to ostensibly pay off her late husband's debts, but is actually seeking evidence of a coverup of the opioid issues that contributed to her daughter's death. 'Even though I've had a long career and people know who I am, I was feeling a little bit invisible,' says Bates. 'But more than that, I wasn't challenged by the work in the same way. I hate to say I was losing interest in what I love to do, but you really need to find something that you really love to do. And it was a miracle to find something this well-written, this exciting, this unusual, and this deep.' Watch our complete interview with Kathy Bates. For the Prime Video series, Clark plays Galadriel, an elf who in this time period has been tricked by the evil Sauron (Charlie Vickers) and now will stop at nothing to destroy him. "It was amazing for me to be back with Charlie but him giving a completely different performance," says Clark. "It was really exciting for me as an actor to be able to see this craft of Charlie's" in his new guise as Annatar, the Lord of Gifts. "I could barely recognize him. ... Charlie's such a lovely person that it was really quite incredible for me to be frightened of him." Watch our complete video interview with Morfydd Clark. The third season of the Netflix series ended with Nicola Coughlan's Penelope Featherington marrying Luke Newton's Colin Bridgerton. At the beginning of those episodes, Penelope has "sort of given up on herself," Coughlan explains, and "she's kind of accepted her fate [and] given up on the idea of love, which is something that has driven her since the beginning." But when Colin comes back into Penelope's life, everything changes. "I loved the charting of the whole season and the way that there was something so compelling in each episode," she says. Watch our complete video interview with Nicola Coughlan. By the beginning of the Showtime drama's third season, Taissa (Cypress) has completely blown up her life. Having become the first state senator to "impeach herself" before taking office, she has destroyed any chance she had at a political career. "I always thought that Taissa was a narcissist. Everything she says comes from an 'I' perspective. You can go back to Season 1 — everything she says, even when she is trying to get rid of her wife in Season 1, she's like, 'I don't know what I'm gonna do.'... So I knew that about her, and so I took that even further," Cypress shares. "I was like, 'Oh, this is narcissism to the nth degree where she has completely created this other thing that she can blame that's not her.'" Watch our complete interview with Tawny Cypress. For the HBO series, D'Arcy plays Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen, who experienced some truly epic moments during Season 2 of the Game of Thrones prequel, including meeting up with Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) in secret and watching as Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) finally pledged his loyalty to his queen. They say, "It was a favorite scene of mine. Getting to act with Liv is one of the great privileges in my life. But as a result of such scarcity, there was quite a lot of pressure on it. You have two big, knotty dialogue scenes in which to house the whole of that relationship. It felt to me like we were being asked to achieve an epic scale within quite small, narrow parameters. It's very silly as well, because it's a high stakes environment, and I'm wearing a wimple. [Laughs] I'd say that's more work for Olivia than it was for me, because she would have been the one looking at me." Read our complete interview with Emma D'Arcy. For Hampton's Gabi Mosely, the second season of the Peacock series was a quest for penance. And although her team at Mosley & Associates eventually forgave her for keeping her kidnapper Hugh Evans, aka Sir (Mark-Paul Gosselaar), imprisoned in her basement — and lying to them about it — she has yet to be able to give herself the same grace. "Even after all the good she does, the one thing that Gabi is a master at is torturing herself," the actress says. There's "a lot of work that she still has to do. Healing is a process; it takes years. We are used to seeing characters tied up in a nice little bow, but that's not real life. And what we're trying to do, in a lot of ways, is show that process and how long it can be, so that people watching it can be like, 'OK, I'm still in my stuff too. I don't have to be finished.'" Read our complete interview with Shanola Hampton. Kim stars as Sunja, who is introduced in Season 1 for the Apple TV+ series as a young woman in Japanese-occupied Korea who falls pregnant after an affair with married businessman Hansu (Lee). She eventually marries pastor Isak (Steve Sanghyun Noh) and they move to Japan to start anew. "She's still young. She's 35 years old. I am 30 years old right now, and I'm still a baby, but in that era, it's a different thing. I had to convey how she suffered," she explains. "I had to talk about it a lot with the directors and Soo, and with our makeup department to make very subtle wrinkles, a very subtle like eyeshadow to make her look exhausted. I talked a lot with the actors as well, like how could I have to walk, and I had to search a lot of things that made a voice different when they got old." Watch our complete interview with Minha Kim. The Paramount+ series stars Billy Bob Thornton as Tommy Norris, the right-hand man for a powerful West Texas oil executive (Jon Hamm). Larter plays Tommy's ex-wife, Angela, who is first introduced during a FaceTime call while vacationing with her new husband. It doesn't take long for her to make her way back to Texas. Larter was immediately drawn to working with creator Taylor Sheridan, who "loves his women to be emotional roller coasters. That to me, as an actress, is so exciting because I'm trying to hold it together for my family and figure out how I'm going to piece this together." She adds, "I love getting to play this woman who lays it all on the line. She wears everything on her sleeve. It's really exciting to get to play somebody that powerful." Read our complete interview with Ali Larter. The second season of the Apple TV+ series is about a near-future, retro-tinged dystopia where people could separate their work selves from their personal lives. The team behind the show, including Lower, joined our recent group discussion, where she discussed her approach to playing the innie and outie versions of her character. "For me, I use a lot of analogies. They sound like different music in my head. I use music a lot when I'm getting ready in the morning," Lower explains. "I'm also informed by how my costars are behaving with me, how the scene is written, how it's directed. There's a lot of inspiration once you get to set by the elements around you that are shifted slightly based on where you're at. Obviously when I'm Helena posing as Helly, Helena had a similar job to myself as an actor, which was to blend into this family that she is encountering for the first time. And she's having to do the same kind of role as we do as actors, which is to assume an identity and to move around like that person. And I think it was something we worked really closely on with [director] Ben [Stiller]. We were trying to figure out what things slip through. When is her acting not so good? And when is she able to tap into that part of her, that inner-rebel that she's maybe abandoned from childhood or has maybe never had full access to. Especially in [Episode] 204 ['Woe's Hollow'], she gets a kick out of playing against Milchick and getting to be the one in the classroom who's disrupting. Well, not the classroom, but the campfire." Watch our complete interview with Britt Lower. Season 3 of the Showtime series saw Lynskey's character, Shauna, delve into darker, more chaotic territory — a turn the actress found exhilarating. "It was fun because it felt like what the character has been building to," Lynskey explains. "From the beginning, I had the information that she's really trying to repress this side of herself. It's been fun when I've been able to let it out in little bursts. In [the first two] seasons there were little moments where it came out — but it went so wild this season. It was fun." Watch our complete interview with Melanie Lynskey. The Emmy and Oscar winner stars as Cara Dutton opposite Harrison Ford for the Paramount+ western series created by Taylor Sheridan. She says, 'Both Harrison and I, for the first time in our lives, had to commit without reading a single word of the characters or the story or anything. Because Taylor said he likes to write for the actor that he's got, he likes to write knowing who he's writing for, which I thought was very interesting.' But for Sheridan, she was willing to take the chance. 'We knew the history of Taylor's writing, And you know what? What a remarkable, brilliant, extraordinary talent he is. So we took a leap into the dark.' Watch our complete interview with Helen Mirren. The star, executive producer, and director were in the same physical place by the end, but the eight years between the series premiere and finale of the Emmy-winning Hulu adaptation of Margaret Atwood's seminal novel saw a huge evolution for both her and her character. "As an actor at the end, and as a director as well because they're so intertwined, it was so meta," Moss says. "I hadn't been back to the Waterford house in however many years it has been since June had been there. But I know how that felt, and I was able to then carry it into the scene. There [were] a lot of amazing memories, and there [were] also a lot of complicated memories of being very cold and it being very late at night and things like that — not quite as complicated as June's memories." Watch our complete interview with Elisabeth Moss. The FX series from Ryan Murphy begins with Nash-Betts' Det. Lois Tryon investigating several horrific murders in a small town, but viewers are soon thrown for a loop. "I will probably be working with Ryan until the day they throw dirt on my face," she says. "I love Ryan Murphy. I love him as a partner. I love him as a creator. I was so interested to see what was next, what was going on in his mind. And when I read that script — oh my gosh!" Watch our complete interview with Niecy Nash-Betts. The Season 3 finale for Showtime left fans with another cliffhanger — Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) calling for help from a mountaintop as Shauna (Nélisse) takes her throne as the Antler Queen. "I remember reading it and being like, 'This is so sick!' We were so excited, and I really wish that all of the cast could watch the finale together because it's such an important moment for us," says Nélisse. "When it ends with Natalie on the mountain, I was screaming out loud. We weren't there when she was shooting that scene, but I knew exactly how she was going to act it out, and I was like, 'This is going to leave people with their jaws just dropped on the floor.'" Read our complete interview with Sophie Nelisse. Preston has portrayed Elsbeth Tascioni — a delightfully unpredictable attorney — for more than 15 years. What began as a recurring Emmy-winning character on The Good Wife evolved into a fan-favorite performance that continued on The Good Fight and now leads her own CBS series, Elsbeth, heading into its third season. 'I love Elsbeth's curiosity and her wonder and her positive attitude,' she says. 'It takes discipline to approach the world that way. It's infectious. I love getting inside of that mindset every day because it really helps me in my life.' Watch our complete interview with Carrie Preston. Best of Gold Derby Lee Jung-jae, Adam Scott, Noah Wyle, and the best of our Emmy Drama Actor interviews Everything to know about 'The Pitt' Season 2 Adam Brody, Seth Rogen, Jason Segel, and the best of our Emmy Comedy Actor interviews Click here to read the full article.
The Citizen
14-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Citizen
What to watch: ‘Happy Face' deserves a stream
'Happy Face' is inspired by the notorious Happy Face killer, Keith Jesperson, and the 2009 biography of his daughter. There is no spoiler quite like that of a film or television reviewer that intellectualises entertainment and scores a fun or engaging show with a low number. Not every production is meant to be shelved amongst the high-brow and artsy-fartsy top drawer. Many shows can be enjoyed simply by watching them without expectation. Happy Face on Showmax is such a series. The series is a semi-true but muchly made-up look at the other halves of a serial killer's life. The family drama and the hurt, pain and manipulation with concomitant dramatic ebbs and flows. The storyline is based on and inspired by the notorious Happy Face killer, Keith Jesperson, and the 2009 biography of his daughter, Melissa Moore, called Shattered Silence. Records show that Jesperson, a long-haul trucker, strangled his victims. He left a trail of bodies across the United States between 1990 and 1995. He signed his work with smiley faces because someone else claimed his killings at first, though falsely. This is how he earned his nickname. His known victims, despite his claims of over 160 murders, were sex workers or women living on the fringes of society. The kind who wouldn't immediately be missed. He was convicted of eight murders and is serving a life sentence in Oregan, United States, for his murder spree. He'll be eligible for release in 2063. The smiley face emoji killer Happy Face was produced by Michelle and Robert King, who also created The Good Wife, The Good Fight and Evil among others. Beyond the story's initial biographical content in Moore's book, it was also subdivided into a podcast of 12 parts before Hollywood turned it into part-fact, part-fiction fun. ALSO READ: 'So deserved': Viola Davis named among 2025 TV Hall of Fame inductees Dennis Quaid plays an incarcerated Jesperson who exercises a measure of control over his somewhat estranged daughter Melissa Reed, played by Annaleigh Ashford. Reed has married and lives with her kind, Mr Nice Guy husband and daughter in a leafy suburb. She works as a makeup artist on the Dr Greg Show; a true crime talk show. When the production team finds out, by possible design from Jesperson, that Reed's dad was the Happy Face killer, attention turns to her and she becomes the star of, and coproducer of a narrative about her dad. It also becomes her own journey into discovering her past. Watch: Trailer for Happy Face The plot then thickens when Jesperson starts claiming killings that nobody knew of and, through an elaborate smoke and mirrors escapade, he evidences it. Only, the murder was not his and the happy faces were drawn by conspirators and his lover, to aid the plot. All in the name of making good true crime television. All in the name of good true crime show Meanwhile, her teenage daughter Hazel, brattishly well played by Khiyla Aynne, reaches out to grandpa behind everyone's backs. She's a somewhat troubled teen and her growing relationship with Jesperson sends mom, dad and daughter on a sidebar collision course. Then, there's the FBI investigators, the recurring memories of Jesperson's gifts to his daughter every time he made a kill. There are many layers to the story, and it's told reasonably and entertainingly well. And while it's true that some of the performances are as charismatic as a loaf of bread, that Dennis Quaid's skills are underutilised in the show and so on, it's still an entertaining watch. The ponytails and intellectual beards have slammed the show, but it's not fair. Because nobody's looking for perfection, just time out on the couch with popcorn. NOW READ: 'The Rookie' is no amateur of a show
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
CBS Studios' EVP Casting Deborah Aquila Departs Amid Paramount Layoffs; CBS' SVP Late Night Nick Bernstein Exits As ‘After Midnight' Ends
EXCLUSIVE: Veteran casting director and executive Deborah Aquila, most recently EVP and head of casting for streaming series at CBS Studios, is leaving as part of the companywide layoffs at parent Paramount Global. According to sources, Aquila and four other members of the studio's casting team, ranging from coordinator to VP, were impacted by the Tuesday cuts that are reducing the overall Paramount workforce by 3.5%. Also leaving this week is Nick Bernstein, CBS' SVP of late night programming, West Coast. His departure is tied to the wrap of the network's After Midnight whose last show is airing on June 12. It is not directly related to the layoffs though any eliminated positions help divisions meet headcount targets. More from Deadline 'Boston Blue': Gloria Reuben Joins 'Blue Bloods' Offshoot For CBS Paramount Cutting Another 3.5% Of Its Domestic Workforce, Citing Linear TV Declines And Broader Economy 2025 Premiere Dates For New & Returning Series On Broadcast, Cable & Streaming Aquila joined Paramount TV Studios as EVP and head of casting in 2020. In early 2023, she took oversight of casting for both CBS Studios and Paramount TV Studios, the latter of which shut down last August. In a restructuring well over a year ago, Aquila focused on casting for streaming series, including the Star Trek franchise, Happy Face and most recently, the Little House On the Prairie reboot for Netflix, while CBS head of Casting, EVP Claudia Lyon, took over casting for broadcast. That is a setup that mirrors CBS and CBS Studios' integration of current programming under Eric Kim, while CBS Studios' Stephanie Groves oversees current for streaming. In another move toward streamlining and centralizing shared functions, Lyon will add casting for streaming series to her purview to oversee all casting for CBS Studios and CBS. She will continue to report to CBS Studios President David Stapf and CBS Entertainment President Amy Reisenbach. CBS Studios casting is among many areas across Paramount impacted by today's layoffs. They are believed to also include Comedy Central, MTV, kids and adult animation, business development operations, franchises and consumer products. Among those exiting is Lauren Ruggiero, SVP Scripted Series at MTV Entertainment Studios. 'As we navigate the continued industry-wide linear declines and dynamic macro-economic environment, while prioritizing investments in our growing streaming business, we are taking the hard, but necessary steps to further streamline our organization starting this week,' Paramount co-CEOs George Cheeks, Chris McCarthy and Brian Robbins wrote in a staff memo this morning about the latest staff cuts. Aquila's career, which spans more than four decades, includes stints as a casting director, by herself and in partnership with Tricia Wood, as well as a run as SVP Casting for Paramount Pictures. She won Artios awards for her work on CODA and La La joined CBS at the end of 2014 as VP Late Night Programming, West Coast, to shepherd the final stages of development and subsequently oversee The Late Late Show with James Corden. Promoted to SVP, Bernstein became a fixture on the show and frequent target of Corden's, appearing in various gags. After the 2023 end of The Late Late Show, Bernstein took oversight of After Midnight, hosted by Taylor Tomlinson, which, like its predecessor, also is based in Los Angeles. Following that show's end this week, CBS will no longer air originals in the post-Late Show slot, instead running Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen. During his 11-year tenure at CBS, Bernstein also oversaw the Los Angeles-based daytime talk show The Talk, which ended its run in December. Prior to joining CBS, Bernstein spent more than a decade as late-night executive at NBC, working with Saturday Night Live and with hosts Conan O'Brien, Jimmy Fallon, Jay Leno and Carson Daly. Best of Deadline List Of Hollywood & Media Layoffs From Paramount To Warner Bros Discovery To CNN & More Sean 'Diddy' Combs Sex-Trafficking Trial Updates: Cassie Ventura's Testimony, $10M Hotel Settlement, Drugs, Violence, & The Feds A Full Timeline Of Blake Lively & Justin Baldoni's 'It Ends With Us' Feud In Court, Online & In The Media
The Review Geek
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Review Geek
Happy Face Season 1 Review – An ineffective blend of true crime and crime drama
Season 1 Episode Guide Episode 1 -| Review Score – 3/5 Episode 2 -| Review Score – 3/5 Episode 3 -| Review Score – 3/5 Episode 4 -| Review Score – 3/5 Episode 5 -| Review Score – 2.5/5 Episode 6 -| Review Score – 2.5/5 Episode 7 -| Review Score – 2.5/5 Episode 8 -| Review Score – 2.5/5 It's hard to know what to feel while watching Happy Face. Do you enjoy the creepy thrills of a convicted serial killer of eight women sending his granddaughter drawings of herself and other women? Or do you feel the guilt and unease the killer's daughter experiences as the identity of her father chips away at her life? This dissonance comes about from the fact that Happy Face Season 1 is loosely based on a true story. It is adapted from a podcast and autobiography by Melissa Moore, daughter of Keith Hunter Jesperson who is also known as the Happy Face Killer. The series turns Moore into Melissa Reed but keeps other broad details about Keith and her life pretty much the same. The story kicks off when Keith, who has been arrested for eight murders, calls the TV show where Melissa works as a makeup artist and confesses to one more. But he will only give the details to Melissa. What follows is an investigation into this additional murder led by Melissa and Ivy, a producer for the show. At the same time, as news about Melissa's connection to the serial killer leaks, it begins to affect her family. Her husband Ben and her kids, 15-year-old Hazel and 9-year-old Max, start feeling the ramifications as friends and coworkers find out the family's link to Jesperson. Hazel sees the difference in how students treat her at school, while Ben faces issues at work. Things get more tense because Melissa, who is focusing on the investigation, is forced to be away from her family at critical times. As a whole, the Happy Face Season 1 follows a two-pronged approach to this story. On the one hand, it has all the markers of a crime thriller. Melissa and Ivy's investigation into the new murder offers a solid mystery to hang on to. We see them look for clues, collect evidence and speak to witnesses like in any other crime drama. The series pulls the puzzle together, piece by piece and with a few twists in between. At the same time, there is a sense that Keith is hiding something or planning something much bigger. This side of the series leans into the drama. Tensions are high and the story is meant to offer a riveting and twisted mystery, though it does not always succeed. It also emphasises the unique thrill of a serial killer story — Dennis Quaid's performance as Jesperson is designed to give you the creeps and pique curiosity about what goes on inside the head of a man who killed eight women. On the other hand, the show explores how Melissa's ordinary white picket fence life gets disturbed when people find out she's related to a killer. Friends change their behaviour, little Max loses a playmate, and prejudice raises its ugly head. Melissa and Ben face issues in their relationship. Through clips from the past and events of the present, the series also looks at how many people suffered at the hands of Keith — Melissa, her brother Shane, their mother June, and even relatives of Keith's victims. This is meant to be a more grounded version of storytelling, a realistic portrayal of life as a killer's relative. The two sides of the show simply don't work together. You can't easily pair high thrills, mystery and suspense with an unvarnished, grave depiction of reality. But the show forces them together and even flits between the two sides of the story in each episode. It leads to a tonally jarring experience where the mood shifts with every scene, which is just not a fun watch. The inconsistency and clashing of moods get worse in the second half when the story tries to up the ante on both ends. While the murder mystery reaches a natural high point, the family's side of the tale enters dramatic territory. This is largely due to the storyline around Melissa's daughter, Hazel, who happens to get in touch with her grandfather and build a connection. This plotline is ominous and leads to some chilling moments between them, trying to straddle the line between a depiction of the real world and a melodramatic crime thriller. Additionally, Ben decides to take certain steps that feel like a huge jump for his personality and are definitely not characteristic of a regular dad. This is a weak attempt at giving otherwise flat characters some semblance of nuance and deeper characterisation. But instead of doing that, it just feels like watching them jump from one genre to another as they engage in increasingly absurd behaviour. It doesn't help that the pacing is off and certain episodes feel stretched out, with even the murder mystery losing its momentum. Annaleigh Ashford's portrayal of Melissa begins to get monotonous and some of Quaid's dialogues feel laughable instead of creepy. Despite all the time the story spends on talking about guilt and duty and justice, it doesn't actually address these themes in a meaningful way. Ultimately, Happy Face tries to be two kinds of stories in one and, as a result, fails. What's left is an uneven and easily forgettable mess. And that's just on its merits as a TV show. We've not even begun to dissect the real question — what it really means to take a story about real violence and real victims and turn it into entertainment.
