In Review: Happy! – Saint Nick

Synopsis: After a hit that goes sideways. Nick Sax a former Detective turned hitman awakes on a hospital gurney to the sight of a seriously perky blue horse called Happy!. The horse, who is the imaginary friend of a little girl named Hayley enlists a reluctant Nick to help save her.

Review: Syfy has been making some bold moves in recent years with some genre-bending shows designed to pull you in. Earlier this year we had Blood Drive, which was a homage to the Grindhouse movies of the 70’s. But now we have ‘Happy!’, which is Gritty, Gnarly and totally bonkers.

Based on the comic book from the legendary Grant Morrison. ‘Happy!’ focuses on disgraced cop turned hitman Nick Sax, who after a bad hit, which resulted in him having a heart attack awakes on a gurney to find himself seeing an incredibly perky Blue horse called Happy.

Happy who is the imaginary friend of a young girl, who has been kidnapped by some sort of twisted guy in a Santa suit, is trying to enlist Nick to help him find the girl. But Nick has other problems. For one his last hit saw him see off the four sons of an incredibly powerful crime boss. People are hunting Nick because one of the four sons supposedly whispered a code work in his ear.

As first episodes go. Saint Nick is merely the set up for what looks like it could be an incredibly fun and trippy 7 episodes. Christopher Meloni is perfect casting as the cynical anti-hero that is Nick Sax. While Patton Oswalt provides the perfect counterpoint to the dark and sinister hitman with his incredibly perky vocal performance as the voice of Happy.

Overall. This was an enjoyable first episode with a lot of twisted imagery and some really funny moments. Kudos must also go to the various song choices and music score that provides some fun to the proceedings. Happy! is what I can only describe as a great Christmas present from Syfy and the production team behind it. It would not surprise me if we see a fair bit of merchandise in the shops soon. The blue horse is fantastic fun and the CGI animation in the show is really impressive.