Is Happyish not as smart as it thinks, or rather not as enlightening as it wants? Probably the latter.
Shalom Auslander’s Showtime series isn’t by any stretch of the imagination a dumb show. It proves its intellectual superiority to the point of exasperation (and aggravation), but it never tells anyone anything — especially us cynics — they haven't heard or been reminded about a million times before. The show also comes across as too desperate to earn attention and mean-spirited laughs by making cheap gags at relatable market figures and low-hanging fruit targets. It’s not funny enough to be as sour as it is, and it’s definitely not as interesting enough to keep prattling the same anti-society mumbo-jumbo as it does at every given moment.
So while things wrap up perhaps as nice as anyone could expect them to with Sunday night’s season one finale, “Starring Christopher Hitchens, Phillip Larkin and Josef Stalin,” it doesn’t make up for the lack of charm and sophistication it needed to resonate. Following Thom’s (Steve Coogan) thought process as we learn what finally broke the straw on his camel’s back to finally say enough to his plush and constantly frustrating position at MGT, we’re given what’s likely our most cohesive story to date — with the only surreal moments or mental cutaways coming from Thom’s newly begun story “Skidmark Jesus,” which he started writing following his work mentor/friend Larry’s (Zak Orth) suicide last week — and this helps keep everything in check narratively. Though returning director Ken Kwapis is typically the biggest offender of making uneven episodes, the story this week is so straightforward, he’s even able to make it all feel natural and in control.
Although — also for once — the most interesting aspects of this finale are the sequences centered on Thom’s writing. A story with a title more literal than metaphorical, “Skidmark Jesus” is, naturally, about a man who has seen the truth but can’t figure out how to tell the people about it after seeing the face of Jesus in his underpants. It’s an obvious metaphor, but it kinda works. Either shot in black-and-white or transitioned to look as such in post, there’s something genuinely artistic and visually engaging about this story, with Kwapis having fun with the various odd camera angles and letting himself play in a more fulfilling manner behind-the-camera than he ever did before on Happyish.
It, unfortunately, gets a little too bombastic towards the end — even for Thom — but it’s one of the on-the-nose metaphors in Happyish which not only makes sense here but does help give a visually entertaining look into Thom’s mental process. While many most likely wanted to have “Starring Christopher Hitchens, Phillip Larkin and Josef Stalin,” center at least somewhat on Thom finally getting his comeuppance on “The Sweds,” Gottfrid (Nils Lawson) and Gustaf (Tobias Segal), that’s not what we get, nor do we need. But we do get a ferocious one-on-one conversation between Thom and Jonathan Cooke (Bradley Whitford), with Jonathan continuing to prove he would have been the much more worthwhile character to follow in this series.
Whether it’s telling his co-worker friend the hard truths of submitting fiction in The New Yorker — with 36,000 submissions a year and typically one-or-two published per year, one being “some pretentious Steve Martin s**t” or the other “some piece of crap that Woody Allen found at the bottom of his desk drawer” — or ruthlessly stealing Thom’s revelation pitch to save their company, he’s the smart, fierce character Happyish so desperately wanted, and kinda needed. Thom, beyond being a family man and adoring father, isn’t really much of an everyman like Auslander thinks. Having a figure not typically seen than a mid-level attempt to create something both typical and atypical would have been much more fulfilling, and Whitford has proven himself capable of this here and beyond, particularly in Transparent.
The biggest irony, and tragedy, of Happyish is that, for all the time it spent criticizing others, it never really took the time to elevate itself. Moving at full throttle, pushing as many buttons as it could and trying fighting the common thought as much as it can, it wasn’t the existential conversations or the hyper-surreal moments that stood out, but rather the simpler and smaller character moments. The conversations Thom had with Lee (Kathryn Hahn), Jonathan or Dani (Ellen Barkin) were the ones most compelling, and this stripped-back mentality is what made last week’s episode so refreshing. This is also why Thom and Jonathan’s interaction sizzles, while a bloated presentation by the Sweds with over-the-top reactions fails. It shouldn’t be about making a shocking presentation, it should be about being human in a time of dour conformity and lack of individualism.
This is, at least, what I thought Happyish would, and should, be. It’s not my show of course, but this is the direction which would've made the most sense. For what it is, Auslander stuck to his own spirit and guns and made the series he wanted to make: one about characters uncomfortably conforming to jobs or activities they hate. And with Lee’s announced pregnancy, we do finally get to see Thom acting like a mature, reasonable and loving adult, but it’s much too late. To its credit, however, it’s given the most fitting ending it could get at the end of this episode, and not just as a season goodbye but a series’ wrap-up too. That’s probably for the best, because it’s hard to believe this will continue past this point.
It was a noble effort, filled with lofty goals and stern ambition. But much like Thom, Happyish had to conform, and also confront its misguided ideals head-on. We can all dream big ideas, but only a few really succeed. Auslander is an exceptionally talented writer, but maybe TV isn't where his pen is needed. In talked about their messed-up life plans, the up-and-down roller-coaster of life is indirectly described by Lee as “yay f**k, yay f**k. This trajectory also describes the up-and-downhill battle this show conformed itself too in its non-conformity.
For all the yay moments, there were many f**k ones too. Too many f**ks, in fact, and while its last scene is a yay, it doesn’t make up for the f**ks. Because when you don’t give a f**k, it’s hard to earn a yay, and this is something Thom and Happyish never really bothered to give a f**k about. See, I too can throw the f-word around quite liberally. It’s a shame, but maybe in learning to figure out life Auslander's show should have also tried to find out some stuff out about itself.
That’s for reading everyone. To check out more of my TV reviews, continue to check back here on Sundays to read my weekly coverage of The Brink.
Image courtesy of ACE/INFphoto.com