Summary
Happy Face feels too made-for-TV in Episodes 1 and 2, losing the core of the true story in tropey serial killer drama.
Happy Face is a true story, more or less, but you get the sense in its two-part premiere that it’d rather not be. Paramount+’s eight-part series gets off to a ropey start in Episodes 1 and 2, “The Confession” and “Killing Shame”, trying to balance a valuably sympathetic story about victims of trauma with a more procedural TV thriller in which Dennis Quaid (as seen in Midway; On a Wing and a Prayer; Blue Miracle) chews all the scenery and asks for seconds.
The two halves don’t quite gel, though I’m open to the possibility that they might down the line. Based loosely on the true story of Melissa Moore, who’s a producer on this show, the core narrative about Melissa grappling with her serial killer father’s crimes and the potential ramifications of going public with her identity feels fresh. But there’s a generic quality to the titular killer, as well as to subplots – including an evolving one about Melissa’s teen daughter tripping and falling into the crosshairs of her true-crime-obsessed classmates – that feel tacked on to pad out the runtime and add some made-for-TV gloss.
This Melissa works as a makeup artist on a fictional Dr. Phil-style true-crime talk show, having kept her identity as the daughter of the Happy Face Killer a secret from everyone except her mother and husband. But pretty soon in Episode 1, her father, Keith Jesperson, calls the show to reveal that there was a ninth victim on top of the eight he was already incarcerated for, and he’ll only reveal details about the mysterious “Jane Doe” to Melissa. It’s a clear way to worm his way back into Melissa’s life, but it might also be true, so it has to be investigated.
To this end Melissa teams up with her producer Ivy to chase down the scant clues her father reveals about his previously-unknown victim, which quickly lead to Texas and to a Black man named Elijah (Damon Gupton) who is still on Death Row – and about to be executed very soon – after being wrongfully convicted of the crime. Even within this premiere, the case begins to take on a national scale, with Melissa finally deciding to “out” herself to drum up more publicity and potentially save an innocent man’s life, introducing even more pernicious problems into her home life and career.
Annaleigh Ashford in Happy Face | Image via Paramount+
Happy Face feels pulled between all these storylines in Episodes 1 and 2. It frequently indulges in flashbacks to reveal more of Melissa’s backstory and highlight how she suffered for her father’s crimes even from afar, but they also, at least in my interpretation, suggest she perhaps knew more about them than she’s letting on. It also spares time for Melissa’s teen daughter Hazel to not just learn the truth about her grandpa but make a series of increasingly bad decisions relating to him, including falling in with a group of classmates who clearly don’t have her best interests at heart, visiting a local true crime museum that has some of grandpa’s demented prison artworks on display, and getting caught stealing bikini wax (that last one’s a little weird.)
Then there are the more direct scenes between Melissa and Keith, who is played in arch caricature by Dennis Quaid. The script – and the flashbacks – sometimes feel like they’re trying to imply that Keith was once a devoted family man who somehow fell into psychopathy by mistake, but there’s no indication of that in the performance. Keith visibly delights in tormenting and manipulating everyone and even has a coterie of devoted fellow inmates who hang on his every word and can’t wait for him to re-enter the public eye when his story breaks the news (again). He also claims to have many more victims than even this new ninth, but that’s left unexamined for now.
It just doesn’t feel especially earnest, like the true story has been lost in the weeds of efforts to dramatize what was in and of itself interesting and valuable without any embellishment. Don’t let me put you off – it might all come together well. But early signs aren’t great, especially with six more episodes to go and the field being predictably packed (Happy Face debuts a mere day after Good American Family, Hulu’s dramatization of the Natalia Grace case.)
