The development of the gripping TV series, "Happy Face", providing a stark exploration into the life of Melissa Moore (Annaleigh Ashford), author, podcaster, and daughter of the notorious 'Happy Face Killer', Keith Jesperson (Dennis Quaid), stemming from the vision of showrunner Jennifer Cacicio and executive producers Robert and Michelle King required a careful balance of hindsight into Melissa's traumatic past and immediate conflicts.
Known for their mastery in modern procedural dramas, the Kings and Cacicio craft multiple episodes on a single case. Uniquely, "Happy Face" lacks the customary fluid, lively tone of a Kings show and leans more to the drama side despite its thematic interactions with serial murder. The portrayal of Melissa's ongoing struggle to confront her past is diluted with additional subplots, creating varying degrees of effectiveness in externalizing her dysfunction.
The beginning of the series reveals Melissa's struggle for normalcy, with a stable family life in Seattle. However, the proximity of her imprisoned father reopens old wounds, when he intervenes in her life through her work at a daytime talk show. His confession of a past crime causes upheavals in Melissa's life, reigniting her unresolved guilt.
The quest to exonerate the wrongfully accused man provides "Happy Face" a concrete storyline, while Melissa grapples with her complex emotions regarding her father's crimes, her sense of guilt and victimhood, and her underlying love for her father. Whilst Melissa's predicament resonates with terrifying realism, the revived cold case, a creative license of the show, often leads to discrepancies between the need for a captivating story and the true crime narrative.
"Happy Face" provides a critical perspective on true crime while balancing emotional tales of victims and the enduring impact on their lives. Despite its compelling narrative, the show struggles to maintain a unified tone, blurring Melissa's messy relationship with her father with the procedural quest to absolve Elijah. Furthermore, the inclusion of additional subplots featuring the struggles of her husband and daughter fail to transcend their secondary importance to the central conflict between Melissa and Keith. Despite its gripping storyline, "Happy Face" struggles to conflate form and function.
The first two episodes of "Happy Face" are now available on Paramount+ with new episodes released weekly on Thursdays.
