Law & Order: SVU alum Christopher Meloni is swapping his old partner in for Patton Oswalt in Happy!. Premiering tonight on Syfy, the TV series (based on the graphic novel by Grant Morrison and Darick Robertson) finds disgruntled cop turned hit man Nick Sax (Meloni), shot while out on a job. The near-death experience – or perhaps his overindulgence in drugs and alcohol – causes him to see Happy (voiced by Oswalt), a disgustingly cheerful, blue-winged horse. It turns out he's the imaginary friend of Hailey, a young girl who has kidnapped by the deranged Very Bad Santa. Only Happy can lead Nick to her whereabouts -- that is, if he can get his act together, overcome his addictions and avoid the goons hot on his trail.

RELATED: Happy!: Meloni, Oswalt Wreak Havoc in First Full Trailer

Ahead of the series' premiere, showrunner Patrick Macmanus spoke to CBR about Happy!’s crazy concept, anti-hero Nick Sax, whether Happy truly exists and pushing the boundaries of adult content on basic cable.

CBR: It’s really difficult to nail down Happy!’s premise in one cohesive tagline and do it justice. Was that something that excited you, that it’s not so easily defined?

Patrick Macmanus: The short answer is, “Yes.” I’ve told the story about how I was sent the script: I had an hour to read it and decide whether I wanted to be a part of it. The next day, I had to fly out to Los Angeles. My very first impression of the script was, it was the stupidest thing I had ever read. My wife, who was asking whether I was going to go out and interview for it, I told her, “It’s really well written. It’s very fun. It’s gritty, dark and sardonic. There’s a satiric nature to it.” She was like, “Well, what’s wrong with it? That sounds amazing.” I said, “There’s this animated blue unicorn that flies around.” But that was the part that made me fly out to Los Angeles! It was such an extraordinarily well-written show, and then it had this element and I had to see it for myself. I had to know where it was going to go. That is the entire reason I wanted to do this.

I don’t live in New York or Los Angeles. I live in Washington, D.C., so every time I go to take a job I have to leave my family. I promised my wife that I would never do anything that was derivative ever again, and this is the furthest thing from derivative you can possibly imagine. Even between episodes one and two, the show evolves even between those two. Then, as the series takes off in hour three, the season takes a much more dramatic, much more character-driven turn in it. It is one of these shows that straddles every single genre across the spectrum. None of it should work, and, yet, for reasons that elude me, and continue to elude me as I watch more and more cuts of the finale, it all ends up working.

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The TV series is based on a comic by Grant Morrison and Darick Robertson. How challenging was it to flesh out that universe into an eight-episode season?

This is not me blowing smoke, but it really wasn’t that difficult. We used the graphic novel as the spine of the season -- there are plenty of touchstones that are easily going to be recognizable for fans of the graphic novel -- we took some of those touchstones and twisted them and put our spin on them. I think fans of the graphic novel are going to notice them, and I hope, are going to say, “That was an interesting take on turning it a little bit.” But, because we had such a clear line of sight for the first season – Those who read the graphic novel will know it begins with the kidnapping of Hailey, and ends with the rescue of Hailey.

christopher meloni in happy

Then, in between, what we are trying to do is take this classic buddy/cop tale and put our twist on it, which is the most optimistic creature ever invented versus the most cynical, gritty, fucked-up man ever invented, and watch them become a little more like each other as they journey to find Hailey. That gives you a lot to work with. And when you add in the mix an extraordinarily talented group of experienced TV writers, and give them that much material and enough rope to hang themselves with, they will come up with one hell of a season. That is what we’ve done.

Tell us more about Nick Sax and the kind of man he is. What should viewers know?

Nick Sax is a good cop turned bad cop, turned hit man for the mob. The more complicated nature to Nick is the world around him is what grew him into the cynical person we first meet. He is an experienced cop, who has seen a lot of bad things in his time. He’s an experienced cop who did a lot of bad things. Whether you question whether he should or shouldn’t have done those things, it’s up to the viewers to decide, because we do delve into that a little bit in the season. In my perspective, at his very core, he is actually a good man. It takes his introduction to Happy to find that good man once again. Uultimately, he goes on this insane, improbable journey, and the only reason he would do that is if he had a core of good inside of him.

A near-death experience causes Nick to see this My Little Pony reject, Happy. In your mind, does Happy represent a second chance for redemption? Is he Nick’s subconscious? Or has Nick just gone nuts?

I don’t think Happy represents his subconscious. I know that. I do believe he is the vehicle where Nick is going to find redemption.

In terms of how he sees Happy, that’s one of those rules we had to invent in the writers’ room, at least, from our perspective and not the graphic novel perspective. The way that we explained it to ourselves is that there are certain people who are more open to the unexplainable in the world. Because of Sax’s alcohol and drug abuse and violent past, that opens his mind to a place that most humans wouldn’t be able to. That, and obviously there’s some sort of supernatural connection to the daughter he never knew existed. There are very few people in our world who can actually see the other side. I won’t go into the other one because it’s a spoiler. But, for Sax, I don’t think it’s his subconscious. It’s an actual being that exists in our world, that he can happen to see.

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Who are some of the shady characters gunning for Nick?

There is Blue Scaramucci, played by Ritchie Coster, who is an amazing actor. He brings this character to life in such a phenomenal way. You can’t hate him. He does these terrible things, but you just fall in love with Ritchie’s take on Blue.

You obviously have Very Bad Santa, who has kidnapped Hailey and a bunch of other kids. He is the main foil for Sax over the course of the first season. We have Smoothie, who is our torturer. He is played by Patrick Fischler and is on an improbably journey. When audiences first meet Smoothie, they are going to think one thing and then when they see what he gets stuck with, which is coming up in Episode 4, it’s a riot watching Smoothie deal with what he has to deal with. I will just leave it at that.

We also have a whole plethora of other bad guys, street gangs in New York, that are after this password that Sax may, or may not have. We have a gang out of China Town that are dressed like Rockabillies. We’ve got an axe-wielding gang coming after Sax. We do a tip of the hat to the classic poker scene from the graphic novel, where we meet Le Dic and his minions. Le Dic is a recurring character this season.

The Syfy Channel isn’t HBO or Netflix, but Happy! features plenty of violence, blood and language. How surprised are you with what you’ve gotten away with?

I’m completely surprised, is the short answer. However, if I am being fair to Syfy, they said from the very beginning they wanted us to push the boundaries not just on what people just expect to be on the Syfy Channel, but what people expect to be on TV in general. That would include HBO and Netflix. Every step of the way, they’ve held true to that act. While their notes may sometimes ask us why we are doing what we are doing, they’ve never in any shape or form tried to round out the edges of what we did in the writers’ room. They gave us every inch of rope to hang ourselves with, and we are going to see what audiences at home and around the world think.


Happy! premieres Dec. 6 at 10/9c on Syfy. The series stars Christopher Meloni as Sax and Patton Oswalt as Happy. Meloni and Oswalt are joined by Patrick Fischler as Smoothie, Ritchie Coster as Mr. Blue (aka Leonardo Scaramucci) and Medina Senghore as Amanda Hansen.