‘ Happyish’ is OK- ish, could have been great
Tragedy and comedy are duking it out in Showtime’s new sitcom, “Happyish,” and tragedy is getting in most of the licks.
The series, created by Shalom Auslander and premiering Sunday, April 26, takes middleaged crisis to a very, very dark place. The performances are good, the writing is often brainy, sharp and even funny, but there is a surfeit of “ish” and not enough “happy” to keep viewers coming back week after week, if they haven’t decided to just end it all after the first episode.
The too- cleverly- named Thom Payne ( Steve Coogan) is celebrating his 44th birthday with his wife, Lee ( a wonderful Kathryn Hahn), and their friends Bella and Barry ( Molly Price and Andre Royo) and their respective young sons. There’s a whole post-“Big Chill” vibe to the scene as the
conversation hovers over middle age, mortality, who’s getting their vagina tightened, and making sure they hide the joint before the kids see Mom and Dad toking up.
Thom is in the ad game, but his company is now being run by a pair of nonsense- babbling Swedes named Gottfrid and Gustaf ( Nils Lawton and Tobias Segal). Gottfrid struts around in front of his staff blathering about energizing and modernizing the company, while Gustaf whispers in his ear. It’s all very Penn and Teller, without the magic, and gets tiresome after a while.
Thom’s older colleague Jonathan ( Bradley Whitford) is an alcoholic who is all about toadying up to his younger bosses. He wears skinny jeans and apes whatever BS the Swedes are spouting.
“Marketer, rebrand thyself,” he advises Thom. Later on, he will observe that “corporate America is a German porno.”
The more Thom sees and hears, the more depressed and angry he becomes. He makes some attempt to look younger and hipper, but he can’t contain his raging cynicism about what’s happening at the office.
“F— ‘ Mad Men,’ ” he says in voice- over narrative. “My name is Thomas Payne and I work for Satan. We kiss the pimpled asses of arrogant, know- nothing teenagers.”
As Thom’s mood at work darkens, he inevitably brings his troubles home with him at the end of the day. Hearing their young son Julius ( Sawyer Shipman) cry in the night, Lee gets out of bed and pads toward her son’s room.
“He’s a fearful child,” Thom observes.
“No,” Lee answers. “You’re fearful. He’s 6.”
Thinking he needs to get a new job, he meets with his headhunter, Dani ( Ellen Barkin), who offers little hope. His real problem, she says, is that he has a very low “joy ceiling.”
“That’s why Jesus wept,” she says. “Low joy ceiling.”
The premiere episode is titled “Starring Samuel Beckett, Albert Camus and Alois Alzheimer.” The second episode is titled “Starring Marc Chagall, Abuela and Adolf Hitler.” This isn’t entirely insufferable cleverness: Those names do find their way into the dialogue, which only goes to show that this is a far cry from the kind of dumb and dumbest writing you may be used to in shows like “Mike and Molly” and “Two Broke Girls.”
In its way, “Happyish” is ambitious to the point of being courageous, but also maybe foolhardy. There are absolutely hilarious moments in the three episodes made available to critics, including Thom interacting with the Keebler Elves and the Geico Gecko. The Swedes decide that cartoon elves don’t really fit Keebler’s insistence on how real its ingredients are. How about casting little people as the elves and getting Rob Reiner, who directed the great mockumentary “This Is Spinal Tap,” to direct the commercial? The result is hilarious.
And that’s not the only funny segment of the show. The challenge for viewers, though, is that “Happyish” never seems to take a breath. It’s intense from start to finish. Every line is freighted with cleverness, and many with highfalutin intellectual content and references. If Thom isn’t cavorting with cartoon advertising icons, Lee is having “conversations” with her overbearing mother, who assumes the form of a huge box from Amazon that’s arrived for Julius.
Whatever credible dimension the characters have is rooted in the performances. Hahn is brilliant; Coogan is almost Beckettian in his personification of bleakness. Jonathan is one of the more credible characters in the show because Whitford underplays him. Barkin, of course, is sharp- tongued, brittle, sexy and appropriately over the top.
It has to be noted that the show was originally created as a vehicle for Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Yes, it would have been interesting to see what Hoffman would have done with the role, but there’s little point in speculating beyond that. Coogan is fine. He is appealing and funny. Auslander’s writing is both what elevates the show and holds it back. Watching it, you’ll laugh a lot, but you’ll also find yourself wanting to say, “Lighten up, dude.”
“Happyish” is “OKish,” just but misses its shot at being great without an “ish.”
The created series,by Shalom Auslander and premiering Sunday, takes middle- aged crisis to a very, very dark place.