‘Happyish’
C+
“Happyish” was going to be the first TV show to star Philip Seymour Hoffman. His sudden and unexpected death, however, meant recasting Steve Coogan in the role. Coogan is a fine actor, but not even he can save this unpleasant, half-clever sitcom.
Coogan plays Thom Payne, a 44-year-old advertising executive struggling with being happy in a world obsessed with youth and social media.
He also shares a name with a popular political writer during the American Revolution, Thomas Paine, who wrote a book called “Common Sense.” This Paine is supposed to be one of the few people in “Happyish” with common sense. Get it?
Heavy-handed yet unexplained references like that are the least of the show’s worries. Talented actors such as Kathryn Hahn and Bradley Whitford are reduced to delivering vulgar remarks and long monologues. Some land, like Whitford’s monologues about the advertising agency and contemporary international issues, but others exist only to show the characters’ lack of filter.
Hahn does well with what she has, though. Coogan also makes good use of his character’s one-liners and seems game for whatever ridiculous situations the writers will throw him into.
It’s just that with Hoffman in the role it would have been so much more. In one scene, Payne’s son asks him if he will die. Payne pauses before delivering some sweet dialogue, and Coogan plays the moment well.
But Hoffman, who had a unique gift for expressing both painful and sublime sadness, would have played this moment so much better. It wouldn’t have just been a father answering a son’s question, but a man taking stock of his whole life so far and contemplating his future.
The character also has some big speeches that don’t land as well with Coogan. He perfectly delivers a hilarious rant about a bodybuilder, but he cannot sell his big speech telling off his new bosses. It’s supposed to be a big moment for the character and the show, but Coogan cannot deliver it as anything but yet another rant.
The show’s view of our social media obsessed, youth-crazed world also doesn’t go far enough. One character gets mad when a young person doesn’t know who Radar is — he’s from “M*A*S*H” — but the writers could easily have had her be the target of an old man’s anger if she didn’t know who Ricky Ricardo was — the male lead from “I Love Lucy.” A young extra’s monologue about reading a Steve Jobs biography in different formats is more specific and successful.
“Happyish” could have been a great critique of our world. Instead, it provides a place for talented actors to do their best with lukewarm material. There’s still time for it to improve, but that’s about as likely as Payne finding any sense of personal or professional satisfaction.
