Here comes the fun!

October 6, 2017 5:20 AM

Trailer for Happy! A tv series based on the graphic novel by Grant Morrison and Darick Robertson, produced, written and directed by Brian 'Crank' Taylor (SLYT, NSFW)
posted by fearfulsymmetry (16 comments total)

I liked Happy well enough, but it's odd that of all the Morrison things to adapt the one that gets through feels most like the work of his lesser protege Mark Millar.
posted by Artw at 5:50 AM on October 6, 2017 [6 favorites]

"Happy!" does seem more like Millar than Morrison, and I suspect that may be WHY we're getting this adaptation.
posted by Ipsifendus at 6:23 AM on October 6, 2017 [2 favorites]

It felt more like a Garth Ennis pastiche. It's fine, I guess, but a pretty nothing project for Morrison.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 6:27 AM on October 6, 2017

To be fair, if you faithfully adapted something more Morrison-y, you'd wind up with something like the more obscure sort of Christoper Nolan movie, which is not what every studio wants to be doing.
posted by 4th number at 6:27 AM on October 6, 2017 [3 favorites]

Agreeing with Ipsifendus.
posted by doctornemo at 6:28 AM on October 6, 2017

Even while I was reading it, and even though it was pretty extreme, I thought 'yeah, Grant... this is your/film tv bid' And fair enough (but oh boy would I love an Invisibles/The Filth/Seaguy/Nameless adaptation... Go on Hollywood, I dare you. I double dare you!)

Unlike Millar of course where everything seems to be a tv/movie bid... and lo, the Millarverse is born.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 7:00 AM on October 6, 2017 [1 favorite]

I see they're cribbing from William Gaddis:

"'Merry Christmas,' the man threatened."
posted by chavenet at 7:07 AM on October 6, 2017 [3 favorites]

So, they basically took Christopher Meloni's two most famous roles (bad ass detective in "SVU" and delusional crackpot talking to stuff other people can't in "Wet Hot American Summer") and smushed them together.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 7:29 AM on October 6, 2017 [2 favorites]

I'm in favor of seeing Grant Morrison's work get adapted to film or television, but I'm also a realist. You can narrow down the list of viable possibilities by first tossing overboard anything he's written that implicitly relies on decades of DC Comics continuity. Then, you have to eliminate everything that's just too weird, graphically violent, and/or goofy, so goodbye to "The Filth" and "Flex Mentallo" and "We3" and "Seaguy" and "Nameless".

As near as I can tell, that leaves two possibilities. "The Invisibles", which would could work as a 5 - 6 season TV series, but has the problem that the first season would be completely different in tone and scope from all the others.

And then, the one I want them to do: "Klaus". Hollywood LOVES Christmas movies, so it ought to be an easy sell. And the only really Grant-Morrisony element to the story is having "Santa's elves" turn out to be identical to Terrence McKenna's machine elves. Give me a big-budget adaptation of the first mini-series as a film, and then annual TV adaptations of the follow-up one-shots.
posted by Ipsifendus at 8:03 AM on October 6, 2017

There's been a WE3 script kicking around Hollywood for ages... a couple of years ago James Gunn said he really wanted to direct it. Perhaps he can trade in some of his GotG kudos now?
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 8:55 AM on October 6, 2017 [3 favorites]

Patton Oswalt as Happy makes me want to hear him say "I'm inside you!" the same way one of his comedy specials showed him wanting to say 'You're inside me!" to all the kids wearing Remi at Halloween.
posted by Nanukthedog at 11:00 AM on October 6, 2017

they basically took Christopher Meloni's two most famous roles (bad ass detective in "SVU" and delusional crackpot talking to stuff other people can't in "Wet Hot American Summer") and smushed them together.

Aw, he'll always be Keller to me, the big lug.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 11:06 AM on October 6, 2017 [1 favorite]

My Grant Morrison dream adaptation is WE3 via Pixar. It's got all of the things Pixar loves: talking animals, robots, and the ability to reduce the audience to a wailing, blubbering mess.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 12:56 PM on October 6, 2017

So...basically the only reason we're even talking about this is because it's by Morrison? Because honestly, that looked like "My Mother the Car Plus Swears" level of bad.

But hey, it's not superheroes, so people like it, I guess.
posted by happyroach at 2:45 PM on October 6, 2017

"The Invisibles", which would could work as a 5 - 6 season TV series

/Sigh at Utopia* cancellation.

* not actually The Invisibles but closer than, say, The Matrix.
posted by Artw at 6:38 PM on October 6, 2017 [1 favorite]

So...basically the only reason we're even talking about this is because it's by Morrison? Because honestly, that looked like "My Mother the Car Plus Swears" level of bad.

The original comic was deeply mediocre, predictable edgelord bullcrap. Grant Morrison has done some truly incredible work, but Happy! reads like he slapped a Mark Millar/Frank Miller miscarriage onto the page and his only change was to remove most of the prostitutes they put in.

There are a lot of comics out there that are worthy of adaptation (including ones written by Morrison). I cannot for the life of me figure out why Syfy picked this one. Leaning into that teenage-boy-with-a-violence-boner demographic, I guess?
posted by Anonymous at 1:16 AM on October 7, 2017