Happy Face review – Dennis Quaid is a grinning caricature in this shoddy, half-baked crime drama
This (sort of) true-crime series about a real-life serial killer’s daughter is deeply disappointing TV – even before you factor in the terrible script and flat acting
Perhaps, like politicians’ careers, all intellectual property must eventually end in failure. You begin in one medium – a viral video on social media, perhaps, which brings your story to the attention of the masses and the makers of a podcast; then on to a streamed drama or documentary, maybe knocking out a book on the subject as you go. But eventually it hits a wall. The new translation doesn’t work, it’s running on empty, it doesn’t capture interest, the moment has passed. People get bored, they move on, and that’s the end of your IP’s journey.
The new true-crime drama Happy Face, created by Jennifer Cacicio and executive-produced by the mighty Robert and Michelle King (The Good Wife, The Good Fight, Evil, Elsbeth), began life as a book – Shattered Silence, the 2009 autobiography of Melissa Moore, in which she recounted her experience as the daughter of the serial murderer Keith Hunter Jesperson. He was known as the Happy Face Killer, because of the smiley doodles he drew on numerous attention-seeking letters to the media and authorities during his years of murdering at least eight women. He is serving a life sentence in Oregon state penitentiary.
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