Happy Face Review: Paramount+'s Sluggish True Crime Drama Never Goes for the Kill

Long-distance truck driver Keith Jesperson killed eight women in the 1990s. To make sure he got credit for his deeds after a fabricated story led to the arrest and conviction of others, Jesperson took a cue from the marketing world and created a brand, signing letters to the media with a smiley face. This, in turn, led him to be dubbed the "Happy Face Killer," a label that proved convenient in true crime circles, where names like "The Golden State Killer," "The Night Stalker," and "B.T.K." often have more currency than serial killers' real names. Yet while Jesperson and others might crave that sort of infamy, that doesn't extend to others in their lives. 

Since publishing Shattered Silence: The Untold Story of a Serial Killer's Daughter in 2009, Melissa Moore, Jesperson's daughter, has written and spoken extensively about her past, a story she turned into the 2018 podcast Happy Face. Moore's book and podcast serve as the basis of this new series, which both dramatizes Moore's experiences as a woman attempting to understand and live with her father's crimes and recasts her as an amateur sleuth whose past informs her investigations, sometimes with the accidental assistance of her prison-bound father. Part procedural, part family story, it's a hybrid that never quite works, despite strong performances and powerful moments.

Most of those powerful moments arrive early. Continuing a winning streak after her excellent work in Welcome to Chippendales, Annaleigh Ashford plays Melissa, who, as the show opens, enjoys an anonymous existence as a makeup artist on The Dr. Greg Show, a daytime show hosted by the Dr. Phil-like Dr. Greg (David Harewood). No one knows about her past, but that begins to change after Keith (Dennis Quaid) attempts to contact Melissa's teenage daughter, Hazel (Khiyla Aynne), on her 15th birthday, sending her a card accompanied by a bizarre drawing that Melissa attempts to consign to a lockbox filled with similar such attempts. But when Melissa reaches out to warn her father to leave her family alone, she accidentally escalates the situation. 

6.1

Happy Face

at Paramount+

Like

• The intriguing setup and the performances

Dislike

• The sluggish pace and too-familiar mystery

Attempting to regain leverage in their relationship, Keith places a call to Melissa's bosses at The Dr. Greg Show, saying he'll reveal details of another murder, a ninth victim that nobody knows about, but only if Melissa visits him. This is not something Melissa wants to do, but with the coaxing of Ivy (Tamera Tomakili, also quite good), a show producer genuinely interested in getting at the truth of the unsolved mysteries covered on the show, she agrees. And, later, she agrees to tell her story on The Dr. Greg Show. 

Both choices have unintended consequences, both for Melissa and her family. On the professional front, Melissa finds herself investigating a death in Texas for which Keith claims responsibility, one for which a possibly innocent man is serving time on death row. At home, the revelations about her family both make Hazel curious about talking to her grandfather and something of an outcast at school — until some classmates purporting to be interested in true crime draw her into their circle.

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Showrun by Jennifer Cacicio and executive produced by Robert and Michelle King, Happy Face's mix of mystery and domestic drama works best in the show's early episodes. Melissa's appearance on The Dr. Greg Show, for instance, finds the host probing his employee with questions that sound therapeutic but are also engineered to maximize her story's salaciousness and appeal to the lurid interests of his audience. It's a smart examination of the true crime world that plays to Ashford's strengths, allowing her to convey vulnerability and steely resolve in equal measure. Quaid's quite good, too, playing Keith as a kind of Hannibal Lecter in the guise of a seemingly caring dad who just wants to reunite with his family.

But Happy Face never finds a story compelling enough to justify its running time. Hazel's storyline plays like a standard teen drama with some bizarre elements thrown in, James Wolk is largely wasted as Melissa's husband, and the Texas investigation stretches out what might work as an hour of television across several episodes via a series of implausible plot turns. Happy Face's first season is involving enough to make it worth seeing through to the end, but the novel setup starts to feel a bit gimmicky as Keith's role in the mystery becomes clearer. Though the season ends with the door open for future installments, the possibilities seem largely exhausted as this one draws to a close.

Premieres: Two episodes premiere Thursday, March 20 on Paramount+, with subsequent episodes releasing weekly
Who's in it: Dennis Quaid, Annaleigh Ashford, Tamera Tomakili
Who's behind it: Jennifer Cacicio (showrunner), Robert and Michelle King (executive producers)
For fans of: Mystery series with unusual twists
How many episodes we watched: 8 of 8