Happy Face Season 1 Episode 3 Tackles So Much, It’s Hard to Keep Up

Join us in our review of Happy Face Season 1 Episode 3, where we discuss how putting too much on the table can ruin our appetite.

The post Happy Face Season 1 Episode 3 Tackles So Much, It’s Hard to Keep Up appeared first on TV Fanatic.

If Melissa might have wanted some time to soak in what was happening to her, she definitely didn’t get it on Happy Face Season 1 Episode 3.

She went from hiding her past to the entire world  — her kids included — being in on her dirty little secret.

Melissa is being swept away in the momentum, and Ben is left holding the family together.

Melissa has lived with this story for almost her whole life, but she never viewed her background as normal, or else she wouldn’t have gone to such lengths to hide it.

I wonder if maybe the real Melissa pretended our fascination with true crime didn’t exist. I know Happy Face isn’t a true telling of her experience, but I had to wonder if she might have called out the fact that it was pretty hard to imagine she didn’t expect the whirlwind if the story did surface.

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She seems to think she can pop her head out and go back to her life as a makeup artist, but Dr. Greg sees a world where she’s a media superstar, shuffling agents and book deals. He not only wants her on the job full time, but he wants her to be as excited about his suggested next steps as he is.

Her entry to the dinner party was almost comical but somewhat tragic, too.

Melissa and Greg showed up well-dressed and feeling awkward by the invitation, but what awaited them inside was even worse. It was an ambush by well-meaning sorts brought into the conversation by Dr. Greg — without asking her.

That’s probably my biggest sticking point with this story. Dr. Greg likes to think he knows what’s best for everyone, but he doesn’t have enough background to insert himself.

Sure, it’s great TV, but this is Melissa’s life. Doesn’t he see the difference? And if he doesn’t, is he really that good of a psychologist (or whatever he’s supposed to be)?

The story she tells at the dinner about her kittens is one of the real-life events from Melissa Moore’s childhood, and it’s heartbreaking. 

Not only is the tale ghastly in and of itself, but when you think about how badly Melissa wanted love as a child, accepting chachkies and whatnot from her dad after long trips, that he treated her so badly just hurts.

But this is fiction, and in this world, things are happening so fast that Melissa doesn’t have a lot of time to consider what it really means and she has next to no time to discuss it with her family.

The walls start closing in on Melissa pretty quickly. Keith is suddenly everywhere. If she did a great job of hiding her connection with him in the past, crawling out from under the rock has made Melissa somewhat of a target.

And if Keith was excited to pull her into his limelight, he’s not nearly as excited to see her hogging the spotlight for herself. 

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That’s how he views Melissa stepping up to his challenge. He outed her, he’s claimed another victim, and he’s angry that she’s basking in it as the star she always wanted to be.

That was another point that stuck with me. In the Happy Face series premiere episodes, Keith recalled with an almost fatherlike touch how she wanted to be a star and how he had wanted it for her. But here, he tosses that shared memory back in her face. 

That’s what sociopaths do, though. They lure you in and spit you back out over and over again. It’s a kind of grooming that a child can’t sort through on their own.

That’s why it’s so concerning that Hazel is in Keith’s grasp. While Melissa is being swept away in a big story of Keith’s making, her daughter, really, both of his children, are within Keith’s reach.

I can understand getting caught up in Elijah’s case. 

Melissa feels responsible for her father’s actions. Any sane person would naturally struggle with the idea that they could have prevented another person from doing what they did.

With Elijah, she sees an opportunity to right a wrong. By saving Elijah, Melissa could atone for what Keith did. She doesn’t have anything to atone for, but that’s how a sociopath’s actions make you feel, nonetheless.

Honestly, I’m not all that interested in Elijah’s case. It’s not a real case, but it’s meant to urge the fictional Melissa along on her journey. Personally, I feel it takes away from the more pertinent parts, such as her family and dealing with the world knowing who she is.

Heather represents one of Keith’s victims, and Heather’s mother a grieving family member. But we also have Ash, the son of one of Keith’s victims, who was also his girlfriend, to walk us through that.

And frankly, understanding death from the child of a victim’s perspective is more unique than bringing in the mother of another. We see stories about parents of victims all the time, but we rarely see it from an adult’s perspective, as we have with Ash.

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Ash was alone after his mother’s death. Keith stole his youth and sent his world into a tailspin of uncertainty. Somehow, he seems to have managed to escape a life of crime himself, which wouldn’t be unexpected.

He has a loving relationship with his dog and spends most of his time alone. He got aggressive with Melissa, but I think it was out of frustration and not hatred. It’s impossible to imagine what he’s gone through and how jarring it would be to see your mother’s face on TV out of the blue.

So, I feel for him and what he’s going through, and if this were my show, I think I would have spent the first season a lot closer to home, getting all of my ducks in a row before tossing Keith’s eighth victim into the mix.

Or before tossing the death row inmate, a man of color, who was wrongfully accused and charged with that death, into the mix. It’s a lot to process as a viewer; I can’t imagine processing it as a character.

That’s not even mentioning that we also have Ivy, who has a unique backstory of her own that’s pushing her on a specific trajectory. She’s fighting against the repression her father experienced, reporting from Watts during the 1992 riots, while his white coworkers claimed a Pulitzer for it.

And let’s not forget Keith, who seems to have the prison under his thumb. Hey, I watched Oz, and I dig Mayor of Kingstown, so I know there is an entire infrastructure to the prison system that most of us can’t imagine.

But Keith seems to have a vast network that helps him secure and use cell phones and such, even after being punished for the same.

Before the hour is through, it’s revealed that Melissa’s brother, Shane, was traveling with Keith when he visited the church that tied him to Heather.

It’s like that man broke every cardinal rule of fatherhood and got away with it again and again — until he didn’t.

But that’s just one more reason I would have preferred Happy Face Season 1 to stick closer to home. The meat on the bone comes from the interpersonal conflict. Expanding beyond that for a second season would have made so much sense.

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Instead, I’m here trying to navigate several different main plot points in one review, and failing miserably. If that’s what the other critics were experiencing when they watched, then I understand their frustration. 

From a viewer-only stance, it’s never boring. There is so much going on that it’s almost impossible to keep up, and that’s where my ability to write well about it fails you.

So, let’s stop talking about it and let you do some talking.

We could have put the events from these three episodes into a full season. Are you following along well?

Let me know in the comments below what parts of the story are hitting the mark and what isn’t up to snuff. I’d love to hear from you!

Also, let me know if I should keep up these reviews or if I should just post a recap going forward, maybe adding in a few insights and snarky comments along the way.

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The post Happy Face Season 1 Episode 3 Tackles So Much, It’s Hard to Keep Up appeared first on TV Fanatic.