HAPPYish: Season One

A problem with show creator Shalom Auslander's HAPPYish was that it made people kind of SADish, and Showtime nixed a follow-up season of this caustic comedy about privileged social mores and first world angst. But it can be quite funny in its intriguing exploration of the modern middle-age gripes of depressed Thom Payne (Steve Coogan), a New York ad man with a suburban family and the ghosts of philosophers, writers, dictators, scientists, etc., riding his train of thought (each episode title refers to the names of historical figures mentioned in Coogan's offhanded and profane monologues). Coogan delivers the rants, tirades, and soliloquies in a dryly disdainful manner, peppered with vulgarity and constant swearing—sometimes to the point of the joke being lost in the middle-finger-wagging. Kathryn Hahn is fantastic as Payne's not quite so melancholic wife. The sad origin of the show casts another sort of depressing pall over the cleverness: Coogan was a replacement for a completed pilot starring the late Philip Seymour Hoffman. Still, there's a fair amount of intellectual stimulation and sharp wit here, and Coogan clearly enjoys delivering his drollisms with bitter charm. Compiling all 10 episodes from the 2015 single season, this is recommended. (T. Fry)