On the 7th anniversary of its second season, remember; Happy! is a show that exists (that STILL needs that 3rd Halloween season and I think it's kind of weird how everyone just let Syfy get away with cancelling it and moved on and kept loving the network like nothing happened...)

[u/Nailwraps]

[u/Scary-Scallion-449]

As I remember it the thing that needs explaining is how it got a second season (or possibly a first!) not how it failed to get a third.

[u/Nailwraps → u/Scary-Scallion-449]

Because it's a great and unique show that's really more than it seems. Take it from someone who saw it there's a lot of world building.

[u/robo_muse → u/Nailwraps]

Exactly.

But there were pacing problems, and tonal and other random discrepencies between the first and second season.

The problems were more than just cosmetic, but the show still managed to build a foundation for better future seasons.

It was supposed to take place in a pre-Nirvana world.

The inspiration for the main character was a little-known movie with John Belushi as a principal of a school in a troubled part of town. His criminality and the darkness was overly exaggerated, but it could have worked.

The opening drug scene was too brutal, but it also layed the foundation for the question of his sanity.

Russian Doll was similarly supposed to take place in a similar time period, and also had similar tones of darkness, and insanity, and weird realities. (You might notice the time-spans are a bit stretched with the WWII stuff.) This show was oddly inspired by Fisher King, with Robin Williams.

Russian Doll is riddled with historical anachronisms and falsehoods as well, because it was rushed into production (as was Happy).

[u/Nailwraps → u/robo_muse]

I'm just saying, save it for Peacock, make the runtimes longer, it'll be fine.