Happy Endings: The Complete Series Blu-ray Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman, August 12, 2018



Dave's not going to have a "happy ending" tonight.

In a world of numerous networks and countless random channels vying for eyes and searching for the next great TV hit, not to mention a world in which watching reruns of pretty much anything ever made, in an instant, makes the battle for viewership of new content more challenging than ever, it would be a surprise for a show liketo become a happy hit. By all exterior accounts it's a clone or facsimile of, or at the very least greatly inspired by, shows like Friends and Will & Grace . Shows like this seem to come and go, to fade into the noise made by so many other options, even with the clout of one of the traditional "big three" networks behind it. But rather than go quietly into the night and migrate to the scrap heap of forgotten television, the show demonstrated some growing power through some growing pains, eventually maturing into a three-season hit with a dedicated fan base and reviews that grew more glowing as time moved on and particularly in retrospect when one modern of television's most under-appreciated shows finally left the airwaves.Dave (Zachary Knighton) is on top of the world. He's about to marry his longtime sweetheart Alex (Elisha Cuthbert) and live the dream, but the dream is dashed when Alex inexplicably leaves him at the altar. That leaves the couple's longtime friends -- Alex's sister Jane (Eliza Coupe) and her husband Brad (Damon Wayans, Jr.), the perpetually single Penny (Casey Wilson), and the gay man Max (Adam Pally) -- in a bit of a bind: what to do with the friendship now that Dave and Alex are no longer together? Dave wallows in self-pity and Alex begins to see the error in her ways. The two agree to remain friends, and sometimes draw a little closer together like in the old days. The show follows the friends through their life and times, loves and losses, and the bonds that hold them together through thick and thin.The comical and convoluted comings-and-goings of a handful of twenty-something friends is certainly not uncharted territory for the evening Sitcom; the aforementionedandobviously don't, or didn't, have the market cornered on such storylines, even if they're the proverbial big boys in the room, and with the glut of similar, even tangentially so, programs means any competitor need raise its voice and its stature, and relatively fast, to make inroads into a crowded market where hyped newcomers, cherished veterans, and colossal classics all vie for the same market.didn't begin with much promise, playing to a stale plot and struggling to make heads-or-tails of its purpose, seemingly lost in the murk of unoriginality and unsure how to distinguish itself beyond the opening episode's hook.The show's six core characters interrelate nicely between the broken couple, the madly in love couple, and two who fret over their inability to build long-lasting relationships, three unique perspectives of live and life in a microcosm of humanity. There's enough red meat in that grouping to make for some great moments, and the show often runs with those moments to relatively good success. It's ironically when the focus shifts a bit further away from Alex and Dave's break-up and spends more time getting to know the characters beyond that veil that it really begins to take off in a meaningful and even memorable direction. For whatever reason, the original hook -- how will the friends remain together when there's such a significant fracture amongst them? -- never quite catches fire that way it might should have, and perhaps the greatest irony is that the show accelerates and eventually excels when it more-or-less drops any pretenses and makes the jump to a "friends" show that simply follows their comings-and-goings without worrying about how the group operates with the Dave-Alex wedding day disaster looming over everything.What matters most, then, when a show ambles into and through comedic territory that has been previously charted, explored, done to death in other shows, is the character roster.' characters have not, and will not, grow into television legends -- they'll never exist alongside names like Joey, Phoebe, Chandler, Ross, Rachel, and Monica -- but over three seasons they're molded and finessed into agreeable and well rounded individuals worth knowing and rooting for, characters who flourish under fine writing and engaging plot drivers that certainly don't reinvent the genre but that bring enough character novelty and scenarios to distinguish the show, and its roster, from its peers. But the actors are all-in and that's enough to elevate the material to the point of keeping the audience engaged with their comings-and-goings, getting into the humor, feeling joy at the highs, and suffering through some lows. These six will feel like part of the family by the time it's all said and done.