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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Entertainment
Jared Richards

Happiness review – Schitt’s Creek meets Glee in charming Kiwi musical comedy

Warmly-lit interior shot with a brick wall and partial view of a pot plant in the background. A younger man with pale skin wearing a dark jacket and an exaggerated smile stands close to 50-something woman with pale skin and blonde curly hair wearing a patterned top, and an even more exaggerated smile, clasping her hands together.
Harry McNaughton and Rebecca Gibney play a son and mother reunited over a shared love of amateur musical theatre in Happiness. Photograph: Andi Crown Photography/HBO Max

It’s slightly misleading for Happiness – billed as New Zealand’s first musical television series – to start with something as daggy as an airport flashmob set to the Backstreet Boys.

Not only is this six-episode comedy much sharper than its dated intro to Everybody (Backstreet’s Back) suggests, it’s not a jukebox musical, either.

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