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It's a crazy wonderful life for Christopher Meloni on Syfy's madcap 'Happy!'

Brian Truitt
USA TODAY

This Christmas, Christopher Meloni is bringing chaos to all — and to all, a violent night — with Happy!

'Tis the season for crazy antics for Christopher Meloni in 'Happy!'

The madcap new Syfy series (premieres Wednesday, 10 ET/PT) surrounds the former Law & Order: SVU star with complete disorder: Meloni’s Nick Sax is an ex-cop turned hitman who, following a botched job, comes into contact with an imaginary blue horse/unicorn named Happy (voiced by Patton Oswalt). Nick’s pulled out of his seedy life of drunkenness and debauchery by this chatty critter in order to find a young girl who’s been kidnapped by a perverted Santa.

More:Watch Patton Oswalt as an imaginary blue horse in a crazy 'Happy!' trailer

Also:Patton Oswalt faces wife's death with heartbreak, body fluids in Netflix special

“Everyone likes to see this and every actor likes to play this, the antihero or the guy or girl who has this journey of self-discovery,” Meloni says. “Nick still doesn’t know how (messed) up he is — he only realizes superficially what he’s missed in life to a certain degree. There’s a lot of mining to do with this guy, what makes him him and his bad choices.”

USA TODAY talks with Meloni about the new show and his seasonal favorites.

Nick (Christopher Meloni) meets an imaginary blue horse/unicorn (voiced by Patton Oswalt) in Syfy's 'Happy!'

Q: You’ve played some crazy characters before. Was Nick a culmination of those?

A: There was a real sense of exploration and freedom in everything we did, and it kept things getting crazier. It was a great playpen of anarchy and it plays to suits that I enjoy: physical comedy and quips. But also meaning and heart and all that.

Q: It’s like A Christmas Carol, with a goofy unicorn instead of three ghosts.

A: We absolutely thought it was Christmas Carol combined with It’s A Wonderful Life and maybe Quentin Tarantino and a little Sin City. It’s this mishmosh — you would never put those things together.

Q: There are a lot of holiday accessories strewn about. Do you have a favorite?

A: Nick Sax’s scarf, without question. It has “Feliz Navidad” on it — that just made us laugh because it’s so warm and cheerful and José Feliciano-esque.

Nick (Christopher Meloni) puts aside the drinks to help out a little girl in 'Happy!'

Q: A swear jar comes into play. Do you need one of those in real life?

A: I mean, Uncle Sam takes like 35% of my money and the state takes another 10%. If I had a swear jar, that would be another 25%. I’d be limping through life right now.

Q: When did you realize physical comedy was a tool in your arsenal?

A: When I was a child, I was enamored with the comedy of the day that came through my television — all three channels I had to get up and manually click the dial to get. Abbott and Costello, Three Stooges, Jerry Lewis — I gravitated toward that. I perfected the art of running into a door. I would just have my toe closer to it than my face, and I’d slam it into my shoe but throw my head back. I would use it on my mom all the time and she’d be like, “Aargh!” 

'A Christmas Carol' was an influence on the journey of self-discovery for Christopher Meloni's Nick Sax.

Q: What’s your go-to holiday movie?

A: My mom actually years ago turned me onto It’s A Wonderful Life. I usually pooh-poohed those “old movies” but, man, when I saw it, it blew me away. Right now, it’s always How the Grinch Stole Christmas and, if I bump it into it, Bad Santa.

Q: Nick does inhabit some of that Grinchiness. 

A: Good! Hopefully that’s what we were searching for, that there was a redemptive quality to the journey.

 

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