Christopher Meloni is back on the beat, with Happy! as an ex-cop, but don't expect Law & Order: SVU's Detective Elliot Stabler when your turn on the Syfy series.
In Happy!, which is based on Grant Morrison and Darick Robertson's graphic novel, Meloni plays Nick Sax, an intoxicated, corrupt ex-cop who now works as a hit man...and sees an imaginary blue horse named Happy. A blue horse with wings. And a horn.
"It was pitched this way: ‘Read the script,'" Meloni told E! News about how producers showed him the project.
His response to the script? "OK, I read it. I have no idea what I just read. Can you enlighten me?"
But Brian Taylor, who co-wrote the pilot and serves as an executive producer, said he couldn't help Meloni out. The actor would just have to trust him.
Trust him he did.
Patton Oswalt voices Happy, but the two were not on set together doing the show. Instead, Skype came in hand.
The series sees Nick Sax "adrift in a world of casual murder, soulless sex and betrayal."
In addition to Meloni and Oswalt, the cast also includes Lili Mirojnick, Joseph Reitman, Medina Senghore, Ritchie Coster and Patrick Fischler.
Happy! premieres Wednesday, Dec. 6 at 10 p.m. on Syfy.
(E! and Syfy are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)