Stream On! Put on a ‘Happy Face’—or else!
Melissa Reed is the daughter of incarcerated serial killer Keith Jesperson, the “Happy Face killer,” a connection she hides from her children and coworkers.
As children, many of us wonder about our parents when we learn that they were grown before we arrived. Sometimes it’s a shame what we know. Melissa Reed, a quiet TV makeup artist, had her life upended when her own father, in prison since committing eight murders, wanted back in her life. True story!
HAPPY FACE [official website here; original podcast here]
/Streaming /Amazon Prime /🍅57% 🍿41% /Trailer /2025 /TVMA
Melissa Reed (Annaleigh Ashford) works on a true-crime TV program as a makeup artist. She’s unassuming, but she also has a knack for convincing nervous guests to being interviewed.
One day Keith Jesperson, the “Happy Face Killer” (Dennis Quaid, Lawmen: Bass Reeves), calls Melissa's boss, Dr. Greg (David Harewood, The Man in the High Castle), the host of a true crime television show, claiming that he wants to confess to an additional murder, but will only reveal information to Melissa in person. Melissa is his daughter, a fact she had held close, not revealing it to her co-workers—or her teen-aged children. Melissa’s husband knew.
Melissa and the show’s producer, Ivy Campbell (Tamera Tomakili), visit Keith in prison but he refuses to share any details beyond that he gifted a trampoline to Melissa soon after the murder. Melissa brings Ivy to her childhood home to visit her mother, June, who claims that Keith has sent people to harass her over the years. Ivy finds the trampoline, which was purchased in Texas.
They question Keith again, and he describes the full murder without mentioning the victim’s name. Using details of Keith’s story, Melissa and Ivy identify the victim as Heather Richmond, but learn that Heather's boyfriend Elijah has been convicted for her murder and is on death row. Now a clock is running! An innocent man will die—soon—if Melissa and Ivy can’t find proof backing Keith’s claims.
Annaleigh Ashford, as Melissa, is very good, indicating with the smallest expressions what she’s feeling. And that’s rough: she never wants to see her father again, and now her own kids’ schoolmates have heard the news and are harassing them. Melissa’s mother, Keith’s wife, tells her, “If people find out that that man is your father, then that’s all you’ll ever be.”
And Dennis Quaid is just masterful as the trapped manipulative sociopath: all at once a frightening bête noire and an injured parent. Not your father’s Hannibal Lecter. Which way will he jump?
The Rotten Tomatoes score is less than I expected, even if the pacing was a little uneven; also, much of the action is merely driving to yet another jurisdiction for a records hunt or an interview. There’s not one car chase, and the killin’ is over and done—unless our heroes don’t spring Elijah. People may have taken the wrong idea from the publicity, that it’s a serial killer doing his thing. Well Keith Jesperson already did that thing—his new thing is quieter, and super scary.
The real Melissa Reed’s original podcast is here. From its blurb: “For Melissa Moore, 1995 was a nightmare. That’s the year the teenager learned her father, Keith Hunter Jesperson, was a serial killer. It’s also the year Melissa Moore’s doubt spiral began: When you look like your father, and you share his intelligence and charisma, how do you know you’re not a psychopath, too? Happy Face is the story of Keith Hunter Jesperson, his brutal crimes, and the cat and mouse game he played with detectives and the media. But it’s also the story of the horrific legacy he gifted his children.”
Sources include Wikipedia (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License).
Pete Hummers is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to earn fees by linking Amazon.com and affiliate sites. This adds nothing to Amazon's prices. This column originally appeared on The Outer Banks Voice.