ABC's Happy Town Debut is Infuriating

The town of Haplin Minnesota is a very small town. It is set in the snowy regions of the coldest state and dominated by a large hill upon which sits the primary source of income for much of the town:the bread factory. It seems like a quaint little place, if a little odd. The people there are certainly just a little it off. However, the sky is filled with baking flour and the entire town smells like fresh baked bread. It seems like such a pleasant place that it has earned the nickname "Happy Town" It's also a place filled with mystery and terror.

You see, seven years ago a man came to this tiny little town. He was dubbed "The Magic Man" and, as is explained in the first episode, he "had a way of making people disappear so completely" that it was thought he must use mystical means. All that was left was an time each victim carried with them at the site of their disappearance. Suddenly, he vanished. Part of the town wants to forget while another part wants to remember.

This is the very promising premise for the new ABC television series called Happy Town. What you don't expect from a premise with that much promise is for the series premier to be as infuriating, frustrating, and puzzling as it is. And by puzzling I don't mean the story itself. No, ever since Lost you almost come to expect each new series to be puzzling and strange as the world keeps trying to create the next Lost. No, this show is so frustrating because you just can't quite figure out what the writers are going for here.

The show is filled with celebrities. Some of these celebrities might be well known, such as Sam Neil as the strange man who lives in a boarding house and talks with a smooth English accent. He also opens a store that makes no sense for any man trying not to be suspect to open in a town that small. It's a store that sells old movie memorabilia and old movie projectors. He even acknowledges that this makes no sense.

Some of the celebrities are the kind that really only appeal to geeks like myself. For example, Amy Acker from Joss Whedon vehicles like Angel and Doll House is one of the major stars. She is the wife of the man about to become the town's new Sheriff. Then there's the man fans of Lost would know as the "Other" known as Mr. Friendly.

Of course, if you are watching a television show, movie or reading a book that takes place in a small town you know that there is not a single normal person to be had anywhere. If you were to look at the life of small towns across American only via fiction, you would believe that every town is populated by nothing but strange, eccentric, or outright insane people. The town of Haplin is no exception. In fact, this town potentially has more strange people than Twin Peaks. And, as you may remember, that's really saying something.

The problem is that the show is unbelievably overacted. I mean, this is painful to watch at times. When the person who should be the main character comes to town and gets picked up by a woman who takes her to the boarding house where she will be staying, the acting is so over-the-top it may make you reach for the remote. It sure made me reach for the remote. This woman is not just happy, but utterly insanely happy.

Then there are the older women who make up the residents of the boarding house. These women could not possibly act to save their lives. At times their acting and overacting and inability to deliver a convincing line that doesn't sound like someone reading a script is worse than nails down a blackboard.

This tendency permeates this show. The Sheriff is suddenly prone to strange trances and, even when he isn't in one, he mis making strange nonsense quotes out of the blue. He didn't act this badly in Lost, so what the hell happened?

The first episode is also horribly overloaded with characters. They come crawling out of the woodwork. The show seems desperate to show us that it has a lot of potential suspects before it finally gets down to business over whether or not the "Magic Man" is back. The episode plodded along, almost limping helplessly, for nearly forty-five to fifty minutes.

Then, suddenly, ten minutes before the end credits, things suddenly got good. The change was so abrupt that it nearly gave me whiplash. The entire show went from corny, campy and horribly acted to dark, interesting, scary and intense. This was the show that I wanted from the beginning.

What remains a puzzlement is was the campy nature of the first part of the show and the overacting deliberate. Here is where I am still confused. Ultimately, this is a show about a small town with a maniacal killer on the loose. In short, this is a kind of extended slasher film. The end of the show was of such quality that it made me reconsider the horrible first fifty minutes I had just sat through as though I were sitting on a bag of nails. Maybe the entire show is meant to be a kind of wink and nod to the campy, silly, ridiculous slasher horror films of the 70s and early 80s.

However, that isn't entirely clear. Very little of this show is entirely clear. At times the cliches are so obvious and painful that they will make you squirm. I mean, the boarding house actually has a mysterious third floor that a character says is "strictly off limits." Do you think that the main character is going to venture up there? Does Tarantino like long, expository, talky scenes set in restaurants?

I am not sure what to think about Happy Town. I found myself watching the episode and hating it for much of that hour. Then, suddenly, during those last ten minutes I was so enthralled that I couldn't wait to see the scenes for the following week. Now I have to check out the next episode. In the end, I guess, that is all any show can want. In that way, then, Happy Town succeeds