Thoughts on Happy Town - Season 1, Episode 1 "In This Home on Ice"

Okay, first the positive.

The setting. Haplin, Minnesota - a small town in America's heartland with dark secrets most of its population would like to keep buried.

To begin, I like the ideas floating around this show. A serial killer from the town's past has returned. A mysterious man who has opened a movie memorabilia shop has an adversarial history with the town's sheriff. A girl, who at first seems to be our central character, has an agenda completely hidden from us until the end of the episode. These are concepts that could keep me watching.

I also like some the actors. M.C. Gainey, who most recently I saw play Tom Friendly, one of the lead "Others" on Lost, is the town sheriff. Amy Acker, who I always thought was great on Angel and liked a lot in Dollhouse, is the wife of the sheriff's son. Steven Weber -who is probably best known for the show Wings, but has proven himself time and again as a fine dramatic actor - is the Bread Factory executive and part of Haplin's founding family. And of course, Sam Neill - who has always commanded attention in whatever film role he has played, though a whole generation knows him as Alan Grant from the Jurassic Park movies - plays the mysterious owner of the movie memorabilia shop.

Then there are certain images that seemed cool to me. The sunlight shining through the hole in the murder victim's head. The sheriff holding an axe, about to lop off his own hand. I thought these were creative moments.

Then there's the rest of the show.

We know the town of Haplin is a slice of Americana and the greatest place in the world because EVERYONE in the episode seems to tell us that. Also, the character exposition in the first fifteen minutes is such an information dump, you would think the writers and producers are expecting the show to last for only six episodes. Slow down, Happy Town. If the show took its time instead of giving us backstory in every line delivered, I might have taken matters a little more seriously. I found myself nodding "okay, just get on with it" through those first scenes.

Most of the secondary characters of groan-worthy. The boarding house where one of our central characters, Henley Boone, is staying, is also home to four of the most annoying older ladies ever featured on primetime. We're supposed to love them, but I don't. There's also Big Dave, The Deputy and The Innkeeper - these are not very original characters and their introductions made me wince. An observation - a new person in town just doesn't meet all the prominent figures of said town within the first thirty minutes of arriving - it's just goofy. And then there's the Stiviletto brothers, whose one scene practically blinded me with stereotypical characterizations. Beer-swilling rednecks with not one good piece of dialogue among the four of them. I'm guessing they'll have those beers in hand during every future scene featuring them.

There's the bread factory overlooking the entire town. Amy Acker's character works there and it is owned by the Haplin family and run by Stephen Weber's character, John Haplin. This is the setting for the episode's most ridiculous scene where the Deputy and the Sheriff's son decide to notify next of kin of her husband's murder right there on the factory floor in front of co-workers and a touring troupe of elementary students. Why would police officers do that? Why would anyone over the age of fifteen do that? Then the distraught widow throws flour at them. I'm hoping this is show's low point and we can move on from here.

The mystery of the Magic Man killer may have promise, as do Sam Neill's shop-owner character as well at the apparent condition of the Sheriff, played by M.C. Gainey. The sheriff's son, Tommy Conroy, is supposed to be our other central character, but he's really going to have to bring it for me to care about him. He did nothing in this episode but make dumb choices fueled by thin motivation.

So, Happy Town needs work. I'll check out next week's episode to see if the mysteries stay intriguing. If not, well . . .