At some point last summer, on ABC’s slate of new series pickups, a show called Happy Town was listed. There wasn’t a whole lot to go on at the time, and screeners weren’t made available … or, at least, not to many. From what little was seen at the time, Happy Town looked a lot like it could be the new Twin Peaks — an odd town, with odder residents, surrounding some sort of odd mystery. For the most part, that describes this ABC mid-season series, though this is not at all like Twin Peaks. For that — and for some — that’s probably a good thing.
It’s a “good thing” this isn’t trying to be another Twin Peaks because, well, we had that. From what I know of Twin Peaks, it was pretty far out there. Alright, it was just plain frickin’ weird. It set its own mold and sits in a place where folks can compare other shows to it, should they be reminded of themes from said show. But it’s unlikely anything will come along to take its place. So, let’s take the whole Twin Peaks comparison off the table for now and move along.
I’ll describe the plot quickly for you. Happy Town takes place in fictional Haplin, Minnesota, home of the “Our Daily” bread factory and to one recent murder. We start things off witnessing at least part of this murder, and the mystery builds from there. We learn that the town had been plagued by a mysterious person dubbed “The Magic Man,” who would steal people away with nary a trace, with the abducted still missing after many years. Nobody knows who this person is or even if it is, in fact, a man, but the abductions stopped several years ago for seemingly no reason. Is the Magic Man dead? Gone? In jail?
The plot doesn’t end there. Oh no. There’s the mysterious woman named Chloe. The wedding ring. The debonair Merritt Grieves (Sam Neill), who runs a local movie memorabilia shop that should be an utter failure yet remains. The room of birds. The Haplin founding family and their bread factory. The demonic-looking hammer. The pizza guy. The suicidal hawk.
That got you intrigued at all? If just my list has you interested, then you should feel the same way coming out of episode two. There are so many things pulling the mystery along that you can’t help but itch for the next episode. The question will be whether or not the series can maintain the same level of intrigue through each episode and, most importantly, not throw too much at us that our heads are left spinning and there are too many holes left to fill.
The first surprise I got out of watching the pilot episode was some of the casting. I had totally forgotten that this was the show Amy Acker left Dollhouse for (and, well, good for her). However, her role so far is pretty minor, as Deputy Tommy Conroy’s wife, Rachel. There’s also Sam Neill, who I mentioned before, and M.C. Gainey as Sheriff Conroy, who you may remember from Lost, among other things. Oh, and there’s also Steven Weber as John Haplin, who seems to be the town asshole at this point.
The other surprise I got from Happy Town: it’s good! Right away I can see this is a show I’ll enjoy picking apart every week, and I’m planning to write it up here weekly. There is one thing that both scares and comforts me, and that’s the team behind this series: Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec. In case you don’t know what else these guys have produced lately, here are a couple: Life on Mars and October Road. Now, I met these two guys two years ago, and they are incredibly passionate about what they work on. They also seem to know that fans should be rewarded, should a show tank, and have done so by at least giving a finite ending to those two shows (and to Alias, another show they were involved with). So, bad news: a few of their latest shows tanked early. Good news: they don’t leave you hanging.
Happy Town premieres on ABC at some point in the next month or so. We’ll update once we have a concrete date.
Clacked by Keith McDuffee 
on Jan 02, 2010 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
and I quote…
“From what I know of Twin Peaks, it was pretty far out there.”
If you are going to attempt to draw comparisons between a new show and an older show, shouldn’t you watch enough of the older show to have a good grasp of it? The “from what I know” makes me think you haven’t done that, thus throwing your comparison into question.
This is a frequent problem both here and on TVS. Writers frequently refer to older material, and it is often obvious they aren’t familiar with it at all.
*POST AUTHOR*
I saw the Twin Peaks movie and, based on what I think our Twin Peaks expert Bob Degon told me, it’s certainly the same sorta weirdness from the TV show. So, “from what I know of Twin Peaks” is the movie, and from what our expert Bob told me, so I think that’s enough to go on. If not, then feel free to ignore my preview post and draw your own conclusions. No need to get your panties in a bunch.
Alex, long time no see!
Were you even alive when Twin Peaks aired :P
Seriously though, with a show like this, you almost have to reference Twin Peaks, or be criticized for not.
Absolutely I was alive. I never missed a moment of it.
I love shows like this but as we have seen so often in recent times, American television viewers don’t seem to have the patience anymore to sit through a show that has a central mystery that needs to be teased over the course of a season or longer. If there aren’t answers by episode three, people start tuning out because they either don’t want to wait or they know the show will get canned before a resolution takes place. And if you want to reference “Twin Peaks,” the moment Laura Palmer’s killer was revealed, most of those who stuck around through season 2 to see that episode stopped watching the next week (and the movie is even more off the rails than the TV show ever was, so I wouldn’t use that as a reference). Major networks just can’t seem to sustain serialized dramas anymore (or “quirky” for that matter) because of the expense involved in the production and the relatively small viewership they get in return. I’ll watch but I don’t have much hope of seeing more than six episodes before ABC yanks it (think “Defying Gravity” for example).
I know, it does make me slightly nervous b/c ABC doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to shows like this, but I loved the first two episodes, so I hope this one sticks around, and stays as good as it is so far!
Defying Gravity was overrated garbage. Great basic idea but not well thought out enough.
That said this sounds like it will last as long as Eastwood. The fact the show is premiering “soon” and doesn’t have a date planned with ads running isn’t good at all. More so the fact I never heard of the show until this post.
I didn’t mean to imply one way or another about the quality of “Defying Gravity” having only seen 2 episodes. I was just trying to spotlight ABC’s track record with pulling shows before their final episodes, or even giving them a real chance such as “Pushing Daisies,” “Eli Stone” and “Dirty Sexy Money” – two of which were directly affected by the writers strike and ABC’s total lack of commitment to them by not bothering to rerun the first seasons to build up viewership for the fall premieres of the second seasons. Basically, unless it’s “Scrubs” or “According to Jim” nothing really stands a chance on ABC.
And I assume you meant “Eastwick,” right?
Oreo: Wait… So you’re saying you didn’t like Defying Gravity? I hadn’t picked up on that before. You always had some positive things to say about it! And this show will fail because you’ve not heard of it until now? :P
Well, truthfully, having seen the first hour, I don’t have a lot of faith in Happy Town either. Steven Weber is the only believable character on the show (Well, save Amy Acker, but she’s given depressingly little to do thus far). The mysteries just don’t register yet, and you’re given little reason to care about any of the characters in the first hour. Motivations are murky at this point, which would normally be OK in an introductory story like this, but, after an hour, I don’t understand what the show is supposed to be about. The recent Harper’s Island did a great job in introducing everything in the first hour to let you know what you’re watching (Though, no one has ever beaten the golden standard that was the Veronica Mars pilot in introducing characters and season arc-ing mysteries), but here I’m just left wondering.
I’ve still got the second hour queued up, and I’ll give it a couple more episodes to be sure (Just on Weber, Acker, and Abraham Benrubi’s presence alone), but I not feeling it.
*POST AUTHOR*
The 2nd hour should give you more on the characters, Ivey. If you’re still not intrigued at all after episode two, I’m guessing you may as well not bother to watch past that.
Oreo does make the point that if people who read television blogs haven’t heard of this show before now, how is the average viewer expected to have done so? I actually watch some ABC shows this season, and have also never heard of it, even though it appears to be something I would greatly enjoy. Hence, a good chance of Happy Town being buried and undeservedly failing.
Isn’t Steven Weber always cast as the asshole? I’m struggling to remember the last nice guy he played…
*POST AUTHOR*
Since there’s no premiere date set, it could just be that it’d be too early to start promoting the show at this point.
That’s a fair point. I guess when you said “the next month or so,” it just sounded closer than it really was.
Still, how can you not go all out to promote a show with Sam Neill, the Greatest Actor Ever?
it was partially filmed in my home town i so hope this one makes it so they can come back year after year i had such awesome time meeting Geoff Stults, Warren Christie, Jay Paulson and Steve Weber it made my year
fr0om horses mouth it is slated to premiere in March