Posted by Dustin on 05.01.2010 at 11:45 am

So did you watch ABC’s “Happy Town?” Did you enjoy it? I did! But then this kinda of mystery/horror type stuff is right up my alley. This should fill the void left by “Harper’s Island” too.

A brief intro/summary for those who didn’t see it, or pondering watching on ABC.com. The show takes place in Haplin, Minnesota, where they are celebrating “Thaw Fest” when the winter snow and ice begins to thaw. Not everyone considers Haplin to be a “Happy Town” as one of the first disturbances to happen was people erecting a banner to those who went missing many years ago because of “The Magic Man.” One of these was the young daughter of the town rich guy/family (Steve Weber), those that own a bread factory that seems to employ half the town. His older son is also dating the town’s outcast’s daughter in secret, it’s very “Romeo and Juliet” as the show mentions.

The second major disturbance was the first murder in some 10 years. This is how the show opened, with the man being murdered in his ice fishing shack after telling someone something they needed to know. This gets the main character, Tommy (Geoff Stults), involved, along with his dad who is the town’s sheriff.

Meanwhile this young girl named Henley moves to town. She has designs on opening a candle shop, so she says. She takes a room in a boarding house and meets the mysterious Merritt (Sam Neil), who is the fancy of all the older women in town. He also has a room in the house. Henley is told the minute she moves in the third floor is forbidden, off limits! Merritt owns a movie memorabilia shop, which Henley notes is an odd choice of business in such a small secluded town . . . how will he keep it afloat? Merritt explains the Magic Man to Henley, a man who got his name as he seemed to make his victims disappear of the face of the earth. He took one person every year, then suddenly stopped a number of years back. He was never caught.

As the show winds down, Tommy and his dad investigate the murder. Tommy’s dad keeps asking people “Have you seen Chloe?” He keeps mentioning Chloe through the whole show, as if he’s in a trance when he does so. At the end he goes into a very bizarre trance in his office, grabs a tomahawk (which he seems to collect) and chops off his hand (so we are lead to believe). At the same time at the boarding house Henley calls her mom indicating she’s here and is planning to find out what is on the third floor. She is leaving her mom a message, when her mom picks up. She then says “It’s me mom . . . Chloe.”

My Thoughts
I actually watched the show twice. The first time I was multi-tasking as usual, so I wanted to make sure I caught every little clue. I have feeling this is going to be like “Harper’s Island” where you can go back and watch earlier episodes later on to pick up even more clues.

I really liked the show. It started off slow, but half way through really picked up. Sam Neil was just terrific. I’ve always been a fan, and when he plays creepy he IS creepy! Obviously Merritt isn’t in town just for business, as Henley/Chloe said, his shop would fail miserably.

Henley/Chloe is another mystery. She has a bizarre tattoo on her shoulder they made sure to showcase at the end. I’m not sure what it was of. It almost looked Wiccan or pagan in some way. Who is Chloe and how is she connected to the sheriff? Of course the first thing that pops into my head is his long lost kid, too many years of soaps 🙂 Second would be she is related to the Magic Man.

I loved the sheriff’s trances asking about Chloe. It totally made me think of “Someone’s at the door” from the old “American Gothic” show. Let’s hope “Happy Town” doesn’t meet the same fate though. “American Gothic” was ahead of it’s time, and the public then wasn’t ready for such themes on primetime TV.

Then there is the mystery of The Magic Man. Is he the killer? No, but maybe he is looking for The Magic Man? They made it clear, the Magic Man’s victims disappeared, this guy left his body. The show’s official twitter says Tommy finds out who killed this guy next week and it leaves him forever changed.

Can’t wait!

P.S. You can follow the “Happy Town” category link for other upcoming spoiler releases for the show!