I wanted to watch this after hearing comparisons to last year's campy (yet extremely entertaining) Harper's Island. Apart from beginning with a very gruesome death, the similarities end there. Where Harper's Island took delight in murdering its 30 head-strong cast and whittling it down to a mere handful by the end of its run, Happy Town takes a different route dissecting town-life and its many oddities. Case in point - the murderer is revealed in episode 2. This opening murder opens hundreds of threads and tensions running throughout the town. We have the town sheriff going doolally from chasing a previous psychopath who kidnapped one child each year for half a decade and then vanished along with the six children; the first lady and her dynasty threatening and manipulating townsfolk to try and find a child who went missing; a family of hicks who seem to never cause trouble so much as be in the wrong place at the wrong time; a house full of old ladies who calmly gossip about murder before moving on to the more interesting topic of the mysterious British man living on the second floor. The mythology of the Magic Man, the name of the perpetrator who kidnapped all those children, is slowly revealed throughout the 8 episodes all the while important things such as blackmail, sex, murder, drugs and rebellion occur besides other important things such as pizza dough, famous movie lines and cinnamon. The show has so many of those Twin Peak like moments - strange, totally irrelevant, relevant moments that stick more than the revelations going on around this massive cast of characters. The bizarre gallery of humans assembled in Haplin is quite an exciting array of caricatures, clichés and stereotypes. That is probably the show's biggest problem - too many characters. In the first episode, we're introduced to no less than 15 major characters and a further 5 in the next episode. It leaves you wondering who is doing what, who's actually important and trying to remember names. Sadly, it doesn't work too well. Not only have they got too many main characters but the script suffers from some truly boring dialogue which is a shame when the cast is quite fantastic. A lot of the cast is underused (Rachel Conroy, Amy Acker, has about one line in the first two episode and Peggy Hanlin, Francis Conroy, barely gets to do more than look dotty) so when major events occur, you aren't that invested in the outcome. The clunky manner that the conversations run along that are supposed to further the plot leaves you often confused and bored. One thing the show does well is imagine the town of Haplin. It has its own geography and language and when deputes cover up crimes for their friends or old women prevent young girls leaving town, you can believe that it could happen. Stand-out characters include; "Handsome" Dan, a psychotic cop hell-bent on catching the magic man out; Merrick Grieves, Sam Neill's very stiff Brit; Henley Boone, the new girl in town who is keeping her cards close to her chest. I struggled through the 8 episodes to see if it would ramp up any sort of suspense or display a sense of immediacy like that of Harper's Island but unfortunately, it remained rather one track to the end.

Really? This looked like somewhat of a promising series. I tuned in possibly because my 62-year-old mother was very excited about it, or maybe because it seemed to have the same tone as Harper's Island. Harper's Island was an eerie murder mystery show that did everything write. The writers knew how to form realistic characters and the emotional aspect of the show was, I'm sure, felt by any person who viewed it. In response to what akingofcomedy said "But it could fall pry to the same fate as 'Harper's Island.' A quick death from lack of sustainable viewers." Harper's Island has many viewers, it did not fall to a "quick death" but was a miniseries. Many murder mysteries such as this can only be miniseries. Happy Town is striving to be something more, and it does not look promising. The plots are cliché, the dialogue so dramatic, deliberate and over-written that I can't help but sigh about 10 times an episode. Sometimes I just look at the screen and ask the writers "Really, do you actually think someone would say that in real life?" Cliché, cliché, and cliché. I don't know what college these writers went to but I can't believe their lack of vision on this. I don't understand how they can't see the number of things wrong with what they are writing. I am possibly most annoyed at the depiction of the first-grader in this show. She's seven, not three. The parents treat as if she's a toddler and she acts as if she is one. I doubt the writers know a seven-year-old because they are writing Michelle Tanner lines. I haven't heard "you got it dude" yet but I am seriously expecting it. Good luck not scoffing while you watch this show.

What a load of crap this show is turning into after such a promising beginning. Still, at only eight projected episodes for the season, it may deserve a chance. The comparison to TWIN PEAKS surfaced early and it was marginally justified. Now we have writers who seem to be playing off a masterpiece to shore up their sloppy artistry. Why should we continue to care about a Sheriff who would protect someone who drives a spike through a man's head; who removes his badge to beat people up, and yet who imprisons a high-school boy for acting out of outrage--granted, criminally--to protect his girlfriend from a drunken abusive father. Are we still comparing this to TWIN PEAKS. Neither Cooper nor Truman would ever behave in this way, and, via Truman's love for Josie Packard, that show did address the issue of the conflict between the professional and the personal. Sheriff Conroy--(the one with two hands, as if this entitles him to moral ambidexterity-- sinister, to the say the least)--is too despicable to be the center of meaning in this town. That role has passed, in my opinion, to Andrew Haplin. Tommy Conroy is a vacuous thug, and if we want to push the realism of this, why not extend that charity to excuse the appearance of a mysterious bird. Because TWIN PEAKS had an owl, you see. A clutch of closet Satanists have conjured the Magic Man, and he demands sacrifices. I could be wrong. Either way, for me, on an expressway of self-vindication or through a culvert of chagrin, I suspect the plot will lead to a dumpster.

Let's see if they can hold it."Happy Town" is presented as a whodunit about a mysterious rash of kidnappings in an idyllic small town. The kidnapper got clean away and has been inactive for five years at the time of the pilot. Ominous doings indicate that the Magic Man has returned to Haplin, Minnesota. As the premiere episode progresses, it becomes apparent that Haplin is hiding a number of dark secrets, which may or may not be related to the mystery of the Magic Man.The episode opens on Elvis Costello's "Watching the Detectives," an excellent choice not just because it's a great song but because it is not immediately apparent which time period the show is presenting to the viewer. It's an unsettling note on which to start the episode, and it really sets the tone for this show.Another thing the show runners got right was the small town setting. I've watched any number of Gothic shows set in small towns that did not remotely resemble the dynamics of any small town I ever lived in. This show gets the claustrophobic vibe just right, so points for that. Their location scout also deserves kudos for whatever town is standing in for those exterior shots. It's just perfect.Also perfect: the cast. This show is chocked full of wonderful actors, any one of whom could have carried a show on their own. Together, they have the kind of combined presence necessary to keep a viewer engrossed while watching for developments in the plot.As to the plot, the pilot asks more questions than it answers, but that's to be expected in the first episode. I really hope the pace picks up in future episodes, though.Only one thing didn't quite work for me, and that's the dialogue. Nobody talks like this. The Sheriff's eccentric pronouncements are somewhat explained by the end of the episode. None of the other characters have that excuse. The marketing folks at ABC are inviting viewers to compare this series to Twin Peaks, but part of the reason that show's oddball dialogue worked was because the directors were taking their cues from David Lynch, maintaining a dreamlike ambiance in which strange verbal choices were just another part of that world. This director played it pretty straight, so the dialogue just didn't quite come off.That's not going to stop me from watching the second episode, however. This show could shape up to be really great. I'm willing to keep watching and find out if it's got legs.