TV Review: Cluttered ‘Happy Town’ Unlikely to Have Many Tourists

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CHICAGO – Despite a star-powered supporting cast, an intriguing concept, and a set-up that seems right at home on the network that launched “Twin Peaks,” “Desperate Housewives,” and “Lost,” the new mystery/drama “Happy Town” never comes together. With over a dozen speaking roles to track and several subplots but little to honestly care about, the first two episodes of “Happy Town” are surprisingly dull affairs and could make return trips difficult.

Television Rating: 2.5/5.0

The title refers to the ironic nickname for the deeply troubled town of Haplin, Minnesota. The fact that the series opens with a man getting a railroad spike through the head should clue viewers in to the fact that not everything is happy in Haplin even if it looks that way at first. Hiding beyond the white picket fences are deep, disturbing secrets, and possibly a little “Lost”-esque mystery to hold it all together.

Happy Town
Photo credit: Peter Stranks/ABC

The residents of “Happy Town” are played by a number of recognizable faces including square-jawed lead Geoff Stults (“October Road”), Amy Acker (“Dollhouse”), Jay Paulson (another “October Road” vet), Steven Weber (“Wings), Robert Wisdom (“The Wire”), Frances Conroy (“Six Feet Under”), M.C. Gainey (“Lost”), and the mysterious new arrival in town played by Lauren German (“Hostel: Part II”).

Happy Town. Photo credit: Bob D’Amico/ABC

The strikingly beautiful German plays Chloe, a woman who arrives in Haplin with a smile on her face but also a clear agenda. She may claim that she only wants to open a candle shop in this quaint village but she knows a number of things about its past and knows that the top (and forbidden) floor of her boardinghouse hides something she needs. Chloe is also drawn to the most mysterious member of her residence, the suave owner of a movie memorabilia shop named Merritt Grieves (the always-great and usually-evil Sam Neill).

Meanwhile, Stults becomes deeply involved in family drama after his father (Gainey), the town Sheriff, starts to crack under the pressure of not just the aforementioned death-by-spike but the possible return of the town’s legendary “Magic Man,” an urban legend who has been blamed for the disappearance of several people over the last few years. Is the Magic Man a character we meet in Haplin? A supernatural figure? A serial killer? The smoke monster from “Lost”?

Clearly looking for another “Lost” with that show on its way out the door, “Happy Town” plays up its spooky elements, most of which surround the arrival of Chloe. What does she want? Why does her arrival throw the town for a loop so intensely that it leads the Sheriff to do something unspeakable at the end of the first episode? And what does she want from Haplin?

The show also has a few standard soap opera plotlines, including a pair of high school sweethearts forced to keep their love a secret, a group of rambunctious rednecks who live on the edge of town and cause trouble, and a bit of a power struggle at the Sheriff’s office, but it’s the supernatural mysteries of the show that will clearly be the focus.

Happy Town. Photo credit: John Medland/ABC

Luckily, the writers know that fans may be hesitant to dive back into another six seasons of questions and provide a surprising number of answers, including those around the mystery of the first scene, by the end of episode two. Of course, like any good supernatural soap, the writers smartly ask a new question for every one they answer. The structure of “Happy Town” and its many mysteries are what could keep viewers tuned in.

I say “could” because the meat-and-potatoes of the show needs work. Most notably, the dialogue is just a bit off with radical tone changes and an inconsistent voice. The odd denizens of “Happy Town” naturally have echoes of “Twin Peaks,” but the show is missing that classic’s razor wit and, most importantly, it’s nowhere near as consistent. Even the elements of dark humor aren’t played as confidently as they need to be to work. When a cop informs a worker at the local bread factory of her husband’s death while a group of kids takes a tour nearby, the oddity of the flour fight that follows just doesn’t work like it should. Is it funny? Sad? Just odd? No one seems to have decided.

The inability to maintain tone through dialogue and character ultimately makes for a show that feels awfully shallow. I’m a BIG fan of “domestic mysteries,” having been forever influenced by “Twin Peaks” and loving a good mystery enough that I even stuck with guilty pleasure “Harper’s Island” last summer, but I simply never cared about the action of the first two episodes of “Happy Town”.

With no strong supporting characters to care about, a lot of the burden falls on the shoulders of Mr. Stults and he can’t quite carry the show on his own. Supporting players like Acker, Neill, Conroy, Wisdom, and Weber are talented enough that they could easily elevate the show with their ensemble work but the lack of anything relatable to hold on to makes for a dull trip to “Happy Town”. As any tourist board will tell you, if visitors are bored on their first few visits, they’re unlikely to schedule another trip.

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com