A Man. And His Blog.

The short-lived small-town-mystery started in April 2010 and was cancelled twice

A period of peace following a series of unsolved kidnappings is cut short when a new crime has everyone talking in the small Minnesota town of Haplin. The townsfolk are convinced the crimes are committed by the so-called “Magic Man”, a person whom Merritt Grieves (Sam Neill) describes as having “an ability that bordered on the mystical.” Six [Haplin townsfolk] vanished, never to be heard of again.” As the series progresses it seems evident that the disappearances are related to town matriarch Peggy Haplin and an old German film she possesses titled Die Blaue Tür (The Blue Door).

Episode 01: In This Home on Ice
I already reviewed this one during the last TV season. Click here to read it. 6.5/10

Episode 02: I Came to Haplin for the Waters
A surprisingly good episode, even though I am still thinking that the series has way too many characters. Henley (Lauren German) seems to be the person with the biggest mystery part in the show (in the pilot revealed as Chloe, and now victim of a car accident, which probably wasn’t an accident), but she is totally uninteresting so far; then we have Merritt, who somehow has a connection to the older ladies, but he and the old ladies are totally uninteresting. Only Tommy (Geoff Stults), his staff in the sheriff’s department, probably his father, his wife (when Amy Acker has screentime), Georgia (Sarah Gadon, thanks to her kidnapping this episode) and Big Dave (Abraham Benrubi) are persons of interest at the moment, but just because this episode centered around them.
I was surprised that Dave was to be revealed as Friddle’s killer – I would have thought that the Magic Man was the killer, but now the series doesn’t even have the Magic Man in the story now. There are only talks and discussions about him, which is actually interesting. The Tommy/Dave confrontation was good, and it showed that Dave could be a crazy character. And the series needs a few crazy characters.
Georgia’s kidnapping was interesting, too, and the introduction of it very creepy and suspenseful, but the story was concluded too soon – after three minutes, it was already over, and the writers didn’t go back to it. Tommy beating up the Stivilettos was just a stereotype story and didn’t bring anything.
Oh yeah, I think I know who the Magic Man is: I say it is Rachel Conroy, just because I saw Amy Acker in some villain roles these last weeks and months… 7/10

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There is a hole in the head.

It is the end of the TV season 2009/2010, and ABC’s last pilot rolls to the audience. And probably the last pilot episode reviewed by me for this season, when I don’t forget FOX’s The Good Guys next month. So, is Happy Town really DOA and just a shameless ripoff of Harper’s Island, or is there more behind a happy town with a murderer called “Magic Man” in it?
Well, the pilot didn’t give us much, but what it gave us were some facts that the show is a bit different with the killer shows before this date, naming Harper’s Island. Even though I couldn’t stop comparing Happy Town with two other TV series, it was actually and surprisingly good. I was expecting it would be more bad. Sure, the characters couldn’t be more of a cliché, the story couldn’t be more interesting at this point, and I couldn’t be more bothered by a TV show, which probably isn’t even living to see another season.
I was bored while watching the episode, but I wasn’t turned away, and the cliffhanger managed to get me tuned in next week to see, how the writers deal with the story. After all, they want to prevent us from comparing this show with Harper’s Island. So, to all of you guys: Stop comparing this show with Harper’s Island. You are allowed to compare it during the first 45 minutes, but not after that!

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