"Happy Town" tells the story of Haplin, Minnesota, a town known for its bread factory, a small town where everyone knows everyone and everyone's got secrets. During a period of time that has at the start of the series long since passed, the town was terrorized by a serial kidnapper simply known as "The Magic Man". "The Magic Man" had an ability to make people disappear in crowded spaces, and bodies were never found, almost as if the people just blipped out of existence and then leaving those left behind a bouquet of dead flowers on their doorstep. Of course, this is simply the backdrop to our little mystery (which gets solved by the finale episode...we'll get to that), there is much more going on in Haplin, and our key players seem to know more than meets the eye. The series does boast some decent star power; Sam Niel (unfortunately, television cancer), Peter Outerbridge (who just so happens to have one of the best lines in this show) Lauren German (currently and unfortunately starring in "Lucifer"), Sarah Gadon, Robert Wisdom, and the only reason anyone would watch "Angel", Amy Acker.
When I originally watched "Happy Town," I was less than impressed, despite the show making an undeniable impression on me. Once again, this is due to my love of small-town mysteries. But I found the characters to be a bit...stupid, and the plot more or less getting muddled. Now that I've rewatched it, I can honestly say that I enjoyed it for the most part and can identify a few moments where the narrative and the story break down. "Happy Town" was canceled after 6 episodes aired, with the last 2 only being available on ABC. With all that said, let's dive into "Happy Town.";
The first episode sets the tone easily enough. We witness a brutal murder where the victim is killed in an ice shack, the manner in which the victim is killed...railroad spike to the head, YIKES. Although not a witness to the murder but within the area are Andrew Haplin (grandson of the mayor) and Georgia Braven (daughter of an abusive meth cook, definitely not Heisenberg level), our Romeo and Juliet duo who are not only keeping their relationship secret but now are keeping quiet on being out at Mack's Pond and potentially seeing something that would aide the murder investigation. We're then introduced to our protagonist, Deputy Sheriff Tom Conroy, played by Geoff Stults. Geoff Stults is literally perfect for this role as he plays a reformed jock who learned responsibility and discipline from his old man. Geoff Stults has an effortless charm about him that makes him easily likable. Tom is married to Rachel (played by Amy Acker) and is the son of Sheriff Griffin Conroy, a gruff but gentle lawman played by M.C. Gainey (also an actor with effortless charm). Tom and Griff are called to investigate the murder, and here's where things begin.
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| The Vis Major |
While that's happening, we're introduced to our second main character, a woman named Hennely Boone who moves to Haplin to open a candle shop, although she's there for other reasons...which we'll get into later. As the episode draws on and Tom and Griff are investigating the murder, Griff continues to act strangely, slipping into an almost trance-like state and asking persons of interest strange questions regarding a mysterious woman named "Chloe," much to Tom and everyone else's confusion. Of course, when asked directly, Griffin denies ever knowing someone named Chloe. We later discover that the victim of the murder is a man named Jerry Friddle, a well-known town pervert who, despite being married, was known to have oggled an underage girl or two...without conviction. The murder weapon (a railroad spike) leads Tom and Griff to The Stiviletto Family, the town's no-goodniks who have a history with Tom Conroy, as Tommy was the main road dog for the Stiviletto Family's ace, Greggy, who is currently in prison for murder. However, the Stiviletto Family has an alibi, so back to square one.
Meanwhile, Henely is taken to a boarding house until she can get settled into Haplin, where she meets a group of thirsty old ladies, and who are they thirsty for? Merritt Greaves, played by the eternally dashing Sam Neil, a collector and seller of cinema artifacts in a business called The House Of Usher. Henely and Merritt immediately hit it off as friends; there is unspoken and unambiguous trust between them, which I like very much as both, without words, acknowledge that they're both hiding something from the other, but not in a malicious way, more in a you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours kind of way. We meet Tom's best friend, Big Dave, a chubby but kind-hearted, well-meaning, and soft-spoken owner of a pizza shop who still lives with his mother. Big Dave will be later revealed to be the murderer of Jerry Friddle, believing him to be "The Magic Man", but we're not quite there yet. By the end of the episode, Griffin is found raving in his office, but shouts an ominous statement that "The Magic Man" will return now that blood has been spilled (implying there was some sort of pact or agreement made with "The Magic Man") and chops off his hand with an axe.
The first episode sets the tone quickly for the series in establishing a town that is used to their own brand of craziness, but not exactly a murder, especially one as grizzly as that. "The Magic Man" terrorized the town with missing persons, but a brutal murder is a different animal. We meet most of the key players we need to meet: John Haplin, son of the mayor of Haplin, a broken man whose daughter was taken by "The Magic Man.", We understand the premise immediately: find the murderer and figure out what other secrets are being kept. Relationships are established as Griffin and Merritt appear to have a history, and not a good one at that. In the boarding house where Henely is staying, the owner firmly informs Henely that she is forbidden from going to the 3rd floor; doing so would result in her immediate expulsion from the boarding house. Henely does make it to the 3rd floor (eventually), and it is by the end of the episode where it's revealed that Henely is in fact "Chloe" and she's in Haplin for her mother, who needs whatever it is that's on the 3rd floor.
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| What I call "The Hammer Of Baphomet" |
With the establishment of the players in our little drama, I should probably talk about the failings. So, as I've mentioned before, Big Dave is revealed to be the murderer, and once Tommy finds out about it, instead of doing his job and arresting him...Tommy decides to go along with Big Dave's madness and try to prove him innocent, even going so far as to obstruct an investigation by telling Big Dave to change his tires once the police find fresh tire tracks by Mack's Pond. Tom comes off as an everyman, but these choices make him look stupid, and Big Dave looks horribly naive to the point of being infantile. However, the actor Abraham Benrubi plays lovable big dumb oaf VERY well and I don't mean this as a knock, Big Dave is so naive that you almost feel sorry for him when Tom inevitably shoots him, almost...until you remember he drove a railroad spike into someone's skull. That being said, Big Dave is somewhat vindicated in the end when he manages to find an underground cavern with 7 cages and items belonging to the victims, had he stayed put, he'd have had a better case to plead...that is of course until you realize he killed a guy by driving a railroad spike through his skull.
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| Solid actor. |
Tommy Conroy is played very capably by Geoff Stults. Tommy, at first, is an underconfident deputy sheriff in a small town that hasn't seen crime, and after being made sheriff after Griffin goes insane and chops his hand off, Tommy starts off very shaky; HOWEVER, he does manage to get his footing back after Big Dave is found out. Tommy is a man simply trying to keep it together, and after shooting Big Dave, he doesn't downward spiral; he gets surprisingly better at his job and more resolved. So when Greggy leads the town to riot, Tommy is ready to fight. Dave's demise happens later, but what does pick up the show's pace is episode 3, where Rachel, Tom's wife, falls victim to "The Magic Man" during the town's festival, Thaw Fest. However, Rachel returns in the very next episode with little to no memory of how she was taken or how she returned. However, Merritt Greaves manages to hypnotize Rachel, and she is able to recall seeing the other victims underwater, but alive. This is all sounding jumbled, so I'm gonna have to explain a few more characters. The best way to describe the characters is in terms of heroes and villains.
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| Another ultimate Everyman. |
On the side of the heroes, you have Merritt Greaves and Henely/Chloe, and on the villains' side is Greggy Stivileto and Mrs. Peggy Haplin, the mayor of Haplin. In the overarching plot to catch "The Magic Man" is a game of cat and mouse that's being played. Henley retrieves what I call "the hammer of Baphomet" from the 3rd floor and uses it to blackmail Mrs. Haplin. The reason is because Mrs. Haplin used that hammer to kill Tommy's mother, Alice, during an argument they had. Henley blackmails Peggy for money ($250,000 to be exact), and Peggy forces Henley to remain in Haplin...somehow causing a roadblock, trains to be delayed, and causing banks that she owns to deny Henley being able to wire the money to Susan (Henley's mother). All of this is a scheme to lure Susan into coming to Haplin, sadly, an arc that's only hinted at but never resolved. What is resolved, though, is the identity of "The Magic Man" and who exactly is searching for him. Now would be a good time to discuss Merritt Greaves.
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| Solid duo here. |
Merritt Greaves is a bit of an enigma. He's a well-mannered English gentleman with a number of skills (hypnotism, magician, and cinephile), but he's also looking for "The Magic Man". Merritt's backstory is that his son Simon was taken in Manchester, and when he heard the goings on in Haplin, he decided to stick around and see if he could discover what happened to his son. Merritt aides Henley in several endeavors, the first being massively successful, creating a diversion for Henley to make a copy of the key that'd get her to the 3rd floor to locate the hammer, the 2nd wasn't a success as Henley tried to use Merritt to smuggle the money out of Haplin, only for Merritt to be strangled on a train and robbed of the money. The 3rd and final matter of aid was when Henley and Merritt teamed up to steal the hammer back from Mrs. Haplin, which succeeded. Merritt seduced Mrs. Haplin and stole the hammer while Henley was a diversion. While Merritt works with Henley and it's a delight to see them together. Merritt, however, reveals that there is much more to him than meets the eye. In the final episode, when The Stiviletos are threatening to kill John Haplin if a man suspected to be "The Magic Man" isn't turned over to them, Merritt Greaves manages to defuse the situation by revealing he had "lion crushing strength and commanded an army of the undead", what this cryptic statement means is anyone's guess but when Merritt says it, you believe it.
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| Sam Neil, doing Sam Neil things |
Henley is also out to get "The Magic Man" but that's not made evident at first. Henley tells everyone she's new in town, but that's not true; she knows all the players (ie, Peggy Haplin, has a halo tattoo on her shoulder and knows about "The Magic Man"). Henley is a character who's not afraid of anyone, and I'm all for it. In this current age of girl bosses and all this crap, it's good to see a character who doesn't always win but wins through sheer grit and determination. After getting robbed by Greggy, Henley charges right up to The Stivileto Farm and tortures Greggy to reveal that he stole the money from Merritt at the behest of Peggy Haplin, and she even tells Greggy not to go after Merritt when he threatens him. Henley was in Haplin to get the hammer to Tommy, who'd confront Griffin about it, who'd then lead Henley to..."The Magic Man"...and this actually works...more on that later. Griffin and Henley never have a scene together, so we're not sure what the significance of "Chloe" actually is.
Since I've been talking about her, why don't we address the villain of the piece, other than "The Magic Man", Mrs. Peggy Haplin. Peggy is a villain in so much as she is cold, calculated, wealthy, and generally reviled by her own family; her son (John Haplin) doesn't like her, and her grandson (Andrew) can't make heads or tails of her. Peggy makes her first show of strength when she asks Tommy to be the Sheriff after Griffin amputated his own hand; when Tommy declines and suggests that Det. Ray (an older detective with more experience) should be made Sheriff. Peggy agrees, but then at the Town Hall, Peggy announces to everyone that Tommy is the new Sheriff. This is a subtle but quick way to acknowledge that Peggy gets her way no matter what. I've already mentioned her prevention of Henley and the money leaving town. What I didn't mention is that Mrs. Haplin is extremely perceptive, being aware of Andrew dating Georgia and his plans to leave Haplin, despite him never revealing them to her. Peggy is accused of being a murderer by Henley (and I promise I'll get into that), but that's just one of the things Peggy seems to be aware of. However, Peggy doesn't seem to know Henley's true identity as Chloe, as she keeps calling her "Ms. Boone".
Now, in order to sort of wrap this up, we need to talk about an absolute enigma of a character, and that is Dan Farmer, played by Peter Outerbridge. Dan Farmer is a character who comes out of nowhere and probably has some of the best lines in this show. We first meet Dan stalking Georgia Braven in the hospital in order to get the truth out of her regarding what she witnessed up at Mack's Pond; however, we learn that Dan is actually a State Police officer who has been called over to Haplin to help Haplin PD find Jerry Friddle's killer (Big Dave). However, it quickly becomes evident that Dan Farmer isn't who he says he is either. Andrew and Georgia (our Romeo and Juliet couple) discover a trailer filled with items from victims of "The Magic Man," and this trailer is revealed to belong to Dan Farmer. After forcibly shoving a crepe in Georgia's mouth and revealing to her he's a police officer, he interrogates them both, separately, while having them handcuffed, and then releases them, threatening to kill them if they reveal who he is. However, Tommy notices Georgia avoiding Dan's gaze at Big Dave's funeral, and this causes Georgia to sound the alarm that Dan Farmer is "The Magic Man" (he's not).
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| This is Gazpacho, because he likes his soup served cold. |
In the last few episodes, Merritt mentions a protege of his, Xavier, a man helping him find Simon. Xavier is revealed to be Dan Farmer, working his angles to find "The Magic Man.". While Merritt and Henley work through organized step-by-step plans, Dan/Xavier works through drugging, kidnapping and out and out lying and isn't above killing anyone if need be. Dan's creepy behavior gets him labeled as "The Magic Man" and causes a riot to nearly break out in the police department when every badguy in town (led by Greggy Stivileto) demands to lynch Dan as "The Magic Man". Dan does deny he's "The Magic Man" several times and when Rachel lays eyes on him she knows immediately that he's not "The Magic Man". Dan Farmer is te wackiest character on this by far, his lines are hilarious and Peter Outerbridge's delivery of them are just perfect.
In the background of all of this is a mysterious experimental German film called "The Blue Door," and I'd be remiss to not mention this, as it's mentioned in the very 1st episode, is actually seen in the finale, and yet maintains a presence throughout the show. The reason why this is important is unclear, but the film has been shown to have a profound effect on 3 characters. The first to mention the film is Merritt Greaves, who describes the film as a "portal into the heart of man", The 2nd character to mention it is Peggy Haplin, who shows the film to her grandson Andrew. While he's watching the film, she's watching him. After the film, which Andrew describes as "the worst thing he's ever seen.", Peggy launches into a speech about why Andrew cannot leave Haplin with Georgia and how he must stay and be the standard bearer for their family. Peggy describes the film as a classic and it's "who you are". There are blue doors throughout the series if you care to look, and with these cryptic statements and the fact that Andrew does decide to remain in Haplin and not leave with Georgia, even lamenting his decision, reveals that "The Blue Door" may have some hypnotic effect. The connection between "The Blue Door" and "The Magic Man" is something I'd have liked to explore, and you can tell that had the series continued, this would have been elaborated on.
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| The Blue Door |
"Happy Town", when it first aired, I ripped this show to shreds, but after several viewings of it and my love of small-town mysteries, I've come to love and appreciate this show. It came out in a strange time in TV when everyone was looking for the next "L O S T" and episodic TV was slowly becoming a thing of the past, streaming wasn't as huge as it is now, and networks still needed mid-season replacements. I feel like the script could have used a bit more polish, but there was definitely A LOT of meat there to chew and a lot of layers to peel back. I feel like if released at the right time (no clue when that'd be) "Happy Town" could have easily become the next "Twin Peaks" (and one that actually makes sense), and I don't say that lightly.
The show had a good cast and enough mystery to keep you wondering. Luckily for ABC, the final episodes got to air online, and we finally got the reveal as to who "The Magic Man" actually is. As it turns out, "The Magic Man" is in fact "The Magic Woman." It's actually Alice Conroy, Tommy's mother. What this means and why is a mystery, but a compelling one, at least for me, because it raises the questions, why, how, and what? It makes me wonder what other secrets are being kept in Haplin. This probably would work better as a mini-series, but for what we got, we got something that COULD have been great. You can check out all the episodes on YouTube for free if you wanna give it a gander. That seems to be Josh and Andre's lot in entertainment: to produce shows that don't quite make it. Granted, they've gotten outta this slump, but it's a noticeable track record.
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| "Try, try, try to understand he's the maaaaaaaaagic man!" |
I still got some shows to check out for next time. I've got an oldie but a goodie lined up for the next entry of "Project Canceled.", I won't reveal it because you probably never heard of it (that's the point), but I'm working on that now. Anyway, leave a comment and let me know what you think of "Happy Town" if you decide to watch it, and I'll catch you guys behind "The Blue Door".
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