As Haplin celebrates its 53rd Thaw Fest, the viewer’s of ABC’s Happy Town have little to celebrate. Again, we’re presented an episode where a lot happens; however, the plot has yet to move forward. And the natives are getting restless. By natives I mean me, and by restless I mean bored.
At the end of last week’s episode, Hedley crashed her car into a tree after a bird flew into her windshield. Well, lucky Hedley, a mysterious and good-looking stranger shows up just in the nick of time to rescue her. Her car is totaled, but Hedley is well enough to have casual sex with said stranger at a seedy motel. Aside from a brief phone call where she again refers to herself as Chloe, that’s all we’re given on who I presumed to be the show’s main character. Instead, this episode focused on Tommy Conroy and his troubles as as interim sheriff of Haplin County. The Stivelettos are pressing criminal charges after Tommy beat them up for drugging and beating Georgia. Though no one knows if that is exactly what happened. Then Tommy arrests Andrew Haplin, grandson of the great Mrs. Haplin (who was revealed to be the mayor of Haplin) and the Romeo to Georgia’s Juliet, for assaulting Georgia’s father. His point being that no one in Haplin is above the law. In the meantime he’s helping his best friend conceal the murder he committed back in the first episode. To top it all off, Tommy’s wife goes missing from Thaw Fest, and all around are signs pointing to the Magic Man as the culprit. Needless to say, things are not going in the right direction for Sheriff Conroy.
After three episodes of more plot points than I can remember clogging my brain, I feel as if I’m watching an excruciatingly long movie that will inevitably go nowhere. I say it’s inevitable because this week’s episode ended with a promo from ABC announcing new episodes are “coming soon.” That’s the kiss of death. The remaining 5 episodes already shot are likely to be buried on a Friday or Saturday sometime this summer when there is nothing else to air, a la Pushing Daisies or any other of the countless ABC shows that had great potential but poor execution and ended up canned as a result. As I mentioned before, a lot has happened, but when looked at on the whole–nothing has really happened. Three episodes of back story is more than enough, let’s move forward a bit and keep the viewers intrigued. Cramming each episode with a lot of tiny pieces of a huge puzzle isn’t enough anymore. It’s been done, and it’s too late to ride that gravy train to the bank.
That being said, the potential is still there. ABC can salvage this show if they can find the right time to air the remaining 5 espisodes and if those episodes start revealing enough to keep the audience interested in what will happen. There are so many directions this could go, and there are so many options with this infamous Magic Man, that the show really could gain a following over the boring summer months that can carry the show for at least 3 or 4 seasons. For the sake of my curiosity, I hope ABC gets it right. For now it’s just wait and see.
Check out promo pics from “Slight of Hand””, the next episode of Happy Town!
