The Plot
Fresh-faced Henley (Lauren German) moves to the small town of Haplin, Minnesota, AKA "Happy Town," a cheery place where her late mother used to vacation as a child. She plans to use her inheritance to buy a house and open a candle shop, but until she does so, Henley stays at a local boarding house run by Dot Meadows. There she sees the idealized veneer of the community begin to crumble: Dot warns her never to go to the third floor, fellow boarding house resident and store owner Merritt Grieves (Sam Neill) displays a charming dark side, and town resident Jerry Friddle is found murdered by the lake.
The latter interrupts deputy policeman Tommy Conroy's (Geoff Stults) plans to go boating. Tommy is the sheriff's son, a reluctant cop who enjoys his job largely because there's so little crime in town. However, with Jerry's death, fear spreads that "the Magic Man" has returned. The mysterious figure first struck 12 years ago, when a young woman went missing. Every year for the next seven years, someone vanished without a trace, until the disappearances suddenly stopped five years ago.
The 8-year-old daughter of Haplin's most prominent resident, bread factory owner John Haplin (Steven Weber), was one of the Magic Man's victims, but John holds out hope that she's still alive and spends much of his time making sure no one -- especially the police -- forgets about her. As such, he's not always aware of teenage son Andrew's (Ben Schnetzer) activities, including an affair with wrong-side-of-the-tracks classmate Georgia Bravin (Sarah Gadon). In Haplin, it seems, everyone has a secret.
The End Result
The challenge is the maintain its appeal long-term, but Happy Town is off to a fine start, constructing a broad foundation upon which to build. As with many pilots, the plot is fast-moving -- with major and minor characters alike being introduced and quickly delineated -- but while the number of characters is dizzying, we never feel lost in the plot, and the pace never feels rushed.
Hints about the myriad of mysteries and secrets are dropped here and there, piquing our interest in not only the plot, but also the characters, who aren't yet fully rounded but are nonetheless intriguing. The devilish Grieves in particular sparks interest; could he be cut from the same cloth as fellow shop owner Leland Gaunt in Stephen King's Needful Things? That question, like the future of Happy Town's multi-faceted mystery, remains to be seen, but I like where things are headed.
Happy Town premieres on Wednesday, April 28, 2010, at 10:00 PM ET/PT on ABC.
