The premiere of Happy Town starts the series off with a bang… Well, not really a bang.  There was a gun involved, but it didn’t go off…  Okay, let’s start this again:

The premiere of Happy Town starts the series off on a really interesting foot, and though this mystery show didn’t lean as far towards the horror genre as I was hoping it would, hopefully it is going to head that way in the future considering we’ve got ourselves a murderer to find and the memory of a serial kidnapper still haunting the town.

Because this is an unraveling mystery, a whole bunch of questions were presented with this first episode.  I figured because my memory is that of a goldfish when it comes to these things (don’t even get me started on Lost), I am going to take note of anything and everything that may come into play later on.  If you couldn’t give an insignificant penny about these things then skip the list. But all I know is that later on when it is revealed that she really was carrying something shifty in that guitar case, I am gonna be there shouting “I knew it!”  Okay, that probably won’t happen, but still.  And avoid this list if you don’t want to be spoiled:

• *The town creeper is murdered out in a shack on the town’s frozen pond by a silent, shadowy figure, with a spike hammered into the skull no less.  Why a spike?  Was the gun just for show?  But right before this the creepster whispered some information to the murderer that is probably something that we are going to want to know at some point.  Something else to note is that the Magic Man’s hawk is seen in the trees (it is revealed in the preview for the upcoming episodes).
• *Henley, a girl who moves to Haplin to open up a candle shop with her inheritance (which we find out later is a lie) brings a guitar case with her.  Yeah, you thought I was joking about that guitar comment before, but oh no… Anyway, it gets some screen time and some silly banter over it, yet we never see her pull that thing out and strum a few chords.  I bet there is no guitar…
• *As she is being chauffeured around the town we see a bunch of haloed question marks on random locations, which we later learn is a symbol relating to the victims kidnapped by the Magic Man.  Is there significance to the locations or are they just random graffiti?
• *We get the first mentioning of Alice with the name of Tommy Conroy’s boat (Dallas Alice).  This is just the first mentioning of her because we later find out that this is the name of his mother, and therefore the sheriff’s late wife.  She comes up again later with the family conversation of death over the dinner table, and gets some major play with the wedding ring.  Which I will talk about this more later…
• *Does Big Dave own the only place to eat in this town?
• *The Sheriff, Tommy and Root Beer (an unfortunately nicknamed cop) have to go break up an uproar over a banner being put up for the Thaw Fest about the kidnap victims.  Apparently the majority of the town would rather forget about this, while the others still want answers for what happened to their loved ones.
• *As the sheriff and Tommy go out to investigate the site of the murder on the pond, the sheriff mentions someone named Chloe.  But when Tommy asks who she is the sheriff acts as if he didn’t say anything.
• *We see the guitar case again; I just know there is something in it…
• *We get introduced to the best characters in the whole show: a group of widows all living in the same boarding house that Henley will be staying at.  I hope I am this cool when I am old.
• *We then come across Merritt Grieves, a man who talks like Hannibal and is just as creepy.  There has to be a reason that his tummy has been upset all day.  My stomach would be upset too if I had just murdered someone the night before.  MURDERER!  Just kidding, he is probably the first red herring of the series for me.  It should also be noted that he is new to the town as well, just moving to Haplin 3 months ago.
• *Dot Meadows makes a point to mention that the third floor is off limits and ignoring this rule “will result in the termination of your stay here.”  MURDERER!  Just kidding… But she is dead serious…
• *The sheriff informs everyone down at the station that the murderer is “not a well man.  A well man doesn’t put a hole in another man’s head.”  Well, this episode clearly shows that you are going crazy, and let’s be honest; a well man doesn’t cut off his own hand.  MURDERER!  Just kidding again… I will stop yelling that at people now… (You will understand the hand comment later)
• *When John Haplin calls home his wife is in their daughter’s room (who was kidnapped).  She tells him that she found Spaghetti on the Moon, a children’s book.  As far as I can tell this book does not exist.  I feel so lied to.
• *This show has a Romeo and Juliet story going on between Andrew Haplin and Georgia Bravin.  This doesn’t get too much screen time yet, but will probably cause some big uproar later in the show considering his dad owns the bread company and hers makes meth.
• *While questioning the wife of the murder victim the sheriff starts talking about Chloe again, saying: “And at what point did Chloe contact you?  Did you realize the glow from her mouth was the silvery moon?”  What the heck does that mean?
• *He then mentions Chloe again when questioning the Stiviletto brothers in relation to the murder.  These tune outs about Chloe are happening very frequently, and I want to know if they have to do with the murder considering that they seemed to have started after it happened.
• *When Henley is talking to Grieves in his movie memorabilia store he mentions a film called The Blue Door, which also doesn’t really exist, but it is important to the show because there is a blue door in the preview following the episode.  So what he says about it should be noted: “This film, seen by very few, revealed to me the secrets of the universe.  The blue door was a gateway, a portal, into the heart of man.  They’re spread everywhere, even in the sunniest plains.  But Haplin County has lived under the false comfort of its sheriff, who has managed to keep the dread at bay for the last run of years.”  Yeah, I don’t know what that means, but he finishes his spiel saying that maybe the Magic Man hasn’t been active in the past 5 years because he might have gone back through the blue door.
• *We learn that the Magic Man gets his name from making his victims disappear almost completely, starting 12 years ago and ending 5 years ago.  Each kidnapping would be marked by one item being left behind from the victim.
• *The murder victim’s body tested high for traces of baking powder.  The cops laugh it off because baking flower is everywhere in the town, but it wouldn’t be said if it wasn’t important.  Which means at least 12% of the town is a suspect because that’s how many people are employed at the bread factory.  Then again… it’s probably in every kitchen in the town as well.  Ugh… we are back to 100% of the town being a suspect.  Except for the cute old ladies.  I refuse to see them as spike wielding murderers capable of throwing a man around a tiny shack like a doll.  So I should probably rule out Tommy’s little girl as well.
• *During some old lady gossip over the dinner table we learn that the murder was in Dot Meadows’ late husband’s fishing shack.  I bet he’s not really dead.  I bet he lives on the third floor!  THAT”S RIGHT!  I HAVE FIGURED IT ALL OUT!  Okay, not really.  But at least I didn’t shout murderer this time like I wanted to.
• *We find ourselves in Big Dave’s again.  This time around the sheriff is picking up some dinner, and runs into Grieves here, who he is obviously not a fan of.  Apparently something went down between them last week and the sheriff told him to leave Haplin, which obviously he didn’t do.  Unfortunately we don’t get to hear what happened.
• *The more important part of this interaction is when the sheriff’s wedding band falls off his finger without him realizing it.  Apparently he did not take to heart that whole speech about keeping that ring on to help him remember the touch of his wife or what not.
• *Okay, now this probably doesn’t have to do with anything at all, but what is the show that the daughter and the babysitter are watching in the background of the scene between Tommy and his wife?
• *Tommy gets called back to the station because his father is there going nuts, all the while saying some pretty awesome things.  This includes: “If you touch the baby Jesus, I will make you wear the cow suit.”  Someone should do this because I want to see this suit.  And then he says, “Chloe burnt the can.”  I love crazy people talk (again I mention River from Firefly), but I have no idea what this means either.
• *This scene is cut together with another involving Henley, who is revealed to be Chloe.  BUM BUM BUM!!!  Oh, and her mom isn’t dead.  And she has a tattoo of the haloed question mark on the back of her right shoulder.  With all this revealed, we now have to wonder how the sheriff knows her name and what her intentions are in the town.  At the end of the episode she is walking up the stairs (which are bathed in blue light) to the third floor, but unfortunately we will have to wait to see what is up there until next week.
• *Now back to the crazy sheriff.  If having his ring fall off on its own wasn’t enough before, he decides to take one of the numerous hatchets off his wall (why he has that many, I don’t know) and chop his left hand off.  He really doesn’t want that ring on anymore…
• *The episode ends with someone closing the blue door of the ice-fishing shack.  Oooo…

Wow, that recap list was a doozy.  But I am sure that something in there is significant…

As an episode to start a new series I would say that this one was pretty strong.  It throws a lot our way in this introduction to a murderer and a past involving the Magic Man, a man who kidnapped numerous people from the town before disappearing himself 5 years ago, as well as a whole slew of characters.  At first I thought they might be there as cannon fodder, but as I said before, this show isn’t going as strongly in the direction of horror as I originally expected it to, so it is most likely that they are just there as red herrings to keep the viewer guessing as to who all is involved in the evil brewing in this town.  However, the show ends with the line: “Now the blood has been spilled, he’ll be back,” so here’s hoping this show gets a little more creepy instead of just weird.

Oh, and if any of you actually read the bullet points above and have some predictions or possibly answers to the questions I have, please fill me in cuz I would love to hear them.