Happy Town – Seriously big big let down
For those that found there way to ABC this late spring/summer and watched a little show called Happy Town, that feeling in your backside is the feeling of getting f***** by a TV exec. I am a big fan of Farscape so I know this feeling well. For those that don’t know, read on and learn what it feels like to be fucked by an elephant dick.
Happy town was a neat show. Honestly. One that took a seriously strong jump for me in interest with the inclusion of Sam Neil. This is a top acting talent as far as I’m concerned. Not to mention Frances Conroy, star of HBO’s Six Feet Under, a top talent in the acting world in her own right and the supporting cast wasn’t bad either. Granted Ms. Conroy was a guest star technically but she certainly added to the show’s talent pool. David Cronenberg even had a guest spot on it for god’s sake and the chick from Cujo! Bet you didn’t think I could pull that one!
Why then am I so upset by this show? I’ll tell you why. The eight episodes we got were good, with one really huge exception, what the fuck was going on? This is a classic case of way too much talent at acting and way too little talent at writing. Well, maybe that’s not entirely fair, though I liked the show and thought it was good, but it just didn’t appeal to the larger crowd and ABC pulled it.
I suppose my biggest gripe here is that we didn’t find out anything. Eight episodes were all we got and the last episode was more of a giant teaser than a series ender. We find out who the magic man, or woman, is, chick from Cujo, and that she is a bartender and is clearly a certified nutbrain. What we don’t find out is how exactly she kidnap people, put them in cages, then submerse them in water, and keep them alive and un-aged for years. Not exactly training you’d get in bartender school. Trust me, I’ve been to it. For real. Don’t ask…
In the end we, the sad and often abused scifi fan base, are left with another show that got cut. Sure it wasn’t a Farscape or Firefly by any stretch, but it was a good mystery with a top notch acting group that is now no more. The asshats at NBC better not pull one of these over on us with Persons Unknown. But then that is technically a miniseries with an end already filmed. Sorta planning for failure I guess. Eh, whatever, as long as I get an ending!
