Drama
Alien: Earth
FX’s ‘Alien: Earth’ is just the latest graphically violent entry in the already graphically violent ‘Alien’ franchise.
Happy Town is not, really.
Oh, sure, some individuals may be “happy” in a relative sort of way. But if a town was somehow able to express emotions, Haplin, Minn., would be more likely to shift its traffic lights nervously while wringing its intersections. Haplin is home to too many murders, disappearances and mysterious happenings to be a truly happy place—unless it’s a Jack Nicholson-chopping-through-a-door kind of happy.
Residents might’ve been able to kid themselves for a while. It’s been years since Haplin experienced any sort of crime at all, thanks (apparently) to Sheriff Griffin Conroy and good, clean, small-town living. But years ago, Haplinites had developed a habit of going missing. Several—some of them kids—vanished and were never seen again. And the townsfolk attributed the mysterious disappearances to someone they dubbed the “Magic Man.”
Now, a local’s gotten himself murdered, and the good sheriff has started cutting off his own appendages in a fit of insanity. Old-timers think the Magic might be back—and not in a good way.
With the sheriff losing touch (so to speak), the burden of uncovering the killer falls on his laid-back deputy/son Tommy, mysterious newcomer Henley and a smattering of busybodies—many who keep their own secrets.
From its commercials, Happy Town might seem to be a network horror-fest, built on the not-so-successful foundations laid by CBS’ Harper’s Island in 2009. But while Harper’s proved to be a dumbed-down (if that’s possible) slasher flick extended over 13 episodes, Happy aspires to be a cut-rate Twin Peaks.
Oh, and it aspires to showing more blood, too. Happy Town exceeds the graphic violence quota of many PG-13 thrillers and actioners at the theater—loaded as it is with knives and guns and axes and chisels. It’s only a matter of time before one of the writers introduces a wood chipper.
“This Home on Ice”
The town oddball—called a pervert for ogling women and girls, is killed in an ice fishing shack. We see him thrown around, beaten, nearly drowned and tied to a chair, blood smearing his face. His end comes with a chisel being hammered into his forehead. We see everything but the actual hit, and later we see daylight streaming through a hole in his head. The sheriff raises an ax and swings it toward his own hand. A fight breaks out in the town square.
Two lovebirds make out in a car. (The girl tells her beau that her “a‑‑” is off limits.) A widow makes a pass at a mysterious gentleman—offering to bring him bread with honey—and later quipping to her girlfriends that she wants to be on that piece of bread. Someone says that he made “sweet love” to his significant other—while she read a magazine. We hear references to “homosexual panic.”
Wine and beer appear. Someone is said to be a meth addict. Profanities such as “h‑‑‑,” “d‑‑n,” “a‑‑” and misuses of God’s name are heard, as are euphemisms for the f-word and a slang term for testicles.
Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.
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