Pilots are a funny thing. They tend to fall into one of three categories for me. The first is “Wow! I’m hooked and I have to come back for more.” (That one is a rarity but it happens.) The second is “I’m intrigued and I see possibilities so I’ll be back.” That leaves the third, “This was a waste of my time and I’m never tuning in again.” Granted there are different increments for each category but you get the gist.

Haven falls squarely in category two. I’m not hooked yet but I am intrigued and there is definitely enough to get me to watch again. The show is based on Stephen King’s “The Colorado Kid”. Having never read this one I have no expectations other than I have higher hopes than usual for a good story.

Haven starts off with FBI Special Agent Audrey Parker being sent to Haven, Maine to track down an escapee. She manages to find him pretty quickly. He’s the dead guy under the cliff. Now her job is to find out how he got that way. Through her investigation she meets several of the locals. Let’s just say that Haven has a plethora of unusual characters.

The drive into town was actually one of my favorite scenes of the pilot as it shows off some playful dialogue. Audrey’s car careens off the road and is teetering on a cliff. (Who knew sandstone roads could be so dangerous?) As she realizes her car could slide over at any moment, Captain and Tennille’s Love Will Keep Us Together plays on the radio. “No. There’s no way I’m dying to this.”

The second chuckle of the night was when Audrey and local Haven Police Officer Nathan Wournos are at a standoff trying to figure out who the other is. They are holding each other at gunpoint as Audrey reaches for her ID and Nathan balks at the movement. “What am I going to do, pull out another gun?” Haven has a lot of moments like these: light hearted dialogue and quirky characters. The whole show feels a bit like a cross between Eureka and The X-files, certainly not a bad thing.

The pilot episode throws a lot at us. A man who feels no physical pain, a woman who can unknowingly control the weather, the town bad boy played by Eric Balfour (definitely hoping to see more of him in future episodes), a half a century old unsolved murder that may or may not be connected to our FBI agent.

I can’t say I loved Haven but I definitely liked it, more for the characters than the story. I still have high hopes for the story though and I’ll be tuning in over the next few weeks to see if Haven has what it takes to hook me in.

Check out Haven on SyFy - Fridays 10 / 9 C

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