(S01E02) The character of Blackham -- the clear jerk of the group of people trapped in the 'Persons Unknown' small town -- had an interesting theory in tonight's episode, even if he was mostly kidding. What if this is some reality show?

If you think about it, this show is pretty much set up like 'Big Brother' or 'Survivor': a bunch of strangers are thrown into a situation together in a particular place. 'Big Brother' has a house, 'Survivor' has an island and this show has a deserted town.

It's sort of the ultimate reality show, really. People who are truly trapped in a place, away from their families, and can probably really die at any moment (as far as we know). I'm wondering when -- or if -- some of these characters will start dying, or are they just being tested/experimented on in some way? When Janet got the gun I thought it was going to turn out to have blanks in it so she wouldn't actually kill Joe if she decided to use it. But then we saw that she shot the camera instead, a twist you probably saw coming the minute they showed her aiming the gun and then a close-up of the camera (a second obvious thing happened later when the butterfly was zapped in the invisible fence), so those were real bullets so this really is life and death we're playing with here.

Speaking of that invisible fence, why do they have to keep touching it with their hands and other body parts? Isn't it the type of fence you can just throw something at instead? Maybe a rock or a book or an empty Chinese food container. By the way, this seems like a nice town, actually. It has a movie theater, shopping, and the best Chinese food in the world. Though I think I'd either get sick of having Chinese food for every meal or spend a lot of time in the bathroom. I wonder why it's Chinese food anyway? Is there a reason behind that?

We're all looking for clues as to what exactly this place is and who has kidnapped these people. I'm not sure if this is the type of shows to give us 'Murder, She Wrote'-ish clues that we can actually figure out. It's probably a show that will give us more and more reveals as the season goes along. I wonder what we're supposed to think of the stories going on outside of the small town, this show's story structure that sort of mimics the flashbacks we saw on 'Lost' (a way of adding meat and back story to what's going on). Why show the grandmother as a creepy disciplinarian? And why does the reporter wear such weird glasses and a cloth vest?

Maybe each was brought there by a family member or friend for some reason? It was interesting to see that there are security cameras away from the small town (in this episode they were in the bar), so maybe this whole plot is bigger than we imagine.

The whole subplot with that reporter and his editor has a weird vibe about it, like it's supposed to be America but they filmed the scenes in Peru or something. It just seems ... off. Maybe it's the actors, maybe it's the set, I don't know. (Update: this whole series was filmed in Mexico, so there you go.)

So yeah, I'm still into this show. I gave up on 'Happy Town' three episodes in, but this one continues to make me say "what is going on?" And since that's what they're going for, they've succeeded.

More thoughts:

- I would have taken out those implants. Sure, trust yourself to the complete stranger who is walking around wearing a bathrobe. What if the kidnappers assumed you would try to take them out and put in something that would hurt you? But they're out and that gave us the chance to go beyond the fence. Or they could have died of infection. The Chinese restaurant is well-staffed but I haven't seen a hospital yet, so they should be careful.

- About that fence: since they drove straight away in the car and then ended up in the town again, are we to assume there's something otherworldly about this crazy Mayberry or what?

- Did you notice that the fortune cookie changed? When we saw it last week it was all on one line but tonight's fortune was on two lines. I truly doubt that means anything. I'm thinking it's a continuity error.

- What about the weird smoke that came out of Victoria's room when she opened the door? Why didn't she notice that or question it? Or did I imagine it?

- I'm guessing that Moira likes Victoria (nudge-nudge wink-wink) or maybe she's just quirky.

- Good to see the show has a longer opening with a theme song now.

Watch the full episode below!