To Bell Or Not To Bell? – As the first episode of Panhandle begins, an alligator approaches a woman who is outside working in her garden. Bell Prescott (Luke Kirby) gets romantic with Vida Perez Prescott (Lorenza Izzo) inside. They stop when Bell’s mother shoots at the gather. She comes inside to tell him that she just scared Moseley back into the gator pit. When Bell goes outside to pick up his packages, he struggles to get past the gate. Instead, he gives the deliveryman money to hang the packages over the gate. He thinks something is wrong with the plants so he looks and sees a dead body there. Cammie Lorde stops Jonathon Michael Dungee for speeding before getting a call from Bell about the body. Although she goes out to his house immediately, she doesn’t seem to care at all about solving the case. She is only authorized to write tickets so all felonies are reported to the county sheriff in Crestview.

Bell curses the sheriff and calls him multiple names because he didn’t solve Mel Doppler’s murder even though Bill Mason clearly killed him. Doppler’s remains were found in the Apalachicola River on June 14 and he called Mason on the 4th. He goes on to explain how he knows Mason was responsible for Doppler’s killing. Cammie asks if he has any proof of this. Vida warns him that she’ll never leave if he shows her, but he takes her out to the barn to show her anyway. She is surprised to see his crime lab. She asks how he managed to investigate these cases when he hasn’t been off his property in five years. Bell heads outside where he speculates that the latest victim was killed with a double-edged blade and likely an oyster knife. The victim had a toothache in the days before his murder. When asked how he knows that, Bell says he looks like a smurf so it was likely the result of excessive benzocaine from an oral pain relief jail.

He wants the body taken to a coroner, but she says they don’t have one. Cammie explains that the Mayor of Boggsville told everyone their checks were going to bounce so everyone quit. They only kept her because the radar going is the only thing stopping the town from being bankrupt. Cammie reminds him that he hasn’t been off his property since his wife was murdered.  Vida’s scarf flies away and we see a cut on her neck. Cammie calls Sheriff Grant (Glenn Morshower) to tell him about it only to be reminded that she isn’t qualified to work a murder. After the call, she talks to Bell about his fear of places and situations that cause panic. After she tells him not to contaminate the crime scene, he says he has degrees in criminology from excellent online institutions. Cammie asks why he hasn’t solved his wife’s murder if he is so smart.

Once Cammie admits that she considers them suspects, Millicent (Lesley Ann Warren) points her shotgun at her. Bell insists his family has never committed a murder before asking his mom to get him some Ziplocs. As Cammie warns Bell that she could arrest him, Darby arrives in a pest control van. Darby Hix (Melanie Minichino) knows Cammie who gave her a speeding ticket. She helps Bell with the murder by telling him that the maggots are bluebottles likely on their second molt. That convinces Bell that the time of death was three days ago on Monday. Bell finds something sticking in the dead man’s shoe so he decides to check it out under a microscope. While doing so, he learns that Cammie is from Detroit. She gets a call and has to leave, but warns Bell not to go near the crime scene while she is gone. Millicent tells Bell it has been five years so it might be time to move on.

Bell would rather focus on getting rid of the body before it starts stinking. She surprises him by saying Jamie Dykstra smelled like a swamp rat anyway. She didn’t tell the officer who he was because she thought Bell might’ve killed him. He remembers that name so he finds a check made out to cash to him. It was endorsed a week before Vida’s murder. He asks Vida what the connection is and what the money was for. Bell has to run outside when he sees the gator pulling the body across the ground. Tyler (Landon Chase Dubois) tells Cammie that it is the first day of dinosaur club so he’ll get a sad face if he is late. They make it just in time. Bell calls her to ask her to do something with the body before his gator finishes the job. He decides to get his car, take the body, and find a place to preserve the body.

Millicent worries he’ll have a panic attack, but Bell isn’t going to let that stop him. As he passes through the gate, he passes out and falls out of the car. Instead, he tries to stuff the body into the deep freezer in an ice cream truck. Cammie arrives after receiving a report about a stolen ice cream truck. She learned that Jamie was released from Grayton Correctional last week after serving five years for robbery. Bell asks Checotah (Forrest Goodluck) if he made any deliveries last week to Jamie. He remembers dropping off a metal detector. They decide to leave to deal with the ice cream truck. Bell thinks he knows why Jamie was there. He tells Cammie that his great-granddad made rum during Prohibition and buried the proceeds in coffee tins in their garden. Dr. Otis (Wallace Smith) arrives to check on Bell. He explains he is working there until he pays off his student loans. Then, he’ll move to Atlanta and open a Botox clinic.

They talk about the body as Dr. Otis agrees the blue color was likely caused by oral gels. Cammie tells them about the pharmacy on Seagate. She claims she can’t go there because she has to take Tyler to karate, but changes her mind once she picks up him. As she enters, Kevin warns her that they’re all out of plan B. He eventually tells her that he sold tooth pain gel to Jamie late Thursday. When she calls to tell Bell, he asks her if Kevin saw anything strange. She has to go back inside to ask. Bell listens on the other end and calls Kevin a liar. Kevin admits to seeing Jamie argue with a redhead who had a t-shirt on that said “Mermaids Do It Wetter”. She was wicked hot in a trashy stripped way. Bell knows it is an employee’s t-shirt from Okahoochee Springs. She refuses to go there for him. Bell wonders if there is a connection between his murder and Vida’s murder.

Bell realizes it might be time to leave here, but he isn’t sure if he can. Vida reminds him that he can’t have her if he leaves. As he prepares to leave, he admits he doesn’t have her now anyway. He manages to make it off his property only to show up at city hall where Cammie tells him she’ll drive. They run into Arvin who is the wildlife guide at Okahoochee Springs. They ask about Mermaid Kelsey after seeing her picture nearby. Arvin tells them that it is best to catch her when she comes out of the lagoon. Bell ends up falling into the water with the mermaids. When he comes around, he reminds Cammie to ask them about Jamie. Kelsey (Charity Cervantes) explains that she told Jamie she’d wait for him while he was in prison, but that changed when she met Arvin. He remembers she was with her sister because she had to pick up new catch poles in Orlando.

After Arvin rambles about conspiracy theories, Kelsey says she’d never hurt Jamie. She mentions Manny Galarza who took over Jamie’s oyster boat when he got locked up and wouldn’t give it back. As they drive to meet Manny, Bell explains he was raising money to restore the seafront before he stopped doing stuff. Cammie asks why he is doing this and why he didn’t just wait for the Sheriff to come. He tells her that Jamie’s murder might be connected to Vida’s. He explains that he has never had a purpose until he met Vida who became his purpose. She inspired him to do the seafront project and made him feel alive but someone killed her. Bell begins panicking when he can’t find Vida’s scarf and says he needs to get home. He goes back to Vida and tells her he thought she left because he left. She is there for now, but she wouldn’t leave again if she were him.

Cammie goes to the station where she learns that Manny has a history of felony assault. She returns to Bell to tell him about it. Millicent gives Tyler a silver dollar in exchange for eating a tomato. Bell tells her that he has no further interest in the case so she is on her own. She asks if he is going to live in the past that he made up. He read Vida’s file and learned that she was a spoiled drunk with a brutal temper. Bell at least didn’t make babies with Marcus Malin. She made a mistake, but she says Bell had a choice and had a train wreck. They call other names as she prepares to leave with Tyler. Later, she stops Adam and decides to hang out with him. She tells him that white people hate her because she is black and black people hate her because of the badge. Adam is a hedge fund manager who lives in New York six months and Florida for the rest of the time to avoid taxes.

When she sees two men outside, she excuses herself to use the restroom. She goes outside to confront Manny and has to stop him from running from the police. She finds weed in his truck. Checotah gives Bell advice for putting the past behind him. He knows about Cammie bringing Manny in for questioning. He reveals that Manny’s last order was for rubber gloves, zip ties, and a bone saw. Bell goes to the station in hopes of speaking to Manny. He privately tells  Cammie that it was a bad idea to question him alone. Manny claims he was at Indian bingo on Monday night. They watch footage from Cammie’s shift to see if they can spot Manny’s truck. Although they don’t spot the truck, Bell does see the Okahoochee van. Cammie remembers that Arvin said he was in Orlando on Monday night. She calls and learned that he only worked there for four months.

After the call, she says he lied. When she worked at The Post, she did a story on SeaWorld. They vet everyone so it is unlikely that a nutcase like Arvin would slip through. She was a journalist until Marcus fired her for being pregnant even though he got her pregnant. They wonder why he’d lie about SeaWorld. It would be wise to check Grayton since Jamie was in prison there. A little research shows that Arvin was convicted of manslaughter and incarcerated at Grayton before being released in May. Bell says Florida correctional officers have their own Facebook group. He checks the group and finds a video of Arvin and Jamie together. Cammie suggests Jamie bragged about the buried treasure to Arvin and said he’d go after it once he gets out. Arvin gets paroled and waits here for Jamie so he can get in on the buried treasure.

Since Bell is freaking out, Cammie gives him a bottle of dirt she got from his property to calm him. Once they reach Arvin’s property, they find an alligator breeding ground. Bell admits to finding a baby gator tooth in the bottom of Jamie’s shoe. He finds the metal detector only to be attacked by Arvin. He is pushed into the water. Before long, Cammie pulls him out and tries to save his life. At the jail, Arvin denies having anything to do with this. Bell suggests otherwise since he has the alligator tooth. Arvin insists he loves Kelsey and was ready to blow the whole treasure thing off. Jamie showed up at his place. Arvin reminds them that he doesn’t have the money. Bell believes he started digging, damaged the fence, and Moseley came after him. It was either kill Bill Moseley and get the money or escape. Bell thinks he has a soft spot for gators. Once Arvin admits that, Bell asks if he can shed light on the connection between Vida and Jamie.

Arvin reveals that Jamie found out his wife was having an affair so he blackmailed her. That is how he knew about the treasure. The Sheriff interrupts to tell them about his day. When he asks why Bell is there, Bell says he is turning himself in for driving with an expired license. Cammie tells the Sheriff about the arrest she made. Later, they go to a restaurant. She mentions the sunset and says it should be illegal for something to be that beautiful. Bell says it should before saying he didn’t mean her. When she takes him home, she asks Bell if he knew Vida was having an affair since that would give him motive. Bell wants to know who she really is before they discuss that. He mentions how he said Niklas Lidstrom earlier and everyone from Detroit should know him. Bell also thinks the tattoo on her wrist that says BMT means something.

He believes that might have something to do with Brooklyn Manhattan Transit. Bell accuses her of running from her past. Cammie tells him that the dirt was actually Tyler’s cocoa. When she goes home, she looks at a newspaper article about activists being implicated in an attack on a Brooklyn detention center. She calls someone who begins asking if it is Layla, but she says nothing. Bell asks Vida if she was having an affair. She won’t answer that although she admits this isn’t over. Bell promises to find her killer.

 

Panhandle Review

After the first episode of Panhandle, it is pretty obvious that it has a unique feel meaning it isn’t going to be universally loved by viewers. The series attempts to walk a fine line between being silly and humorous while also being realistic and emotional. Neither aspect stands out after the first episode, but there is still time for a connection to be made.

There is a lot about the series that made it feel like it wasn’t based in the Florida panhandle at all, especially the accents. It would’ve been better to just go with the performers’ conventional accents instead of incorporating southern accents. Certain scenes could be considered clever, but it is hard to imagine many people laughing at the silly things happening in Panhandle.

If anything, there were points when the characters were slightly annoying. It should also be pointed out that viewers have been the same storylines in countless other shows. The detective is seeing his dead wife and trying to solve the case while he has some type of mental problem that hinders his ability to do that.

Panhandle may turn into a fun escape in future episodes, but viewers shouldn’t expect anything innovative here. It is really just okay. The opening episode scores a 5.5 out of 10. Recaps of Panhandle can be found on Reel Mockery here. Want to support Reel Mockery’s work? Find out how to do so here.