When a young girl brings a severed hand to show & tell at the local school, Sheriff Brock & his two deputies find out that a serial kidnapper named the Green Bay Chopper may have come to town. This is an incredibly bizarre episode of television, even weirder and tone-shiftier than the pilot. The episode is somewhat disturbing and yet also hilariously funny. It’s like if the script for a Criminal Minds episode got changed into an episode the Andy Griffith Show and was then filmed by the crew of the Brady Bunch. Fyvush Finkel once again steals the show and there’s a great guest turn by Sam Anderson (you know, Bernard from Lost) as a flustered FBI agent involved in the Chopper case. Oh, yes, Kelly Connell is back as sicko medical examiner Carter Pike. When Skerritt’s character instructs his deputy to take the severed hand to Pike, the deputy deadpans, “He’s just gonna play with it.” Indeed. A refrigerator full of severed hands, a serious scene of two characters struggling with grief over a death and a subplot involving a little girl tricking little boys into exposing their penises to her. What do these things have in common? Well, they’re all in this episode of Picket Fences and it’s safe to say that only on Picket Fences would all of these things show up in a single episode. I think I’m gonna love this show. 3 ½ stars.
tl;dr – hilarious subplots, a suspenseful story about a serial kidnapper and heart-tugging drama; Picket Fences is a weird, constantly surprising show and I think I love it already. 3 ½ stars.