A military small town in the midst of the Cold War, small town Granite Flats, Colorado is the subject of a mystery suspense drama, created by BYUtv as their first scripted television show. The drama follows the lives of some the most important people in the town - and there's a lot of important people - including Chief of Police John Sanders, thirteen year old sleuths Timmy Sanders, Madiline Andrews, and Arthur Milligan, and Arthur's mother and military nurse Beth Milligan and her charge Frank Quincy.
Shortly after the arrival of the Milligans into the town, a shooting star comes down crashing into the town. As the town tries to figure out what's going on, however, it's revealed the town is also a veritable (and metaphorical) Wonderland of Cold War secrets where few of its inhabitants are who they seem to be at first glance.
As it is with BYUtv, the show has been geared toward family watching and has no smoking, minimal sexuality, and alcohol is looked down upon, instead using water and lemonade as main drinks. The show has received numerous awards and is on Netflix. Three seasons have been released so far, with the project beginning in 2012 and propelling forward as one of the biggest projects put together by BYUtv, recruiting big name actors such as Cary Elwes as CIA agent Jim Ashmead and Christopher Lloyd as Professor Hargraves.
Examples:
- And Starring: David Naughton as Dr. Millard Whittison.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Timmy has this "golly gee" earnest niceness to him, but when Arthur and Wallace get into a fight, Timmy bites Wallace's ear. Even his father is taken aback when he finds out.
- Catchphrase: Timmy is fond of saying "Holy smokes!"
- Chekhov's Gun: Arthur's gadgets.
- Using the telescope to look at the stars, the telescope comes back in season two to get significant information from Dr. Whittison's house right across the street.
- His helmet, embedded with flashlights, to explore later is used to search Slim's house.
- Code Name: Much of Seasons 2 and 3 reflect a coded note with names such as Eagle, Lark, Dove, and The Plumber.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: In a non-violent version of this trope, the FBI and all the townsfolk in on the secrets encircling Granite Flats confront Dr. Whittison about his status as the Soviet's Double Agent in an intense showdown/interrogation. All his attempts at defeating their arguments are quickly rendered naught, and he eventually admits to his crimes and willingly surrenders himself to the FBI.
- 555: The phone numbers follow this, specifically the kid detective agency's number: 555-0918.
- Detective Mole: CIA agent Jim takes over Project Madman under the pretense he's looking for KGB moles. Guess who was the mole?
- Jerkass: Jim. Doing everything to take MK Ultra for himself, including blackmail, exploitation, threats, government interference, and abusing CIA power. Well, considering he's the KGB mole he's looking for.
- Jerkass with a Heart of Gold: Hershel, season 1. Blaming himself for the explosion at the military base garage and harassing his son and the military personnel, he eventually could be executed, but is dishonorably discharged after being proven innocent by John.
- Kid Detective: The three kids, but specifically Arthur.
- Death by Irony: Beth orders the man she is a trigger for, Frank Quincy, to kill her at the 'behest' of Dr. Whittison.
- Incoming Ham: Timmy
- Also, Cary Elwes's character Jim Ashmead
- Living MacGuffin: Beth Milligan is Frank Quincy's trigger, so anyone trying to gain control of Frank need only manipulate or capture her to gain his compliance.
- In Season 2, Jim theorizes it's Beth's voice which is the trigger, so he has her record a series of phrases to test his theory. He's proven right as these phrases are used to program Frank into performing an (ultimately-averted) assassination attempt against Chief Justice Warren.
- After Beth's death in-between Seasons 2 and 3, the Andersons are able to refine the MK Ultra programming process such that anyone they choose can be a trigger.
- Last-Name Basis: Jim Ashmead is commonly called by his last name.
- Manchurian Agent: The true purpose of MK Ultra is to create these. Given the immense success the Granite Flats branch of the program has had with Frank Quincy, the program's secrets are highly sought-after by the Communists.
- Never Found the Body: Beth's Husband, Roy Milligan, disappeared recently, and everyone assumes him dead. He actually is working as a mole in the Soviet military, as is shown in the end of season 2.
- Large Ham: Professor Hargraves.
- Product Placement: Played With, Using references for 1960s popular items as well as John Sander's wife advertising Avon Products.
- Title Drop: Happens with nearly every episode.
- Those Meddling Kids: Said by one of the people caught by the three detectives in Season 2 ep 1.
- Two Guys and a Girl:
- The Hero: Arthur
- The Lancer: Timmy
- The Smurfette Principle: Madiline, the brains and Spock Expy of the group.
- Unwitting Pawn: Frank Quincy. For MK Ultra Frank is brainwashed into doing all kinds of things that he would not do normally. Jim takes advantage of this and uses him to almost kill Chief Justice Warren.
