Hatchetfield

Hatchetfield is a franchise from the American theater troupe Team Starkid. It covers strange happenings in a mysterious Midwest town, with alternate timelines, musical numbers and a lot of f-bombs to boot.

Nothing should happen in Hatchetfield. All it has is the Starlight Theater, a Beanie's Coffee with singing baristas, and a mall with the hottest toys in town. For some reason, however, Hatchetfield attracts several supernatural creatures, and apocalypses. Whether it's a Hive Mind turning people into singing zombies, or a persuasive Eldritch Abomination posing as a plush toy, you can bet that the world will end thanks to what starts in this town. Expect your favorite characters to die. A lot. But that's okay, because a new timeline or continuity starts in each show! And maybe, one day, the characters will find their happy ending or save the multiverse. Both would be ideal, to save everyone regardless of the timeline.

The franchise has several works: stage musicals The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals, Black Friday, and the musical web series Nightmare Time. Nerdy Prudes Must Die is a work-in-progress, meant to close out the stage musical trilogy. Thanks to the pandemic, however, it is TBD when Nerdy Prudes will come out depending on theaters reopening.


 * Adult Fear:
 * Bill, no matter the timeline, is shown to be in a bitter custody battle with his ex-wife over his teenage daughter Alice. Seventeen-year-old Alice, college-bound in a year, seeks a career in the arts and resents that Bill keeps trying to be a goofy Bumbling Dad when she needs someone to support her wholeheartedly. She also hates that Bill is right that her girlfriend Deb is not good enough for her, as Deb is a stoner who encourages Alice to play hooky and . Fortunately in "Watcher World,".
 * Charlotte Sweetly's in a loveless marriage with her husband Sam, who is a Dirty Cop that she knows is cheating on her. Sam refuses to comply with couples counseling and rarely comes home. She's cheating on him in turn, because Ted is the only source of comfort that she can find, and Black Friday hints that Ted really does have feelings for her but is too insecure to admit them..
 * Black Friday would run on this trope if not for the supernatural threat. A mall riot breaks out on the titular day, because every adult in line at the toy store wants the Tickle-Me-Wiggly.
 * "Honey Queen" has the villainous Linda and Gerald Monroe react this way when.
 * Asshole Victim: While not everyone in Hatchetfield deserves the multiple times they get killed on or offscreen, quite a few show it's hard to mourn for them:
 * Emma's boss Zoey is a diva actress and Mean Boss to her, while carrying on an affair with the married Sam Sweetly. While Emma is a crappy employee, complete with Flipping the Bird at customers and slacking off at work, Zoey is just as much of a slacker as shown in Nightmare Time. Emma also has a point that singing for tips means it's not really a tip, but earning twenty-five cents per song. "Honey Queen" goes further in showing that she.
 * Sam Sweetly is a Dirty Cop that cheats on his long-suffering wife Charlotte who knows that he's scum and cheating on him as well, but trying to make their marriage work. The Hive gets him early in The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals, owing to the fact that he was with Zoey at the Starlight Theater when the meteor hit. You're in fact cheering when sleazeball Ted bangs him with a traschan lid as a brainwashed Sam chases around a screaming Charlotte while brandishing a gun.
 * No one likes Linda Monroe or her husband Gerald, regardless of the timeline. She's snotty, controlling of her family, and implied to be a sociopath who buys her influence. Therefore, it's hard to mourn when . "Hive Queen" zigzags this when . Despite that, because.
 * It's zigzagged with in The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals. Sure neither of them are nice, per se, but
 * A Day in the Limelight: Nightmare Time gets to focus on different characters featured in the musical:
 * "Watcher's World" narrows its focus to Bill and Alice as he drags his daughter to a theme park for a father-daughter bonding trip.
 * "Honey Queen" gives more insight into Linda and Gerald Munroe and their Unholy Matrimony. We also see that Zoey is more than just a Mean Boss to Emma.
 * Even Evil Has Standards: Linda's dad Mr. Murray is not a nice guy who constantly belittles her and turned her into the monster she is, but when he gets wind of the fact that she and Gerald have been sabotaging the competition to help her win the Honey Queen title. He warns Gerald that he does not want either his daughter or son-in-law to embarrass them..
 * Evil vs. Evil: "Honey Queen" pits Emma's Beanies boss Zoey against Linda Monroe as they try to get the namesake title from the Hatchetfield Honey Queen pageant. Both are revealed to fight dirty to get what they want, and at certain points, it's hard to know who to support..
 * In Spite of a Nail: The timelines have some constant events that happen regardless of the different supernatural or human cruelty:
 * Bill's wife leaves him for another man and gets main custody of Alice. This backstory informs many of Bill's insecurities and guilt that he can't provide his daughter a better life.
 * Professor Hidgens is obsessed with getting funding for his show Workin' Boys.
 * Becky Barnes dated Tom in high school, obtained a nursing degree and married an abusive man. Concurrently, both Emma Perkins and Linda Monroe share one thing in common: an Irrational Hatred of Becky. (Bonus points: Lauren Lopez plays both Emma and Linda.) Linda has no reason to pick on Becky except that the woman isn't scared of her and can't be bribed or blackmailed, and still has her perky cheerleader attitude. Emma's case may be more justified owing to Big Sister Instinct: it's confirmed Tom married her sister Jane in some timelines, and the town is convinced that Tom and Becky should have stayed together according to gossip in Black Friday. Emma does have a point that it's insulting people think her dead sister wasn't good enough for Tom.
 * Jane Perkins died in a car crash while her sister was world-hopping. Black Friday and some of the Night Time stories confirm that her husband Tom was driving though he wasn't at fault; he wasn't able to react fast enough when another driver switched lanes and ploughed into the passenger side. It's ambiguous in The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals if Tom and Jane had married, considering Emma doesn't mention her nephew Tim or her brother-in-law, just that Jane died and Emma feels guilty that she kept putting off her return home.
 * Paul and Emma meet, and they fall in love. What's more, despite both of them being misanthropes, they bring out the best in each other. "Forever and Always" lampshades this when.
 * Kick the Son of a Bitch: In "Honey Queen," it should be cruel about the way that the senior Mr. Murray . Thing is, it's Linda.
 * Mama Bear: It only shows up in the second season of Nightmare Time, but.
 * Only Sane Man: There are a few depending on the story. Jon Matteson plays a handful of them:
 * Paul in The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals remains cynical, immune to the Hive's machinations, and insightful about the danger everyone is in from the singing zombies. It's why the Hive in interested in converting him..
 * Gerald in "Honey Queen" tries talking his wife out of trying to get affection from her father. He says that if he weren't a gentleman he would deck the senior Murray for how little he cares about his only daughter. What's more, his method of helping her sabotage her competitors is technically fair: he doesn't schedule collagen appointments for one woman, and doesn't make Zoey sing at the coffee shop, only tips her a few hundred dollars and pretends to be a Broadway producer's assistant. As Linda smugly tells Zoey, she was an idiot for believing that a Broadway producer would screen for girls at a coffee shop.
 * Only Sane Woman:
 * In Black Friday, while Lex steals a Tickle-Me-Wiggly from her boss's shop, she resists the thrall of Wiggly when the toy talks to her. Her intention is to sell the doll online so she and Ethan have enough money to take Hannah with them to California and start a new life. Throughout the whole show, she registers the danger of the situation when the store riot starts, doing her best to get out of dodge while her boss stupidly tries to demand all the fighting customers leave..
 * In "Honey Queen", the poor pageant volunteer is the only person not drawn into the vicious competition that Zoey and Linda start. She just reminds Zoey to not be late for rehearsal and tells them every contestant needs a talent.
 * Out-of-Genre Experience: "The Hatchetfield Ape-Man" compared to most of the urban horror of "Nightmare Time" plays out like a love letter to Gothic literature. You have a British heiress investigating a beast with a Mad Scientist manipulating her, and an aura of mystery about the woods around the manor.
 * Papa Wolf:
 * Bill will defend his daughter Alice a face monsters to save her.
 * Gerald in "Honey Queen".
 * Pet the Dog: At the end of "Honey Queen," Linda leaves a heartfelt voicemail on her husband's phone, saying she loves him and thanks to him for believing in her.
 * Properly Paranoid: Emma hates her boss Zoey in The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals, saying that she and
 * Redemption Equals Death: This happens during a few Nightmare Time episodes:
 * In "The Hatchetfield Ape-Man,".
 * "Honey Queen" has.


 * Token Good Teammate: There are a handful of benevolent supernatural entitles that help the protagonists rather than try to kill them:
 * Webby is revealed to be Hannah's Not-So-Imaginary Friend that tries to give her advice to stay out of danger. In Black Friday, Webby warns Hannah to not trust Wiggly when he starts talking through her via the toy in the backpack that Lex convinces her to smuggle out of the small. When Hannah points this out, Wiggly calls Webby "a little bitch!" confirming that she's real. In "The Witch in the Web",.
 * The is confirmed to be Good All Along. Lucy is in love with the Ape-Man because he saved her life as a child; Hidgens doesn't know if it was a real man or a hobo that didn't shave, but he's willing to make a buck off her fascination. In the climax of "The Hatchetfield Ape-Man,".
 * Villains Out Shopping: Rather the Wild Card Professor Hidgens does nothing chaotic or villainous during "Honey Queen", leaving room for Zoey and Linda to fight. Granted, he is finally given the means to relive his dream when Linda offers to sponsor "Working Boys" the way that he intends if he helps her win.