Escape the Set
by Karen Pecota

The 'Escape the Room' live-action puzzle-game experience, for groups, are becoming more and more popular around the country.  My family loves to engage in these challenging group games when we end up in the same city at the same time. Last year my family enjoyed one of games sponsored by a company in Park City that featured everything connected with the city's mining history.

This year the press were invited to be the first to experience a mini-live action puzzle game held at the SundanceTV headquarters called Escape the Set. New this year, Sundance showcased roughly six different series/Episodic programs under the programming section called EPOSODIC. In celebration to kick-off of the first year in existence, Sundance TV HQ (headquarters) opened the doors to a "Hap and Leonard"-themed Escape the Set experience inspired by the network's most popular television series.

The presentation and acting was superb as it incorporated the real actors from the television series "Hap and Leonard" to help guide the experience. Here was our first clue to help us escape the set, "It's 1989 and you've run our of gas in Grovetown, Texas--the same place that has mysteriously swallowed up your friends, Hap and Leonard while on a mission to rescue their friend Florida Grange. Can you find clues to their whereabouts and get to them in-time to help? Or, will you vanish in Grovetown, too?

The two other journalists that I tried to Escape the Set with were just as naive to the background of the TV series but that didn't matter because we had a fun time working together to help our friend Florida Grange. Though we didn't Escape the Set in-time and vanished in Grovetown with Hap and Leonard, we learned a few things about the show. An exciting time with a clever take away!