Forgotten Television: Harper’s Island

In 2003, John Wakefield murdered six people on Harper’s Island off the coast of Seattle. Seven years later poor Henry Dunn (Christopher Gorham) and the rich Trish Wellington (Katie Cassidy Arrow) return to the island to get married.  Henry’s best friend Abby (Elaine Cassidy) hadn’t been back to the island since the murders, as her mother was one of the victims.  Once on the island, Abby meets back up with ex-boyfriend, Jimmy (C.J. Thomason) and her father (Jim Beaver), who is also the sheriff. Trish’s father (Richard Burgi) has also colluded with her ex-boyfriend Hunter (Victor Webster) to break up Henry and Trish before the wedding. J.D. (Dean Chekvala) Henry’s disgruntled, bad boy, loner brother is also stirring up trouble on the island.  Henry’s uncle Marty (Harry Hamlin) is attending, with a mysterious bag full of $250,000 in cash and a gun.  Once the entire wedding party arrives, strange murders begin to take place and it comes to light that John Wakefield may not be dead as previously believed, but is he working alone? Who will survive?  Who is the killer?  Watch and find out!

Harper’s Island is a horror mystery limited series that premiered on CBS on April 9^th, 2009.  It ran for its full 13 episodes despite falling ratings. Many of the actors that were in the original 15-minute pilot that CBS ordered in 2008 were recast, including most of the leads.  Ryan Merriman was originally Henry Dunn and Samantha Noble was Trish, and Uncle Marty was originally played by Bill Pullman.  The actors in the show did not know who would make it all the way through the series, as each character’s death was kept a secret until the day the script for that episode was handed out.  The only two actors who knew how far they would make it were Richard Burgi, as his characters death was considered a major turning point in the series, and Harry Hamlin, as his contract was for only one episode. The other fun part of the series is that ever episode was titled with a sound effect that related to the different murders happening that week.  The first episode was “Whap” followed by “Crackle”, “Ka-Blam”, “Thrack, Splat, Sizzle”, “Gurgle” and many others.  In addition to the series, a companion web series also aired called Harper’s Globe about a reporter working at the Harper’s Island newspaper and gets pulled into the story as it begins to unfold on the island.

This was one of the shows that I watched religiously when it first came out.  It is in one of my favorite genres, horror murder mysteries.  The characters were interesting and all with their own past and problems.  The plot was full of intriguing twists and turns and overall, just a fun show to watch.  The actors were all well cast, making it easy to relate to them and for the audience to form connections with.  The setting was spooky when it needed to be, and the music emphasized the tone of the scene.  To me, this was just a fun and entertaining show to watch.