HARPERS ISLAND (Paramount, 2009) creator: Ari Schlossberg, w/ Elaine Cassidy, Christopher Gorham. Rating: NNNN DVD package: NNN Rating: NNNN
Poor boy Henry Dunn (Christopher Gorham) is set to wed rich girl Trish Wellington (Katie Cassidy). The wedding party heads off for a week of frolicking at a beautiful inn on the fictitious Harper’s Island, 37 miles off the Seattle coast. Murders ensue – over 20 of them in a 13-episode story.
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Things start out a bit slow while everybody’s motive gets established, but by episode five the show is in full-blown nutzoid mode, cranking out loopy plot turns and happily dispatching wedding guests, townies and mysterious strangers with bladed and pointy instruments, the noose, elaborate death traps, fire, guns and explosions. Quite graphic for American network TV. (This was made for CBS.)
Gorham and Cassidy make an appealing couple. He’s got boyish charm and unassuming heroism, and she combines moneyed poise with genuine warmth, but the series really belongs to Elaine Cassidy as Henry’s best friend, Abby. She delivers thoughtfulness, wit and kindness, and troubled undercurrents make Abby the show’s most complex character.
Smart use of some very pretty locations gives the show an epic feel and creepy atmosphere. The making-of doc and commentaries discuss that but spend more time on the effects and actors, who seem to have had a blast.
EXTRAS Four episode commentaries, casting doc, making-of doc, webisodes, more. Widescreen.
