Harper's Island

Harper's Island Jan 29, 2012 22:37:50 GMT -5

Quote

Post by Johno on Jan 29, 2012 22:37:50 GMT -5

1x01 - "Whap"

This wedding's gonna be killer.

Harper's Island opens with the family and friends of the bride and broom gathering on a boat ready to leave for the island on which the wedding is going to take place between Henry Dunn (Christopher Gorham), a working class guy who's engaged to Trish Wellington (Katie Cassidy), a rich daddy's girl to Thomas Wellington (Cherry Hill's own Richard Burgi). We are also introduced to Abby Mills (Elaine Cassidy), the groom's best friend. The story behind Abby is that her mother was killed on the island seven years ago by a homicidal maniac. She now has to face some ghosts from her past by coming back on the island, and it offers some interesting backstory.

The pilot gives us a spectacular first death. Trish's cousin Ben has yet to arrive to the ferry and they think they're leaving without him - but the dude is tied to the underbelly of the boat, sadistically supplied with scuba gear so he can breathe, but with his head dangerously close to the sharp propeller blades. When the captain starts up the boat and we end the teaser with the unwitting party goers having a grand old time, leaving a bloody trail in their path, you KNOW shit is about to go down.

That's the beauty of Harper's Island. It's got a terrifically chilling atmosphere, with this dreaded sense of knowing people are going to die, but not knowing who, when, or why. The subplots in this episode - in particular the relationship woes between Cal Vandeusen (Adam Campbell) and his flirty girlfriend Chloe Carter (another Cherry Hill alum Cameron Richardson) - offered a few cute moments but overall didn't do much for me except offer a few moments where I thought "Oh, they're next". The moment they wandered onto the beach, I thought they were goners but the fact that they instead provided us with a different character's death instead shows how well this episode did at putting its viewers on edge. The end of the episode's death surprised me immensely as I had been expecting Chloe & Cal to bite it the entire way through. The writers set up this particular character (will avoid spoilers as best as I can!) with such a potentially-malevolent secret that it came as a shock that he was killed off at the end of the pilot. It left me with a feeling of "wow, anyone could go next."

One problem I had with the pilot was characterization. Besides Abby, Henry, Trish, Chloe and Cal, there isn't much to the other characters that sets them apart. Thomas is the typical rich jackass, while his wife is left with what? Not even a line or two? The bridesmaids (with the exception of Chloe) and groomsmen, as well as Trish's ex-boyfriend Hunter, are cliche, stereotypical caricatures by the end of the pilot that it's hard to differentiate who's who. But hopefully that'll be made easier once the show starts thinning the herd. Also, the show's soapy subplots held it down a bit. What should have came off as threatening with Trish's ex-boyfriend Hunter being brought to the Island under her father's orders to break up the wedding just seemed silly and soap opera-ish.

The acting is up to television snuff, with some familiar faces (Katie Cassidy, Richard Burgi, Harry Hamlin) mixed with some newer faces to give the show some fresh believability. The three leads -- Christopher Gorham, Katie Cassidy, and Elaine Cassidy -- play their characters with such charisma, that even after the pilot, I've grown to trust them and adore them already. But with a murder mystery like Harper's Island, maybe that trust in these characters shouldn't be handed out so easily! Despite good acting and directing, it's hard to tell yet how the folks behind the show are going to play the tone... it switched between wry and hip (Cal & Chloe's scenes) to dark and full of dread (the death scenes, Abby's backstory) far too frequently just within one episode. I have a feeling it'll take this show a few more episodes to find its permanent place, but the pilot was impressive and showy enough to leave me with a good first impression. A solid pilot, brimming with potential.

Suspects:[/u]
I honestly could buy anyone as the killer by the end of the pilot. But, Henry's brother J.D. ("The Black Sheep") gave me some off vibes, as did the threatening "Father of the Bride" Thomas due to his association with Hunter, but they seem to be the obvious suspects at this point. My off-the-wall suspects at the moment are Cal ("The Outsider") and Trish ("The Bride") just because of Cal's freaky face when he dunked Chloe underwater during their argument, and because I felt some sort of odd malevolence and fakeness about Katie Cassidy's performance. But we'll see.

The Body Count:
2

SCORE: 8.5/10 -- GREAT (B+)

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Post by Johno on Jan 29, 2012 21:58:59 GMT -5

Post by Johno on Jan 29, 2012 22:37:50 GMT -5