'Harper's Island' TV Show Review

On the small fishing isle of Harper's Island, miles off the coast of Seattle, a group of people have gathered for the wedding of Henry Dunn and Trish Wellington. Henry grew up on Harper's Island and is returning home, despite the fact that his only living relatives are his brother J.D. (the suicidal black sheep) and his alcoholic, gun-toting uncle Marty. Unlike Henry, Trish comes from a wealthy family, and her dad is none too pleased that his daughter has chosen Henry over her ex-beau, Hunter.

Also returning to the island is Abby Mills, Henry's childhood best friend, who went to L.A. after her mom was killed seven years ago by John Wakefield, a serial killer who murdered six people and remains a legend on the isle. Her father, the Harper's Island sheriff, stayed, and his relationship with Abby has been strained ever since.

Unbeknownst to any of the wedding guests, a killer is again on the island. He bags not one, but two victims in the pilot episode and seems intent on stalking the partygoers for a to-be-figured-out reason. So far, the only one to realize that something is amiss is Madison, Trish's niece, a creepy little girl who fries snails with magnifying glasses and tells her mother that her "new friend" told her that people died on the island. Is it the ghost of John Wakefield? Or an altogether new killer? We'll have to stay tuned to find out.

Harper's Island feels like a cross between I Know What You Did Last Summer and Falcon Crest -- part soap opera, part slasher. It's cheesy entertainment, but with a solid cast and a brisk pace -- a necessity, given the need to cover 25-plus characters -- it indeed remains passable "entertainment." Nothing, however, is original on either side of the equation, from the cheating, snobbery and backstabbing of the soap angle to the red herrings, shadowy killers and literal backstabbing of the slasher angle.

For a TV show, though, the concept is striking. Knowing ahead of time that each episode will witness the death of at least one character (thus, the large cast) makes for an engaging guessing game, and I can't think of another attempt to recreate the slasher genre on the small screen in the 30 or so years that the term "slasher" has been around.

The result is mixed, but appreciated. As can be expected for a pilot episode, there's a lot of expository dialogue that feels forced and leaves little room for action. It's also less cinematic than you'd think, given the direction of John Turtletaub (National Treasure). However, the series does appear to be shaped, thankfully, as much in the slasher mold as in the Agatha Christie-styled mystery mold. Despite the Ten Little Indians-like plot, the kill at the end of the initial episode is surprisingly gory (albeit shrounded in shadows). Horror and suspense fans starved for TV content should find enough here to tune in for at least a few episodes, at which point the story will hopefully hit its stride.

All in all, Harper's Island is ideal summer network TV filler: a fluffy, shallow, easy viewing experience whose mediocrity doesn't preclude a successful summer run.

Grade: C+

Harper's Island debuts on April 9, 2009, at 10:00 PM ET/PT on CBS.