Allow me to let you in on an unusual New Year's Eve tradition of mine. For the past five or so years I've binge-watched all thirteen episodes of the horror/mystery mini-series Harper's Island.
Never heard of it? That's okay, most people I mention it to can't remember its 2009 limited run on CBS.
About Harper's Island:
Seven years after a series of murders claimed the lives of her mother and five others, Abby Mills returns to her hometown of Harper's Island to attend the wedding of her best friend, Henry Dunn, to heiress Trish Wellington. There's no happily ever after, though, as a serial killer begins picking off family members and friends one by one.
Bring yourself to this picturesque island if you dare... where secrets abound and the killer could be anyone... even the person laying right beside you. With a widely recognizable cast who blend together so well the viewer is hooked immediately onto the show as the guests wait on a yacht for all the stragglers to arrive before setting sail to Harper's Island, a fictional island off the coast of Seattle. But this is no quaint sitcom, which is abundantly clear when the first murder occurs in the first 10-15 minutes of the show. And we're off.
While there are humorous moments in the first few episodes while the gruesome murders are taking place out of sight in the background the audience is well aware of the full picture... except for one thing. Who is the killer? The killer, never shown in full face until later could be anyone and as the audience guesses who and why - is it the original killer John Wakefield back from the dead? Or an insidious copy cat with an unclear motive - the characters soon begin to realize something is amiss as friends begin "disappearing" with weak explanations like heading back to the mainland for a hookup. Until all at once, it becomes clear that someone is targeting the wedding guests. Everyone is a suspect... trust no one... and watch your back.
As the cast begins to taper down viewers continue to try to figure out who the killer is. And bonus features reveal that even the cast didn't know who the killer was; only receiving each week's script a few days ahead of time and consuming it to see what would happen next.
It's addictive, if gory, the first time you watch it yet it's the kind of show you could watch over and over again because the it never gets old (although I do try to limit myself to once a year - my New Year's Eve tradition. And the killer? Well I won't tell you who it is, but I can say that I didn't figure it out until the second to last episode - although I had a hunch.
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Do you remember this show? Wasn't it the best?
