Harper's island is somewhat of a cult slasher, and one of those highly anticipated shows you can sit down each night of the week and binge obsessively. As you delve deeper into the mystery you could end up watching the whole season in a few nights if you are desperate to find out who will survive, and the culprit.
The show moved at a steady but decent pace, there is no shortage of twists, turns and cliffhangers that keep you salivating for the next episode.
Some of the deaths in the first half of the season are gory and surprisingly innovative. I thought the demise of Lucy and Tomas Wellington was the most effective.
Harpers Island bears some resemblance to a modernised 'whodunit' on a picturesque island setting.
This was a good example of a series that had enormous untapped potential. The writers, however, seemed to get a little lazy in the second half and the show and it started to become cliché, and tedious and ended up producing many 'acts of stupidity moments during the final episodes.
The Wakefield murders are an integral part of the story. Newspaper clippings of the killings including Wakefield's journal pop up in various stages through the series so you know despite the reports of him being shot and killed many years ago, he is likely to be alive or in some way connected to the current massacre taking place on the island.
It's approximately the fourth of the fifth episode that you begin to have strong suspicions that it is not entirely plausible for one person to be the murderer, and there must be at the very least one accomplice.
The tenth episode is where all many of the secrets are uncovered, Wakefield is revealed and confronts Abby telling her about her involvement, and her family's connection.
A sequence in episode eleven where Wakefield is chasing Cal and Chloe. He eventually catches up to them, and Wakefield fatally stabs Cal and throws his body off a bridge, Chloe slowly backs herself into a corner with nowhere left to run, so she mutters "You can't have me" and commits suicide by jumping to her death. The despairing background music, the contrasting scenery, and this being the final act for these two main characters, and their love for one another was quite impactful and very memorable.
The groom Henry Dunn played by (Christopher Gotham), Henry's childhood best friend Abby Mills (Elaine Cassidy), Her father Sheriff Charlie Mills, the bride Trish Wellington (Katie Cassidy) and John Wakefield (Callum Keith Rennie) were my five standout performances, although to be fair the remaining of the cast didn't last long enough for us to build must of an attachment to them.
Whilst there were other solid character moments in certain episodes, the rest of the cast where basically just fodder for the killer and even a vague backstory for an episode or two doesn't give us enough connection to them to ever care 'if' they die, as it is more of the case of 'how' they will die which keeps you invested.
For the most part, Henry looks innocent, but I started to connect the dots in about the third or fourth episode that he had a much larger part to play, and I felt that he wasn't as emotionally bothered and sometimes looked a little too upbeat when hearing the news of his friend's deaths.
Trish is thoroughly under-utilised. I thought she was loveable and tremendously dynamic. I was cheering for her to survive in every episode. I felt the only downside is the show really could have developed her personal growth and survival although that could be just my bias talking.
For me, Trish's death at the hands of her lover and soul mate Henry was the most shattering, and heartbreaking out of the whole series. I felt hurt, I lost whatever brief emotion I had for Henry, and would now only seek satisfaction with his demise.
Whilst John Wakefield didn't have to do much to be a convincing psychopath. His foreboding presence and demeanour do enough for you to want him to die, and when the moment comes it is exceedingly gratifying, and fitting to end his reign of bloodlust, ironically since it is at the hands of his biological son.
Abby is the reason these murders are taking place and is one of the central people in the show. Abby's history goes right back to the beginning of John Wakefield's original killing spree seven years earlier.
While there was nothing wrong with her performance, and in the entire series she always seemed like a neutral presence. I just never took a liking to her, that's not to say in any way she was bad, just that she didn't resonate with me as much as someone like Trish did.
Sheriff Charlie Mills (Jim Beaver) who some might remember from Supernatural and Deadwood. Is pretty diverse. He really suits the appeal and look of an authority or father figure and thus he feels natural for this role.
You could see he was battling with the loss of his wife and it showed on his facial expressions and general behaviour that he was a deeply hurt soul that felt guilty and responsible, and to make matters worse he isolated himself from his daughter for the past seven years which seems to have made him somewhat of a shell of the man he once was.
The finale has some unanswered questions and serious flaws. For starters, Wakefield was knocked down, tied and bound. And after all the sick and twisted things he has done and put everyone through, I wouldn't have hesitated to shoot him several times in the head and maybe a few more for good measure to end his reign.
However, we are left to have to put up with the sheer stupidity of locking him in a police cell and guarding him as the characters are immensely fearful for their own lives but refuse to pull the trigger.
Even though he has killed dozens of people, and escaped in the past, his captors are even somewhat aware that he has an accomplice meaning the extreme level of danger he possesses is never nullified.
This wasn't the only opportunity to end it all either. There were many chances to finish Wakefield off but every time there is hesitation that leads to him killing yet another victim. By the end, you are left shaking your head and slowly exhaling from sheer frustration.
Harpers Island makes you guess yourself, and sometimes your intuition will fail you with some clever writing, and the person who you suspect, and has a shady past, and no alibi, gets offed in the very same episode meaning you'll need to quickly re-evaluate your options.
Like a lot of horror series, the second half becomes a lot less mysterious as the identity of the killer is trimmed down to only a handful of survivors, and therefore it becomes easier to start predicting the outcome of what was going on to happen in the scheme of things.
I'm neither disappointed nor was I in awe. As I have said earlier this series had enormous potential but unfortunately didn't reach anywhere near its capabilities.
I feel that once you know the killer's identity and have seen the final episode then this isn't a series you are going to want to revisit any time soon. Few characters were given a decent enough backstory and were well developed which gave you an emotional attachment, but others you wouldn't even remember their name.
I do hope in the unlikely event someone manages to pick apart the ideas from this show and implement them into a new enticing story, as I think the writers were onto something that could have spawned many more seasons and possibly even a few character spin-offs.
On a few side notes, not that there is a lot of relevance, but I found it a little entertaining that every episode is titled from a sound made by a gruesome death, an example is the first four episodes are named Whap, Crackle, Ka-Blam, and Bang.
I won't hesitate to recommend this series as it kept me hooked for the most part, and it did fill a much-needed void after watching some questionable low-budget horror films.
For now, we have been left with a show that will always be remembered as 'what could have been'.
Overall 7/10.
