Friday Night In: Harper’s Island
Okay, okay. I know what you are thinking. Harper’s Island is a TV show that looks like utter crap and is on air currently, how can it be written up under Friday Night In? Well, hold on to your breeches and hear me out.
Harper’s Island is CBS’s new endeavor to bring slasher films into the world of cheesy pop culture television. And in doing
so CBS has brought back meaning to the words Guilty Pleasure. The show surrounds a group of family and friends who head to a destination wedding off the coast of Seattle. The official website describes the show in their own words as “although they’ve come to laugh and to love, what they don’t know is they’ve also come…to die.” Bloody brilliant. Literally.
The show prides itself on the concept that no main character is safe. Even the actors are not privy to know whether their character will live or die until they get the script just before shooting begins. What’s great about this show is its camp factor that takes itself quite seriously while simultaneously being completely self-aware. For audience members that end up hating a character for bad acting, story line, stupidity, what-have-you…odds are that character will get offed eventually. No more suffering with a crap character season after season. Especially since it will only last ONE season. This show has got a plan. And it’s working.
The first episode kicks off with an immediate murder just as audiences have come to expect from every slasher story line since Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson’s Scream (which of course took its own cue from Psycho, marketing Drew Barrymore just as Hitchcock did Janet Leigh by flagrantly placing her name above the marquee). Each subsequent episode (with onomatonomatopoeia titles like “slurp”, “gurgle”, “thwack”, and “seep”) brings along more death and lucrative manners of murder than its predecessor. The cast boasts a few recognizable faces including Christopher Gorham, of decent television successes Ugly Betty and Felicity, Cameron Richardson, Matt Barr, Harry Hamlin, Elaine Cassidy, CJ Tomason and Katie Cassidy (David Cassidy’s daughter).
The show airs on Saturday night at 9pm on CBS. But to catch up, you can watch all episodes on Netflix’s Watch Instantly category (still genius) and pull an all-nighter tonight to get ready for the series finale that will be coming up in the next few weeks; three episodes are left.
check out the below clip!
“ARGH! I Already Watch This Show Religiously!”
At last! Someone with my romantic sensibilities…ahem. Welp, go ahead and check out: Dexter, Twin Peaks, Psycho, and Blue Velvet.
[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfjC5sbsC8s&feature=related]
Tags:cbs, christopher gorham, Friday Night In, gore, harpers island, horror shows
26. June 2009 at 4:29 pm :
Didn’t Lost promise to be only one season, too? And now look where they are…aliens and time warps.
26. June 2009 at 4:39 pm :
Really? Only one season? That sounds cool to me. Then there’s not as much filler. I’m definitely going to check this out, especially since it’s on netflix watch instantly (LOVE THAT).
26. June 2009 at 4:40 pm :
I agree about Lost…that show is nuts. Alas, if only I liked scary movies. Unfortunately not. When is the “guilty pleasure” chick-flick review coming?
26. June 2009 at 8:17 pm :
i heard they had to change casts and re-shoot. know anything about that? i too love watch instantly at netflix and watching tv series straight through. im gonna check this out this wknd.
28. June 2009 at 12:29 am :
EDITOR’S NOTE: I don’t watch the show (yet!) so I can’t be sure, but the following comment may contain spoilers:
The show is garbage, they don’t even bother to make it semi-realistic in any way. They ruined the whole twist of who might “really” be doing the killings when they made Wakefield an actual person who still manages to kill the retards off because none of them have a shred of intelligence. Oooh look, he’s standing around holding a sword, I have a shotgun, guess I should run, then waste all my shells shooting a door he might be behind….. Guess that was better than swinging a knife at him from 4 feet away…. At least in Friday the 13th and Elm Street the killer was super human, this one is just a regular guy that no one seems to be able to shoot, and of course we split up as often as possible even when everyone knows there’s a killer on the island…
29. June 2009 at 9:06 am :
First off–i probably wont watch this show, but i appreciate the review.
Second–to Raymar: If you don’t watch this show, how do you know all the plot points and how do you manage to state that the show is garbage if you haven’t seen it? I personally think you do watch the show, enjoy it (clearly as you know everything that is happening) but are too embarrassed to admit it. Time to come to terms with your own decisions.
29. June 2009 at 9:15 am :
The show seems too scary. I really don’t think I’ll enjoy watching it. How about finding some reviews on entertaining shows that don’t include violence?
29. June 2009 at 9:16 am :
I’m a wuss!
29. June 2009 at 10:23 am :
I looooooooove this show! It’s not that scary!