When the last couple of minutes of last weeks Harper’s Island rolled past last Saturday, the first thing I wanted to do was write out about how horrible the ending was. Fortunately for our readers, Keith and Debbie had the responsibility for posting their thoughts first. I got to wait a couple of days and really think out what I thought about how things ended. Unfortunately for fans of the show — and I know CliqueClack has more than a few of them — I still thought it stunk.
CBS marketed this show as a murder mystery. One look at their “Characters” section on the website reveals the “whodunit” nature of what they were telling me the show was going to be. I watched the show because I like trying to figure things out, playing with the clues and red herrings along the way. What the producers gave us, in my eyes, was a ending with a couple of psychopaths and an illogical explanation as to the whole premise of the show.
Before the premier, I was on the fence on whether or not I would watch. I set the DVR to record the episodes just in case I wanted to go back and catch up. Two of my favorite CliqueClack readers, cjcubs and modwild, basically harassed me via Twitter until I relented (And yes, you both did. It’s OK, though. Despite the ending, I forgive you both).
The show started off rather slow, but not necessarily in the bad way. It was more of a slow burn, as members of the wedding party began to be picked off by an unknown force. Based on circumstances, it was several days (and even more episodes) before others began to miss their unfortunate friends, which on one hand was rather annoying, but on the other, let the story develop methodically.
The story of John Wakefield was introduced to us very early in the process, but in the beginning it was more to explain the backdrop to which our story would be told. A spooky island with a history of death and terror sets up a better tone for a mystery than, say, Hilton Head would. When the mug shots and newspapers allowed us to see who Wakefield “was,” Keith so correctly pointed out that you don’t cast a Cylon without planning on using him, and I silently quoted the old Sci-Fi trope, “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
Like I said, I was attracted to the mystery concept of the show, and looked forward to answering the websites’ question of Who the Murderer was. Once I saw Callum Keith Rennie in the pictures of Wakefield, most of that curiosity was gone. I mean, you don’t walk into a Halloween movie without knowing that Michael Myers is the guy that will be doing all of the killing. Well, I generally don’t walk into a Halloween movie regardless.
I’ve never been a big fan of the horror genre, for one simple reason: little change occurs, other than death, in most horror stories. Myers, Freddy, and Leatherface live to murder another day, and most of the characters that we have gotten to know are victims by the time the credits role. I’ve gone on record with my opinion that characters, and character development, are the best part of all good stories. In this genre, the most development you can hope for is that the young, nubile girl might be cheating on her boyfriend by sleeping with both guys in the car.
Like I said before, Harper’s Island started different. Most of the characters were given an intricate and often times interlacing back story. Several members of the wedding party had a history on the island. The bride’s family had some serious issues woven throughout. The groomsmen’s fight over the money had meaning because of how badly Malcolm needed it. And if you didn’t fall in love with Cal and Chloe, well, then you’ve just got no heart.
The ending of the story, however, crapped over all of that. The money? Explained in a throwaway line. The wedding: hell, Henry’s whole relationship with Trish just a means to an end, that of which was just getting Abby on the island, and everyone else off. The entire Wellington clan were just victims, and one big family full of red herrings. Yeah, Jimmy and Abby will probably live happily ever after (and, let’s face it, I am a sucker for a happy ending), but by way of Henry just magically turning out to be coo-coo for Cocoa Puffs, nothing else that happened makes any sense.
Logic and rationality are not too big of things to ask for. With the vast number of cop shows on television today, I — and I would assume most viewers — have been conditioned to look for a motive in all crime. Motive explains and justifies the unjustifiable actions of criminals. In this case, however, Henry was excused from having a logical motive because he was bat-shit crazy. Unfortunately, in my eyes, making him crazy was just a cop out for having to come up with a real answer to the question CBS presumably posed, “whodunit?” other than the one I came up with in the end: Who cares???
Clacked by Ivey West 
on Jul 19, 2009 @ 12:00 EST5EDT
An understandable sentiment. I enjoyed it for the slasher flick it became rather than the great thriller it could have been. I’m glad you acknowledged at least there was some character growth for Cal and Chloe (and, I would argue, Sully as well).
*POST AUTHOR*
I would actually say that Cal was probably a good guy all along, but the audience was conditioned not to like him. Chloe really surprised me with her choice at the end. I found it very honorable. Sully, on the other hand, really did experience some growth during the course of the season. Consider that he’s the only person actually to save anyone.
In light of your dislike of the horror genre, I can understand your feelings. We did browbeat you a bit into viewing, so you have a right to feel ripped off. Honestly, I didn’t expect a real mystery. While the psycho ending was a bit disappointing, I really enjoyed the ride (the end of Chloe and Cal was fantastic). Sorry it wasn’t enjoyable for you, as well!
*POST AUTHOR*
Not really, though… I had it queued up on my DVR and was planning on watching it depending on how the buzz went.
My problem was the bait and switch. Look at the advertising piece from before the show premiered that featured at the top of the page. If that doesn’t push the idea of a Christie-style whodunit, then I don’t know what would have.
We definitely had differing opinions on the show and especially on the ending. But, those have been discussed to death (haha).
The only thing I would add is that it was a murder mystery. We were given clues about who the killer(s) were and why they were doing the killing. In my case, I just didn’t want to believe that Henry was the second killer, so I discounted them as misdirection. But, the clues for who the killers were and why they killed were there. The motive was what was really a surprise in the end. And, I know we differ here, but I found the motive interesting, unique and unexpected. And, I appreciated that.
Sorry to have helped push you to watch :)
it wasn’t a bad substitute for summer reruns but i agree, they could have done a better reason why henry turned to be the killer including killing the sheriff..i thought jimmy was the one but at the end hey, neat looking henry..aren’t they half brother and sister? gross!!