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Simply put, Harper’s Island is a 13-episode murder mystery series. We’re invited to attempt to work out who will die and when. The plot revolves around the marriage of Henry Dunn and Trish Wellington, although without doubt the most interesting character is Abby Mills, who actually witnessed brutal murders (seven years earlier) on the island where this marriage is taking place.
After the first three episodes, I can confirm that Harper’s Island is not for the faint-hearted. If you don’t like horror, then you won’t like this. There are plenty of moments that make you jump, and more than enough creepy music to go round. The death scenes themselves are also rather gruesome, the most well-executed so far being the death at the end of the first episode in which you mostly hear it happen - all you get to see is victim’s face, with the extent of the damage held back until the end of the scene.
Despite the obvious main feature of horrific murders, romance is also at the forefront of this show. There is definitely some chemistry (of the more-than-just-friends variety) between Abby and Henry. Multiple other characters are shown to be in relationships or just beginning them, the most awkward of these being Henry’s creepy, reclusive younger brother getting together with a girl whose mother was murdered (in the aforementioned seven-years-earlier murders).
The characters are really quite good (or at least they exceeded my expectations); they’re quite believable and not terribly acted. The cast is almost entirely young and attractive though. This lack of diversity makes for confusion, especially in the early stages when you are still working out who’s who, for example, both Trish and Abby look incredibly similar...this doesn’t help for making them memorable. From the beginning, we definitely empathise with Henry and Abby as characters, and Jimmy (Abby’s boyfriend from when she lived on the island before) also lends himself to being liked. Despite generally having likeability, most of the characters of Harper’s Island are (morally) slightly questionable, which means you just can’t tell who’s the killer and you also never can tell who’s next on the list to be killed.
There has been a lot of bloodshed so far and multiple twists and turns. It feels good to be able to admit that I don’t know where this is going and am intrigued to find out. It’s genuinely unpredictable. The fact that there is no second season, and that there are 13 episodes in which this story will be resolved is just perfect for a murder mystery. It's worth watching if you can stomach the gory death scenes, because this is bound to come to an exciting conclusion.
Harper’s Island is on Sundays at 12.35am on BBC3, and can also be caught up with on iPlayer)
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