Last week the DVD set of the CBS television show "Harper's Island" came out.  I caught the first three episodes only; the show ran for 13 episodes/weeks from April through July of 2009.  The show intrigued me because it's much like And Then There Were None.



I know the viewership declined pretty much after every week.  My reason for having only seen the first three episodes were simple, I guess.  It reminded me of daytime soap operas and (to me) it was really gory.  There was plenty of blood splashed around.  The "horror" element was a big turn off for me; I was never one to go for the violence.  Actor Christopher Gorham says in a CBS video that the characters die "in ways you've never seen before."  Meaning: gory and very creative (Gorham describes it as "sick").  What the reasons were why the show kept losing viewers I don't know.  Same as my reasons?

So, you ask yourself.  Why did I see the show?

Having seen the TV commercials 2 weeks prior intrigued me.  Around 26 people on an island for a wedding, each of them being killed off?  I said immediately, "Please!  It sounds like Agatha Christie.  It's And Then There Were None!"  It interested me just enough for me to find the show's official site to check it out.  I recall a video interview with one of the producers in which he described the show as Scream meets And Then There Were None.  I knew it!  Of course they used Agatha Christie as inspiration.  It reminds me of the movie Identity with John Cusack and Alfred Molina.  That movie had ten strangers in a Nevada motel, each of them being killed off, too.  Anyway, "Harper's Island" is a whodunit.  Don't get me wrong--I think it works out fine.  (I've seen later episodes on CBS' site.)  But, back to my problem: it was more horror than thriller.  Gorham even says they had it at 10 p.m. for a reason: they filmed the episodes as borderline "R-rated" for a reason.

I'll leave it up to anyone interested in checking it out on DVD or on the web.

Ah ... Another reason why I only saw the first three episodes was because on the fourth episode CBS moved the show from Thursdays to Saturdays.  Dumb move.  Much less TV viewers.  CBS killed their own show.