TVSquad

I know Harper's Island has been panned by everyone from television critics to deranged psychopathic killers with a penchant for islands, but I don't care. For eleven weeks now, I've followed along on this silly ride, and I've been enjoying the hell out of it. It's the horror-mystery aspect of it. Sure, I'm a little disappointed that the killer (so far) isn't one of the main cast members, but I'm having fun watching the cast get taken out "one by one," as creepy-little-girl says each week in the intro.

I was always a huge fan of Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians/And Then There Were None. Plus, I'm a sucker for a long-form story in television. I think this is one of those things television has over the movies. You can't take thirteen hours to tell a mystery in the theaters. That's one of the reasons I'm never as impressed with the done-in-one shows. You have this format that allows for these massively detailed long stories so why not use it? I don't care if you don't think Americans have the attention span for it; I do. And aren't you supposed to be programming for me?

Back in January, I mentioned that I am going to give Harper's Island a shot. I've been a little antsy about getting involved in yet another continuing drama (and one that could be canceled at anytime), but this was filmed and is being marketed as a limited-run series. Somewhere between a mini-series and a regular season, and that makes me feel a little better about taking the time to watch it.

Of course, one could argue that shows like Kidnapped and Daybreak were also shows that were designed for a limited run, but NBC and ABC didn't market those shows the way that CBS is marketing this one. The ads for Harper's Island make it very clear that it's only going to be on for a short time. In the TV ads, they're very specific about the dates the show will run (April 9 to July 2), and the people behind the show are calling it "an event." It's a smart way to do it, and the TV ads have actually been clever and well-done.

(S03E15) I'm going to take this moment to make a plea to Rob Thomas and The CW to not throw out the season long (or semi-season long) story arcs on this show. This episode was a prime example of what the buildup from several episodes of story can result in. Would the climax of this episode been as dramatic had we only been built up for one, two or even three episodes?

Sure, most of us called Tim the mastermind of the murder all along, but this episode threw so many wrenches into the works that I was quickly doubting myself. It wasn't until the final moments of the episode that I was once again sure Tim was responsible.

(S03E14) I know a lot of readers get really ticked off when we reveal any sort of spoilers before the jump of the post, so I'll just start off with a big "WOW!" If you saw the episode, you certainly know what I'm talking about. I'm both saddened and thrilled at the end result of things ... but I'll talk more about that later.

I think what makes me more sad is the fact that, after next week, we have to wait until April for a new episode. Boo.

(S03E10) Well folks, don't get used the this new semi-season-long mystery, as everything said recently by Rob Thomas and crew indicates this will be the last of them.

Here's my problem with the idea of no long mysteries. Sure, there are a lot of what I call "mini-mysteries" for Veronica to solve all season long, and we've seen our share of them on this show. But can we really tolerate and believe that she's going to have a new mystery every week? I guess if it worked for Scooby-Doo it'll work for Veronica, eh? But I guess what I feel will take me away from this show is their over-reliance on relationship drama as the glue that holds everything together. Yuck.

Anyway, I digress.