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Amazon.co.uk Review
The DVD shelves are creaking with television shows waiting to be discovered, and here’s another. Harper’s Island is a clever, twisty drama thriller that’s nominally about whittling 25 potential suspects down to reveal one killer. Taking place across 13 episodes, the tightly-plotted narrative leaves room for many jump out of your seat moments, but crucially, it keeps you interested and guessing right through to the final episode.
The event that brings the cast of Harper’s Island together is a wedding at the island of the show’s title. The same island where a series of murders had been committed seven years earlier and gone unsolved. And when more people start dropping dead, the accusations begin, and the mystery intensifies.
Building up its tension extremely effectively episode after episode, and benefiting from the lack of star names--along with actors who were primarily getting their scripts on a week-by-week basis--Harper’s Island emerges as a terrific, engaging season of television drama. It’s inevitably a dish best served as cold as possible, and it does in truth borrow conventions and ideas set down by one or two previous shows. But heck, it works very effectively here, and is the kind of show where once one disc is finished, the next gets swiftly thrown into the DVD player. A cracking, and complex, whodunit… --Jon Foster
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
This 13-part series is about the wedding of Henry Dunn and Trish Wellington, which takes place in Harper's Island. One of the guests, Abby Mills, is still haunted about the murders that happened seven years before, caused by John Wakefield. Suddenly, the wedding guests are killed one by one, and everybody is a suspect.
A friend of mine who lives in the US raved on about this show so much that he sent me the recorded show a few months ago and once I started watching, I just couldn't stop and I had all 13 episodes finished in just 2 days - it is so addictive! The style is a bit like SCREAM or I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER mixed with the whodunit style of AND THEN THERE WERE NONE. Apparently each of the actors didn't know their character's fate until they were given the script for the episode, so when this was being shown in the US, it was a complete secret to everyone about who was going to be killed each week (generally one or two characters per episode). The murders are all very gruesome which was unexpected at first as this is just a TV show, not a film, after all. The acting is good, I only recognise one actor from the whole cast (Richard Burgi from HOSTEL 2 and DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES) but they are all excellent and play their parts well. The story is very well presented, starting off quite slowly, helping you to get to know the large cast of over 25 characters and as a bit of a dark comedy (in a very similar style to SCREAM) and then moving on to being a more serious, fast-paced and suspenseful thriller.
Overall this is without a doubt one of the best shows I have seen in 2009 and I am really glad this is now being shown in the UK and is being released on DVD. This is a must see for anyone who loves a good murder mystery that will keep you thinking right until the end.
A friend of mine who lives in the US raved on about this show so much that he sent me the recorded show a few months ago and once I started watching, I just couldn't stop and I had all 13 episodes finished in just 2 days - it is so addictive! The style is a bit like SCREAM or I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER mixed with the whodunit style of AND THEN THERE WERE NONE. Apparently each of the actors didn't know their character's fate until they were given the script for the episode, so when this was being shown in the US, it was a complete secret to everyone about who was going to be killed each week (generally one or two characters per episode). The murders are all very gruesome which was unexpected at first as this is just a TV show, not a film, after all. The acting is good, I only recognise one actor from the whole cast (Richard Burgi from HOSTEL 2 and DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES) but they are all excellent and play their parts well. The story is very well presented, starting off quite slowly, helping you to get to know the large cast of over 25 characters and as a bit of a dark comedy (in a very similar style to SCREAM) and then moving on to being a more serious, fast-paced and suspenseful thriller.
Overall this is without a doubt one of the best shows I have seen in 2009 and I am really glad this is now being shown in the UK and is being released on DVD. This is a must see for anyone who loves a good murder mystery that will keep you thinking right until the end.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
I really enjoyed this series, even though I watched half of it from behind my hands.
I admit the premise for the series isn't original, the run up to a wedding is interrupted as the guests are slowly picked off one by one. It is the sort of thing you would normally find in a film and reminded me of "I know what you did last summer" and "Scream".
The viewer is given hints as to who is responsible for the killings but there are twists and turns along the way which kept me guessing right up to the end.
The only thing I didn't like was that there was a number of people disappeared and no-one seemed to bat an eyelid and just went along with the idea that they'd decided to head home without mentioning it to the bride and groom.
I'll be buying this for a number of friends/family as I don't believe it's been on British tv and I'm very certain they'll really enjoy it.
I admit the premise for the series isn't original, the run up to a wedding is interrupted as the guests are slowly picked off one by one. It is the sort of thing you would normally find in a film and reminded me of "I know what you did last summer" and "Scream".
The viewer is given hints as to who is responsible for the killings but there are twists and turns along the way which kept me guessing right up to the end.
The only thing I didn't like was that there was a number of people disappeared and no-one seemed to bat an eyelid and just went along with the idea that they'd decided to head home without mentioning it to the bride and groom.
I'll be buying this for a number of friends/family as I don't believe it's been on British tv and I'm very certain they'll really enjoy it.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
This 13-part series is about the wedding of Henry Dunn and Trish Wellington, which takes place in Harper's Island. One of the guests, Abby Mills, is still haunted about the murders that happened seven years before, caused by John Wakefield. Suddenly, the wedding guests are killed one by one, and everybody is a suspect.
A friend of mine who lives in the US raved on about this show so much that he sent me the recorded show a few months ago and once I started watching, I just couldn't stop and I had all 13 episodes finished in just 2 days - it is so addictive! The style is a bit like SCREAM or I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER mixed with the whodunit style of AND THEN THERE WERE NONE. Apparently each of the actors didn't know their character's fate until they were given the script for the episode, so when this was being shown in the US, it was a complete secret to everyone about who was going to be killed each week (generally one or two characters per episode). The murders are all very gruesome which was unexpected at first as this is just a TV show, not a film, after all. The acting is good, I only recognise one actor from the whole cast (Richard Burgi from HOSTEL 2 and DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES) but they are all excellent and play their parts well. The story is very well presented, starting off quite slowly, helping you to get to know the large cast of over 25 characters and as a bit of a dark comedy (in a very similar style to SCREAM) and then moving on to being a more serious, fast-paced and suspenseful thriller.
Overall this is without a doubt one of the best shows I saw in 2009. This is a must see for anyone who loves a good murder mystery that will keep you thinking right until the end.
A friend of mine who lives in the US raved on about this show so much that he sent me the recorded show a few months ago and once I started watching, I just couldn't stop and I had all 13 episodes finished in just 2 days - it is so addictive! The style is a bit like SCREAM or I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER mixed with the whodunit style of AND THEN THERE WERE NONE. Apparently each of the actors didn't know their character's fate until they were given the script for the episode, so when this was being shown in the US, it was a complete secret to everyone about who was going to be killed each week (generally one or two characters per episode). The murders are all very gruesome which was unexpected at first as this is just a TV show, not a film, after all. The acting is good, I only recognise one actor from the whole cast (Richard Burgi from HOSTEL 2 and DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES) but they are all excellent and play their parts well. The story is very well presented, starting off quite slowly, helping you to get to know the large cast of over 25 characters and as a bit of a dark comedy (in a very similar style to SCREAM) and then moving on to being a more serious, fast-paced and suspenseful thriller.
Overall this is without a doubt one of the best shows I saw in 2009. This is a must see for anyone who loves a good murder mystery that will keep you thinking right until the end.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Lots of gore but lots of fun!
Oh my goodness! I dont watch slasher films AT ALL and stumbled across this for its a la 'Agatha Christie, everyone stranded on an island getting bumped off one by one' format. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Lady of Leisure
best tv show for years
i loved it.. it's one of the best shows i've seen for years it had me hooked and left me wanting more. Read more
Published 6 months ago by cj
Harpers Island
One of the best shows I have seen in years! It has everything you would want from a TV show;gore,tension,drama,suspense and highly addictive. Read more
Published 6 months ago by FinlayB
I love this!
When this programme was on TV, I didn't miss a day! Couldn't get enough of it.
The storyline is amazing, it gets quite gory in some places. Read more
The storyline is amazing, it gets quite gory in some places. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Miss N. H. Cotton
Great Box Set
This DVD box set was great to watch. Not only that, every single minute of every one of the thirteen episodes, I was on the edge of seat wondering what was going to happen next. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Anthony Michael Barker
Brilliant
If you liked "Saw" "Final Destination" "Scream" "Severance" or "Wilderness"
you probpably like this too
the death scenes are creative and theres a good time put for... Read more
you probpably like this too
the death scenes are creative and theres a good time put for... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Juhani Jääskeläinen (Finland)
Not Bad but 'Missold'
There's a mad killer picking people of at a gathered on Harper Island for a big wedding. Lots of young people, mostly friends, are there with lots of back story and it's basically... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Hagrid's Umbrella
harpers island
this was a gift to my daughter from her wish list, and she was delighted to receive it as a surprise.
Published 11 months ago by J. Blackman
SLAUGHTERFEST TRIUMPH
Invitations to a posh wedding on a secluded island. What could be more romantic? True, there were those horrendous murders seven years ago, but they are not worth bothering about... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Mr. D. L. Rees
One by one....
Agatha Christie meets Scream in this irresistible TV-marathon that extends the format of Ten Little Indians into epic - and determinedly gruesome - dimensions. Read more
Published 15 months ago by "filmfogey"
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