Harper's Island

Plot

Seven years after John Wakefield murders six people on Harper’s Island, Abby Mills returns for the first time since her mother’s death to attend the wedding of her childhood best friend, Henry Dunn, and his fiancée, Trish Wellington. As their family and friends gather at the Candlewick Inn, members of the wedding party begin disappearing and are murdered without the others’ knowledge. When the killings are finally discovered, the survivors find themselves isolated on the island and targeted by an assailant connected to Wakefield, forcing Abby to confront the circumstances surrounding the original massacre.

Cast and characters

Main

Elaine Cassidy as Abby Mills, the groom's best friend

Christopher Gorham as Henry Dunn, the fiancé of Trish Wellington

Katie Cassidy as Patricia 'Trish' Wellington, the bride-to-be

Gina Holden as Shea Allen, Trish's older sister and maid of honor

Cameron Richardson as Chloe Carter, a bridesmaid one of Trish's bridesmaids

Adam Campbell as Cal Vandeusen, Chloe's boyfriend and a doctor

Matt Barr as Christopher "Sully" Sullivan, Henry's best man

C.J. Thomason as Jimmy Mance, a local fisherman and Abby's high school sweetheart

Jim Beaver as Charlie Mills, the sheriff on Harper's Island and Abby's father

Production

Development and writing

In a 2017 retrospective, Jon Turteltaub and Ari Schlossberg recalled that Turteltaub's production company met with several writers while developing a serialized drama intended to tell a complete story over one season. The company selected Schlossberg, who devised the premise of a destination wedding at which members of an ensemble cast could gradually be killed. Schlossberg pitched the project to CBS and wrote the pilot presentation, which Turteltaub directed. CBS commissioned the presentation in March 2008.

CBS ordered Harper's Island to series on May 12, 2008, as part of its 2008–09 television schedule. Later that month, while the project was being retooled, Jeffrey Bell was hired as its executive producer and showrunner. Bell wrote the first episode and oversaw the series with Turteltaub, while Schlossberg, Karim Zreik and Dan Shotz served as co-executive producers.

Zreik later recalled that the series had been pitched as a 10- to 13-episode event. Although its first season would tell a self-contained story, subsequent seasons could have featured different characters and settings without being narratively connected to it. Some major plot details remained undecided after production began. According to Schlossberg, the writers initially had not determined whether John Wakefield was still alive. Around the sixth episode, they decided to reveal that Wakefield had survived and was helping Henry Dunn carry out the murders. Christopher Gorham, who played Henry, was informed of his character's involvement before filming the eighth episode.

Casting

Elaine Cassidy, Ryan Merriman and Samantha Noble were cast as Abby Mills, Henry Dunn and Trish Wellington, respectively, in the original presentation. During the subsequent retooling, Gorham was cast as Henry, while Katie Cassidy replaced Noble as Trish.

Harry Hamlin was cast as Marty Dunn, who is killed during the premiere. Schlossberg later explained that the producers wanted a recognizable actor for the role so that killing the character early would demonstrate that prominent cast members were not necessarily safe.

Filming

Principal photography was based in Vancouver and ran from August 8, 2008, to January 28, 2009. The production also filmed on Bowen Island. Cast member Adam Campbell later described regularly travelling there by boat from Vancouver.

Zreik recalled that departing cast members were normally informed of their characters' deaths shortly before receiving the relevant scripts. Where possible, he arranged for a character's death scene to be filmed on the actor's final working day.

According to Zreik, the story takes place over approximately five or six days, although filming continued through several seasons. This created continuity problems when weather conditions changed. Cassidy's final scene, for example, was filmed during snowy weather in December, requiring the crew to remove and melt the snow before filming.

Reception

Ratings

Despite falling ratings, CBS aired all Harper's Island episodes, although the show was moved from its original night and time to Saturdays. At the end of the 2008-2009 television season the show ranged at #50 being viewed in approximately 9,360,000 homes in North America.

In Australia, Harper's Island ratings were very low, being beaten by competing shows on other networks. Throughout its run, the series alternated times slots. In Canada, the show continued to air Thursday nights on Global Television Network. In Denmark, Harper's Island was moved after episode 5 from Thursdays at 10:50 pm to around midnight. In Ireland the show stayed on its original Monday night airing at 10:00 pm. In the United Kingdom, the show's ratings started off under average but as the series progressed it became the BBC Three channel's number one show on Sundays, and therefore maintained the 9:00 pm slot. In Finland, the program was aired at 9:00 pm during the whole season. The series has been aired multiple times on Malaysia's RTM channel tv2, every Wednesday and Thursday nights airing at midnight.

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the first season holds an approval rating of 65% based on 26 reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "Grisly horror trumps amateurish dialogue, making Harper's Island a thrill to watch." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the series a score of 63 out of 100 based on 22 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Contemporary reviews

Several critics praised the series' self-contained format and ability to generate suspense. Tom Shales of The Washington Post called it a "cunningly constructed, habit-forming mystery" and an intriguing departure from conventional episodic television, although he considered characterization secondary to the plot. Tim Goodman of the San Francisco Chronicle similarly regarded the guaranteed conclusion as part of the series' appeal. He described it as "ghoulish and scary fun" and believed the writing was sufficiently clever to sustain its weekly-murder premise.

Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times considered the pilot promising for horror viewers, praising its tension and the performances of Elaine Cassidy, C. J. Thomason and Christopher Gorham. However, she found its graphic violence gratuitous and argued that the series might have been more effective without showing the murders in such detail. Drew Toal of Time Out awarded the series three out of five stars. Although he criticized the acting, stock characters and horror-film camera techniques, he found its cartoonish violence, gruesome deaths and deliberately corny dialogue "actually kind of fun".

Other reviewers were more critical of the writing and characterization. Brian Lowry of Variety wrote that the series too often relied upon "slasher-movie absurdities", particularly a seemingly omnipresent murderer and a shortage of meaningful clues. Brian Holcomb of Slant Magazine welcomed the promise of a conclusive ending, which he considered unusual among contemporary serialized dramas, but believed the pilot failed to exploit its central gimmick effectively. He also criticized its broadly drawn characters and insufficiently compelling mystery. Daniel Carlson of The Hollywood Reporter argued that the premise might have succeeded as a self-aware parody but found that its earnest treatment instead emphasized its weaknesses.

Reviewing the series during its British broadcast, Phelim O'Neill of The Guardian praised its deliberate embrace of familiar slasher conventions, writing, "It's like every horror film ever made—and it really doesn't skimp on the gore. O'Neill also thought the opening episodes worked best when watched together rather than at weekly intervals.

Reviewing the finale, Michael Slezak of Entertainment Weekly found the series entertaining but disappointing. Although he praised its premise and cast, he wrote that its creators had "dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of opportunities to elevate the series from entertaining trash into something truly memorable".

Retrospective reviews

Later reviews were generally more appreciative of the series, particularly when assessing it as a complete work rather than from its opening episodes. In 2015, Trace Thurman of Bloody Disgusting called the series "far better than it was given credit for". He acknowledged that the pilot introduced too many characters, the first half resembled a soap opera with horror elements and the finale lost some momentum, but praised the increased emphasis on characterization as the ensemble became smaller. Thurman also considered the series more effective when watched over a small number of sittings. In a 2016 retrospective for Decider, Joe Reid presented the series as an example of entertaining, deliberately undemanding summer television, describing it as both "perfect" and "terrible".

Marking the series' tenth anniversary in 2019, Emma Fraser of Syfy Wire argued that its planned seasonal-anthology format would be more commercially viable in the later television landscape. She also believed its interactive online material anticipated the social-media engagement that subsequently accompanied series such as Pretty Little Liars and Scandal. Fraser nevertheless criticized the 13-episode length, midseason pacing and repetitive twists, concluding that the series was better suited to an "ideal weekend-long binge".

In 2022, Valerie Ettenhofer of /Film described Harper's Island as "gory, silly, propulsive, and ultimately awesome" and a cult touchstone in horror television. She praised the series' progression from a sprawling ensemble mystery into a more focused thriller, arguing that its extended format allowed the characters to develop beyond common slasher-film archetypes. Ettenhofer also described the program as ahead of its time, while acknowledging that its dedicated audience remained relatively small.

Paul Lê of Bloody Disgusting praised the series in 2025 for combining a Christie-style whodunit with slasher horror, arguing that it was "really the first television show to lean into the concept". Although he found the opening episodes as "a bit soapy when first getting to know the ensemble cast", he praised the characters and level of violence achieved on network television, describing the intended seasonal-anthology structure as a prototype that was "well ahead of its time".

Harper's Globe

Harper's Globe is a social web series, designed to complement Harper's Island. The series is created by EQAL (creators of lonelygirl15, KateModern, LG15: The Resistance) and CBS Interactive. The show premiered its weekly episodes on March 18, 2009, and ran for a total of sixteen weeks. It stars Melanie Merkosky, who played the character Jennie in lonelygirl15.

Creator Miles Beckett says of the series, "The story of Harper's Globe is about a girl named Robin, with a very mysterious past, who's gone to Harper's Island to work for the newspaper, Harper's Globe, and to digitize articles from the newspaper and to create a community online for the Harper's Globe newspaper and the citizens of Harper's Island. And then she gets pulled into the story as it begins to unfold on the island."

The character Ben, who was the first character to die in Harper's Island, was first seen in a Harper's Globe episode. The series also features appearances by Harper's Island characters Sheriff Mills, Nikki Bolton, Maggie Krell and John Wakefield.

Home media

On September 8, 2009, CBS Home Entertainment (distributed by Paramount) released Harper's Island: The DVD Edition, a complete series box set on DVD in Region 1 for the very first time. Special features included audio commentaries on four episodes, deleted scenes, behind-the-scenes featurettes, CBS on-air promos, and the complete Harper's Globe webisodes. The DVD set was released on February 8, 2010, for Region 2, and released on March 4, 2010, for Region 4. The series received its first Blu-Ray release on April 16, 2025, in Australia from Via Vision Entertainment.

Streaming

The entire series was available on Netflix between summer 2014 and July 1, 2015, when it was removed from the service after the Netflix license had expired. The show became available on Amazon Video, free for Amazon Prime members, otherwise available for purchase.

The series is also available on Pluto TV and on The CW's free streaming platform, CW Seed. It is also available on BBC iPlayer in the UK.