HARPER'S ISLAND 1.3 & 1.4 - "Ka-Blam" & "Bang"
Kelly (Anna Mae Routledge) has been found hanged by Sheriff Mills (Jim Beaver), and his daughter Abby (Elaine Cassidy) is convinced she was murdered. The finger of suspicion falls on weirdo J.D (Dean Chechvala), who was the last person to see Kelly alive, but Abby isn't convinced and is still toying with the theory that serial-killer John Wakefield is back. The circumstances of Wakefield's "death" seven years ago is still unexplained, but there must be room for doubt.
The soap element of the show continues, with Hunter Jennings (Victor Webster) trying to lure Trish (Katie Cassidy) away from her fiancé Henry (Christopher Gorham), at her snobbish father's behest. The fact we have no knowledge of Trish and Hunter's history together doesn't help these scenes, but "Ka-Blam" wisely brings that particular storyline to a close, anyway. Hunter blackmails $50,000 from Trish's father Thomas Wellington (Richard Burgi) and leaves he island in a powerboat, finding dead Uncle Marty's bag of $250,000 and a gun after his boat's engine fails. Investigating the faulty engine, Hunter trips a booby-trap and a shotgun blows his head off. Quite why the killer put Marty's swag on this boat is anyone's guess right now.
The humourous love-triangle between Cal (Adam Campbell), his sexy girlfriend Chloe (Cameron Richardson) and Sully (Matt Barr) was pretty good, with Cal getting his own back on Sully (who left him dangling upside-down from a tree), by having him smeared in honey for a "treatment" with Chloe before emptying a pillow-case of feathers over him. Right now, those three characters are the most engaging in some ways, as we're getting to know them through their relationships and comedy.
It was also interesting to see how various characters have the capacity of temperament to kill -- perhaps. While we're focused on one serial-killer slowly eliminating the wedding guests, the likes of Kelly's ex-boyfriend Shane (Ben Cotton) become just as dangerous, as he kidnaps J.D and threatens to hang him for apparently killing his ex. The resulting scene of Abby trying to talk Shane out of avenging Kelly's death was the first time Harper's Island replaced shock with real tension and suspense.
"Bang" wasn't as good, but it was still fun if you swallowed a few absurd developments and poor decision-making. Henry and his pals decide to go fishing and find Hunter's boat, with Hunter's identity kept secret because his head has been blown-off. Mal (Chris Gauthier) spies Marty's bag containing $250,000 and, in a pique of greed, shoots a hole in the boat to allow it to sink and talks the guys into returning to the island to share out the cash.
Of course, the group are soon divided over what to do for the best, believing the swag could be drug-money, and collective guilt causes them to mistake two strippers for gangsters. Henry suggests they stash the money somewhere safe for now, so they draw straws and Joel (Sean Rogerson) is soon venturing into the woods to bury the loot. Unfortunately, he's startled by Mal and accidentally shoots himself in the leg, dying from the arterial bleed in seconds. Mal's character takes a dark turn by returning to Henry's party and denying all knowledge of Joel's fate, later seen crying alone in his hotel room with the money all to himself.
Undoubtedly, a rather silly subplot for several reasons, "Bang" went one step further by weaving the supernatural into this episode. Creepy little girl Madison (Cassandra Sawtell) -- last seen burning a snail with a magnifying glass, to confirm her creepiness -- starts acting strangely around Tarot cards belonging to a psychic who's arrived as entertainment for Trish's hen party...
Madison appears to have a psychic link to the unfolding events, later heard chanting "one by one." I can understand the thinking behind all this, as it's easy to develop unearned disquiet with spooky kids acting strangely, and the paranormal gives the show another tone to play with, but I hope they don't go too far with it. Harper's Island should focus on the murder-mystery thriller genre as its basis, and leave The X Files stuff alone. Madison is being written as the ultimate creepy child cliché, too -- particularly in one scene that was almost a reprise of a moment from The Others. Essentially, I hope Trish's precious tea set was smashed by Madison because she's just a problem child who's seen too many horror movies, and not a genuine "omen".
"Bang" did contain a few nice moments towards the end, however. A drunken Trish falling into a swimming pool while trying to rescue a blow-up doll, only for the pool's covering to roll across the surface, trapping her underwater, was a really tense Final Destination-style moment. The show almost fooled me into thinking they were going to kill the bride as early as episode 4, but she was rescued and revived with CPR at the last second. Lastly, the Sheriff had it confirmed that "blood" found covering dead Kelly's pupils was red ink injected into her eyeballs -- confirming his daughter's suspicion that she was murdered.
Overall, I'm still enjoying this series. It strays into silliness a few times and isn't escaping all the soap/horror clichés, but the premise is still holding my attention and it feels like the show is creeping towards the unavoidable tipping point (when everyone knows a killer's on the loose, the amount of missing people becomes apparent, and the bloodshed impossible to overlook.) A lot of it still doesn't make much sense, though: why is the killer being so elaborate with his traps, if he doesn't want anyone to know he's killing people? Why is the killer targeting these people, and in this order? Why did the killer plant Uncle Marty's cash on that boat?
Oh, and I think it was a mistake to cast Callum Keith Rennie as John Wakefield. The moment Rennie's face was glimpsed in a back-issue of a newspaper Abby was browsing, you just knew Wakefield wasn't dead. There's no way the producers would cast someone so familiar to genre fans (see: Battlestar Galactica) just to be a mug-shot. The only question is: when is Wakefield going to show up, and is he solely responsible for the recent killings, or does he have help?
13 September 2009
BBC Three/BBC HD, 9pm
written by: Jill E. Blotevogel (1.3) & Lindsay Sturman (1.4) directed by: Steve Boyum (1.3) & Guy Norman Bee (1.4) starring: Elaine Cassidy (Abby Mills), Christopher Gorham (Henry W. Dunn), Katie Cassidy (Trish Wellington), Cameron Richardson (Chloe Carter), Adam Campbell (Cal Vandeusen), Richard Burgi (Thomas Wellington), Jim Beaver (Sheriff Charlie Mills), C.J Thomason (Jimmy Mance), Victor Webster (Hunter Jennings), Dean Chekvala (J.D Dunn), Matt Barr (Christopher "Sully" Sullivan), Harry Hamlin (Marty Dunn), Gina Holden (Shea Allen), David Lewis (Richard Allen), Cassandra Sawtell (Madison Allen), Claudette Mink (Katherine Wellington), Brandon Jay McLaren (Danny Brooks), Chris Gauthier (Malcolm Ross), Sean Rogerson (Joel Booth), Amber Borycki (Beth Barrington), Sarah Smyth (Lucy Daramour), Ben Cotton (Shane Pierce), Anna Mae Routledge (Kelly Seaver), Ali Liebert (Nikki Bolton) & Beverly Elliott (Maggie Krell)
