Harper’s Island – CBS’ Short Series Murder Mystery – With Jon Turteltaub Interview

Harper’s Island (premiering Thursday, April 9th) is a fascinating move for primetime television. That’s true whether or not the attempt by Jon Turteltaub and CBS turns out to be something great, and that’s because the attempt itself is worthwhile. Though it might be looked at as a “miniseries,” Harper’s Island really creates a new category for television. It’s a murder mystery, and it runs for thirteen weeks. While subjects in the category of miniseries are generally just extended movies, with one arc covering the entire run, Harper’s Island plays out like a normal twenty-something drama… except that people get killed, and it has an end.

The story starts out with a large party of family and friends heading to Harper’s Island for a wedding. One guest has some real doubts about the trip, and that’s Abby. Several years ago, there were a string of murders on the island, and Abby’s mother was one of the victims. She hasn’t been back to the island where she grew up since, but now her best friend Henry is getting married, and she’s decided it’s now or never.

An odd assortment of characters make up our party, and the dynamics of the relationships make up the lion’s share of our story. Our groom, Abby’s friend, is marrying the daughter of a very wealthy man, and said wealthy man isn’t particularly happy about the fact. Characters lovingly referred to by the show’s website as – The Old Flame, The Black Sheep, The Stepmother, The Other Man, and many more, come together to form a vast web of entanglements. In one more spin that makes the show hard to classify, the plot is rich enough that it could easily lose the murder angle and still have a story worth watching.

And yet, as the trailers tell us, not only is this a murder mystery, we’re down one person before (sort of) the boat even leaves the dock. And, naturally, having our girl Abby along means those murders from the past are going to get brought up, and conveniently explained to us, and that’s going to set us travelling down a pretty creepy road. That puts an interesting spin on a lot of the more “normal” scenes that are just trying to introduce our characters. You can imagine something like a Gossip Girl, or The OC, but with people getting whacked.

I’ve only had the chance to watch the first episode, but it lays the groundwork for a pretty interesting and intense series. The many quirks of the show have a lot of surprising results, not least of which is the gorgeous display of a show with an uncharacteristic number of off-set scenes.

I also had the chance to take part in a telephonic interview with Jon Turteltaub recently, when he took a short break from filming The Sorceror’s Apprentice to talk with a few bloggers. The following is a rough working of that interview.

I should mention first that the questions were thrown out by six people besides me, and Jon was pretty compelling in his enthusiasm for the project.

Things started off with a fairly standard, “What appealed to you most about a project of this kind?” Jon clearly expressed that he was excited about the theory of the show and the results. First, he said, it really isn’t something that’s been done before, and that’s exciting. From a producer/business side of things, it’s shocking to be doing something new and to experiment with a new idea. From a director-specific point of view, Jon said he was very interested to do something that moved into the realm of horror/thriller.

That brings up the whole genre point again, and it was interesting to hear Jon talk about the many facets of the show. As soon as people are getting killed off, sometimes in very “horror” style, the reaction is to immediately slap it into the horror genre no matter what else there is going on in the show or movie. Moreover, the intial reaction is to not really pay attention to anything else that might be going on. I have to agree that it’s a tricky move here. You can’t deny that people are getting killed off, and that is (to some degree or another) a major focus of events, but I personally wouldn’t put this in a horror category, even if it is understably hard to avoid. Just as I wouldn’t put Agatha Chritie in horror, even if the deaths were gory (and maybe a little goofy).

Asked what he would say to get someone to watch Harper’s Island, Jon responded that it’s really the surprise that moves things along. Something he says “we” (referent somewhat vague) learned from reality television is the power of not knowing who will get voted off each week. Similarly, there really is no way to know who might get killed each week, and it’s the same basic game. Here’s where Harper’s Island breaks from the norms yet again, because in any movie you might put in a similar genre, there are some people you know aren’t going to get killed. Worse, in any horror movie, there are people you know are going to get killed. With Harper’s Island you really have no idea.

When asked to pick three words to describe the show, Jon gave us: exciting, surprising, and addictive. We may have to see about that, though I will say that the elements are there for some addiction. Once through the first couple of episodes I think it’s going to be hard to get away from. Especially because of the way the plot elements that aren’t related to the murders are given a chance to take hold. Jon repeatedly mentioned the effort that went into putting together good characters for this particular series. You have to deliver some real depth to pull something like this off, because the whole point is to build some attachment in order to fuel the continued interest.

I mentioned the fairly unique pacing already, and Jon talked about that quite a bit as well. He mentioned the challenges of such a unique concept of pacing, especially in order to avoid the feel of being something that is ultimately just a 13 hour movie. While there is obviously an overall arc, each episode also has its own beginning, middle, and end which delivers the feel of a “normal” series, within something like the overarching structure of familiar series.

One of the things I found most interesting about the interview was Jon’s comments on working with the network. In the end, Jon commented, the relationship really worked in terms of producing the best series possible. There were ideas and suggestions the network made which Jon ultimately believed were for the best, and were things that he wouldn’t have thought of. For example, really working to infuse a “likability” into characters when you know who is getting killed in episode three or four. Starting out, it’s easy to give those characters less attention (as would be necessary in a movie), but when you get a good look at the TV perspective, you realize you need to build everyone equally so that the investment is there.

Another really interesting thing I learned about the production is that none of the actors knew who the killer was, or if they were ever getting killed until the week their luck ran out. Only the actor/actress (well, because I don’t know) playing the killer knew beforehand how things were going to play out.

And, in case you’re wondering, because I certainly was, Jon assured me that the show really has a great ending. He said it has a “longer” ending than people might think, though I’m not sure exactly what that might mean. He also assured me that it doesn’t have one of those “no ending” endings, or some kind of leave things up in the air endings where things might go on forever.

In the end, I think Harper’s Island is a very solid effort, and has all the makings of something that could really suck you in. It’s also surprisingly gorgeous for a television series. Jon mentioned they had a completely bizarre “one day in, seven days out” shooting schedule, which means you get a massive helping of Bowen Island off the coast of Vancouver. I definitely recommend you give this one a shot, and try something a bit outside the box.

Special thanks to Jon for his time. Here are a few clips of various related items. Stay tuned at the bottom for details of a giveaway from our friends at muzeclothing.com. Also, be sure to check out Harper’s Globe, a vlog of short episodes which give behind the scenes information about Harper’s Island from the perspective of someone who works at the local newspaper. It’s actually rather interesting, and already has a few episodes up. Finally, visit the official page for Harper’s Island and play the Pick the Victim game for a chance to win $1,000.

Leave a comment on this post, and you are automatically entered to win this fabulous shirt from muzeclothing.com. It’s a medium. Click on the picture to get more info on the shirt. A winner will be selected on May 1st. Good luck.