Wow. Here are my notes, pretty much raw and unedited:
Monday, July 04, 2011 -- HARPER’S ISLAND
This is pretty darn good.
The contrasts work well, both between the setting and the violence, and between the various characters, ugly and pretty, mean and nice, and the way they are balanced.
The acting is first-rate.
The acting is first-rate.
The red herrings work, the misdirections, the way they fool the audience, and the rise and fall of tensions.
I hate to admit it, but I love the scene where the girl falls away from the killer, denying him the pleasure of killing her.
Tone and sensibility are very good. I am both attracted and repelled.
Clever ways to kill people. I never would’ve thought of killing that guy under the party boat, (SPOILER ALERT) strapped to the screw shaft with a scuba tank, so when they start up the boat, they kill him inadvertently. Very clever.
Very clever to have everyone going back to the scene of previous horrific murders. I have never seen that before.
Very clever to have only a few people in the wedding party know about the previous murders, so only a few people, and we the audience, are scared out of our wits.
(SPOILER ALERT) Very clever to have tightened the screws, so that the second bad guy was the son of Abby’s mom and the killer.
Very clever to have the big bad guy have fallen off a cliff but they never found his body. Or is this stock? Anyway, I went for it.
Very clever to juggle this huge cast.
The depth of feeling and character development are good.
The foils are good, like Abby and the tattooed girl.
Overall, very scary and very well done. Wins my thriller TV prize.
I watched it higgly-piggly and out of order. Now I’m renting it all from Netflix and will watch the whole series in order. Can’t wait.
I can’t believe this is network. Good for you, CBS.
-- Roger
© Copyright 2011, Roger R. Angle
No comments:
Post a Comment