CBS canceled beloved slasher series Harper’s Island after a single season, but it still holds a special place in my heart 15 years later because it deserves a resurrection. Slasher series rarely work because sustaining viewer interest week-to-week is tough when answers aren’t forthcoming. A slasher series needs convincing kills and plots that can be told over a longer arc and offer insight into the characters and their machinations. This particular series excelled because it had 25 suspects from the get-go, meaning there was no shortage of drama.

The series benefited from a picturesque setting, a tranquil location before serial killers caused problems. The best aspect Harper’s Island was its ability to play with my expectations and make me question what would happen next following each episode. It also did a great job with red herrings, which helped keep the biggest reveals under wraps until the final episodes.

Harper’s Island Was A Terrific Slasher Series

The Series Had Great Kills And Compelling Characters

The beauty of a show like Harper’s Island is that the storyline was self-contained, which allowed creator Ari Schlossberg to carefully map out the deaths and plot points in a way that translated well to the small screen. The most intriguing element was that everyone returned to the fictional titular location for a wedding, presenting the perfect opportunity for a killer to pick characters off one by one. Given the island’s history of John Wakefield’s murderous rampage, the nuptials brought people back to the town who had vowed never to return, such as Abby Mills.

Abby had a complicated past with Harper’s Island, and the series worked so well because it was told from her perspective. As a big fan of the slasher genre, I think the show did an ample job of creating plausible opportunities to kill off characters. I recall theorizing after every episode about which characters were suspects based on their actions. These critical components combined to make Harper’s Island one of the best shows. It’s a real shame it didn’t get the recognition I think it deserved.

Harper’s Island Was Ahead Of Its Time

The Series May Have Been A Massive Hit If It Launched A Few Years Later

While Harper’s Island was an example of a slasher series done right, it would probably have reached a bigger audience if it premiered a few years later than it did. Premiering on CBS, a network known for procedurals and multi-camera comedies, didn’t give it much of a chance. CBS was upset that Harper’s Island lost a considerable chunk of the CSI audience on Thursdays, so the show was banished to Saturdays, where it pulled in respectable numbers. Harper’s Island could have been a massive success if network executives had put it on Saturdays from the beginning and marketed it better.

Harper’s Island also had online-only mini-episodes that focused on a young woman working at Harper’s Globe, the fictional newspaper from the series. At the time, this was an engaging way to expand the universe and make the show’s events far more realistic and immersive. Nowadays, social media would have been a valuable tool to promote Harper’s Island. There’s definitely potential here to revisit this universe because I believe enough time has passed for a sequel to chart what happened next and if another killer emerged.