Harper's Island - Pilot ["Whap"] - Advance TV Review

"Harper's Island" is hyped as a closed ended murder mystery where you won't know who did it until the very end. However, the key in the pilot "Whap" is that there is a whole lot of foul play going around. The setting is staged in congruence with a wedding of "West Side Story" standards. The groom is a working class kid who spent his summers on the exclusive island when he was younger. The bride-to-be is her rich daddy's little girl who fell in love with a guy not from her own arena. There are competing love interests for sure. The pilot plays less stylized than one would think and comes off, at times, soapy. But in a move that made "Desperate Housewives" a ratings powerhouse, "Harper's Island", because of its accessible nature, has the possibility of snagging both a young audience who is tired of so much thinking and ready for a good yarn and the older generation who have seen less and less of Agatha Christie or the early years of "Murder She Wrote" and miss it. Of course, here it is early to tell.The pilot sets up a premise and starts to place some motives but nothing too specific. The angle with this type of series is that there are four subplots going at the same time. If the show can keep that straight but keep upping the ante each episode then the possibilities are good. With a 13-episode arc, it might be just long enough to create a novel-like perception but not overdo it. As the weeks progress, the ratings and the suspense should tell the tale. For the pilot, it sets the setting but the essence of the drama becomes more of a wait-and-see. Out of 5, I give it a 2 1/2.