So BBC Three has been missing a spooky drama or two recently following the end of “Being Human” Series One. Dont fear however as this Sunday, several months after it was axed in the United States due to poor ratings we see the arrival of Harper’s Island. At best, this show is described as a horror-themed murder mystery but to be honnest, Its not all that at all.

Harper’s Island is infact about a group of family and friends who travel to a secluded island off the coast of Seattle for a wedding. This island is famous for a streak of unsolved murders from seven years ago which makes us think, Why would you have a bloody wedding there?

Although they’ve come to laugh and to love, what they don’t know is they’ve also come… to die. (Cue the Suspense Music) As the wedding festivities begin, friendships are tested and secrets exposed as a murderer claims victims, one by one, transforming the wedding week of fun and celebration into a struggle for survival.

In every episode, someone is killed and every person is a suspect, from the wedding party to the island locals. By the end of the 13 episodes, all questions will be answered, the killer will be revealed and only a few will survive.

The opening episode starts promisingly enough, with gloomy and foreboding imagery of the island that is standard in most programmes of this type. Then we have captions telling us that six people were murdered there by John Wakefield seven years ago and they will not be the last. (Like we need a caption to tell us this)

The action then jumps to the frolics of a wedding party on board a boat heading towards the island, with plenty of suspicious glances and dodgy goings-on lurking beneath the surface. An unknown man is strapped to the propeller of the boat and is swiftly sliced up, with the surrounding water turning a grim shade of red. Sounds alright so far

Unfortunatly it starts to go down hill from here with the creators trying to build up to much suspense. In fairness to the creators, It’s a huge task to successfully establish a large ensemble cast within the space of a show’s first hour. Harper’s Island is one show that fails to make us like the cast enough to care about them. We dont know anything about these people and the attempts at trying to create a back story are weak. The crosscutting around the concurrent events on the island does not help much either.

It seems the only victim here to us is Harper’s Island its self. Trying to achieve to much to soon. We cant fault the camera quality of this show, it is fantastic. Its just a shame the story has nothing for us to latch on to.