Harper’s Island on DVD – What you get

We followed along pretty closely with Harper’s Island here on CliqueClack TV. In fact, Deb and I both posted about it every week within one post, sort of doing a point/counter-point-style commentary on each episode. The thing is, many times we were simply agreeing with each other! It was a fun series to cover, knowing that it would all be wrapped up in 13 episodes and not need further seasons to feel complete.

So, when you pick up the Harper’s Island series on DVDs, you’re essentially getting a 13-hour movie, along with the associated special features and occasional commentary tracks. For any horror/mystery fan, especially those who haven’t watched the series nor know the answer to the mystery involved, you really should consider picking this up. And if you haven’t seen the show yet, beware that there may be spoilers below.

Along with all thirteen episodes, there are three with commentary by producers, writers, and actors, including Jeffrey Bell, Ari Schlossberg, Dan Shotz, Karim Zreik, Dean Chekvala, Matt Marr, and Chris Gorham. It’s especially interesting to hear the commentary attached to the final episode, and the discussion of how the killer was revealed.

There are also a few deleted scenes thrown into a couple of the DVDs, most of which don’t reveal anything new, and are merely longer shots of what we already saw. One scene actually shows Malcolm’s body parts being thrown into the furnace, which would have easily thrown him off the list of “slightly possible suspects” had we seen it in the first place.

The other features on the final DVD include a short “Making Of” featurette, a “Guess Who?” segment featuring the cast and crew making guesses of who they think the killer is, and a short segment on how the actors had to be informed they were being killed off by the “Grim Reaper” (i.e., the producers) during mid-production.

There’s also a featurette on the casting for the show that I found sort of odd. Some of the choices the casting crew made are mentioned as though they were the first and final choices for the roles, other than the role of Uncle Marty (who, as you may not know, was originally portrayed by Bill Pullman and not Harry Hamlin). For example, they said Richard Burgi was the first and clear choice as Tom Wellington … but he wasn’t the first to play it.

Lastly, one great addition to the set is the inclusion of all 16 Harper’s Gazette webisodes. That alone makes this set feel very complete, as anything left on the web has the chance of simply vanishing in the future, and we can’t have that!

Harper’s Island is available on DVD and in stores now.

Clacked by Keith McDuffee
on Sep 24, 2009 @ 15:07 EST5EDT