TV Meme: Day 17 - Favorite Mini-Series.

Day 17. Favorite Mini-Series. This one is particularly tough because I hardly ever watch a mini-series. And when I looked through lists of different ones, I had only seen a few, and of those, only cared for a couple. And it was really tough to go with one over the other, but I did decide. The deciding factor? The ending. I've always said the ending to something can make or break the entire experience for me. And the reason the otherwise brilliant mini-series "The Lost Room" didn't make the cut is for its incredibly lackluster ending. I believe they left it as they did for purposes of a spin-off series, but that never happened.

So instead I'm going with another mini-series that nobody watched. It's from the creators of Lonelygirl15. Yeah, remember that? It was a controversial internet show because it started off like a real girl vlogging about her life and her friend Daniel, only for a bunch of weird stuff to start happening... with apparently her being involved with some type of cult. Anyway, it turned out that it was made as an internet TV show, which is what kind of spawned the sensation (such as with Felicia Day's The Guild). The series ran for a couple years, even having a few spin-offs, and I have to say I did follow it pretty much through its entire run. What can I say? It was entertaining. But I'm digressing pretty bad here.

Anyway, after the popularity of Lonelygirl15, the production company (whose name escapes me at the moment) got hired by CBS to create a 1-season show and/or mini-series that essentially played out like a murder mystery, with at least 1 person getting killed off per episode and ending the whole thing with the reveal of the killer. The show was called Harper's Island.

The story of the show was that a couple were going back to their childhood home of Harper's Island to get married. But the island had a dark past, wherein a serial killer had, well, killed a bunch of people on the island many years before, including the groom's best friend's mother. And Abby's (the best friend) father became obsessed with the whole thing, and it destroyed their relationship. Despite the show being about the wedding and the couple, Abby is pretty much the main character.

For the first handful of episodes, the killings are pretty secret. Nobody realizes what's going on, and most people just think those killed went back to the mainland or are just doing something else. But after a while, especially after the first public killing, they realize what's going on. But they can't escape, because the killer blew up the boats, cut the phones, etc.

The production value of the show was incredibly low budget, though the horror bits were pretty realistic. In fact, the show was relatively gruesome, despite them not showing half the stuff that happens (for obvious reasons). Still, it wasn't poor enough to turn anyone away. Though because there was so little budget, the actors they got weren't the best, either. It wasn't the most amazing acting in the world, but it was tolerable.

So why watch it, then? The mystery. It really does keep you guessing. Every episode, you're putting clues together, trying to figure out who the killer could be. "Oh, it can't be so-and-so, because they were with this-person when third person died." They also set up plenty of red herrings. In fact, I thought it was one character for a long time on the show, as he was one of the main red herrings. But then he started turning into one of my favorite characters. It was rather conflicting. And they really set it up to be at least half the cast. By the time the show is halfway through, you've probably set blame on the majority of the characters. I won't reveal who it was, though it was a partial let down. It was one of those things that was so predictable you couldn't possibly think it was that character. But it wasn't enough to ruin the whole thing. It just knocked it down to another average murder mystery. But it was still fun.

There was another aspect of the show that was interesting, too. You could get further clues by watching a web series that acted as a companion to the show. It starred one of the later actresses to join Lonelygirl15 and followed a similar format (ordinary girl starting a vlog to discuss her life when a bunch of crazy stuff starts to happen). She played a reporter new to the island when the stuff starts going down. It kinda follows her story, which a couple times intertwines with the main story. A pretty neat concept, I thought.

Anyway, that's about it. It wasn't a groundbreaking show or anything, and I think in the grand scheme of things, The Lost Room was actually a better and more original mini-series. It's just that the ending totally killed it for me.