Surfing In The Summer (Channel Surfing That Is)

So, I love Television, but I haven’t gotten to watch very much of it during college. Well, it’s summer now, and I’ve been surfing the channels to let you know what shows you should be watching. My favorite show of the summer right now is Harper’s Island. It airs Saturday nights at 9 on CBS. I know, TV on a Saturday, that’s usually reserved for SNL and a repeat of a Law and Oder or CSI, but Harper’s Island can be watched online at CBS.com. Harper’s Island is in fact a murder mystery show, extremely fictional, but mildly entertaining. I heard about this show last summer when it was in development. It was advertised saying that each week at least one or more characters would die and they didn’t disappoint. In last week’s episode five people were killed, and in the eleven episodes that have aired more than thirty people have died at the mercy of the Harper’s Island writers. The show follows good girl Abby, who left Harper’s Island after her mother was murdered seven years ago by the island’s resident serial killer, John Wakefield. Her mother wasn’t the only one, Wakefield murdered several other locals and strung them high up on the trees of the island’s forests.

Abby for some reason decided to come back to the island after seven years. Why? Well, first off she seeks to mend her strained relationship with her father, the Sheriff who supposedly shot and killed Wakefield years ago. And second she’s there to attend the wedding of her best friend Henry to rich princess Trish Wellington. The show started out slow. Seemingly unimportant events happened as you waited to see who would kick the bucket each week as well as try to find obscure clues as to who the killer is. Apparently, now there are two killers, one has been revealed, the other is still out there. The show really depends on its ending. If the explanation for all of the murders is good enough, then the show will be known as a great cult TV show, if not, it will fade away as a “oh remember that one show about that island, it had that horribly bad ending?”

Honestly the show’s not that great, but it’s the entire story that makes it interesting. Part of that story is the online viral marketing that was implemented to “enhance” the viewing of the show. Harper’s Globe is the online show, which unfortunately is faster-paced, more intriguing, and more suspenseful than the show itself. It follows Robin Matthews, a seemingly good girl with a dark past, who was brought to the island to create an online community for the town’s newspaper Harper’s Globe. She creates a myspace type environment, where you can post pictures and videos. Robin posts videos periodically and so do a few other members. The videos that they post, however, seem to bring up horrible memories that Robin has tried to escape from. Her video posts as well as the others are edited nicely each week to create the online series which you can watch at harpersglobe.com. If you haven’t watched either Harpers Island or Harpers Globe it’s not too late. The show is on hiatus this Saturday because of the fourth of July, but will return next Saturday with its two hour series’ finale. You have about a week and a half to get caught up. The Harper’s Globe episodes range from three to six minutes, so if you’re curious or just bored, watch those instead of the show and read the Harper’s Island Wikipedia page to fill in the blanks.

I give Harper’s Island alone ** (2) out of for stars
I give Harper’s Island with Harper’s Globe *** (3) out of fours stars

On to my next new show, NYC Prep which airs Tuesdays at 9 on Bravo. I never thought that I would learn anything from a show about a bunch of rich, spoiled, prep kids from New York City, but I did learn one thing; That “prep school kids are so much different than public school kids”, as was repeated every ten minutes of the show. But they were right, I mean they go to parties; that’s just crazy, and what do they do at these parties? They talk and dance. Oh, and in last night’s episode PC goes on a blind date. I mean, only Prep school kids could do that. They drink, they do drugs, and they shop. If only us public school kids could do all that. If you haven’t caught on, I’m being sarcastic. The only difference I really see is that prep kids feel the need to state that there is a difference. And maybe in a sense there is; they’re all filthy rich. There it is, it has nothing to so with what they do that makes a difference, it’s what their parents have done, or earned that makes them different than public school kids. Regardless, I still watch the show. Sometimes it’s good to watch reality shows like this, I can vent my “this is what’s wrong with America’s youth” anger. It’s sad that I’m only 19 and I’m saying that. But now that I’m older than all of the kids on these shows, it makes me so glad that I am no longer in high school. These kids think that they are more mature because they have been privileged. Throwing water bottles at your friends and calling people bitches for no reason is not maturity. Are these kids delusional? Yes, but it’s just fun to watch this and laugh at how ridiculously spoiled all of these kids sound. Maybe it’s jealously; of course I would love to live in NYC, but think of all the connections I could make. NYC is the Public Relations and Advertising capital of the country. I would probably have a job already at a highly ranked firm or agency. Of course that’s how I think, these kids don’t think at all.

I give this show **1/2 (2 and a half) out of 4 stars.