Summer camp: The mix of comedy and drama in this promo for CBS's Harper's Island hints that they know that their brand of corn-syrup violence is at least a little bit entertaining.

by Mark Blankenship

If it had aired in the 1980s, then Harper's Island, CBS' murder-mystery series (moving from Thursdays to Saturdays as of this weekend), might have been lambasted for ruining America with its onscreen violence and macabre plot about a mysterious killer who picks off a guest at a fancy resort wedding every week.

On paper, the show certainly sounds shocking. The killer's victims — who include a host of townie redshirts, as well as one principal character per week — die in gruesome ways. In the pilot episode, Harry Hamlin, playing the drunkard uncle of a poor-boy groom marrying his wealthy childhood sweetheart, got his entire lower body hacked off. The next week, a priest got beheaded while hanging upside down from a tree.

And yet... the show isn't shocking it's all. It's actually kind of... funny.

Hear us out, after the jump...

 

That's partially because of the clunky writing and directing. This is the kind of series where we know the bride's father doesn't want her marrying some poor slob because he helpfully says, "I don't want her marrying some poor slob."

It's also the kind of series that delivers fake-out scares at all costs, even when they're totally illogical. A woman can be alone in her bathroom, door locked behind her, but if she dares close the door to her medicine cabinet, then her best girlfriend will suddenly be revealed in the mirror, standing right behind her. No ill will, you understand. The BFF just wants to talk about the wedding scavenger hunt, but if she can startle the audience, then so much the better!

This hackwork provides a lot of pleasures. But for me, there's another, more unsettling reason that Harper's Island plays like camp.

As violent as it is, the series is remarkably discreet. Instead of viscera, we see close-ups of frightened eyes, or weirdly tasteful long shots of bodies that don't have any blood on them. These scenes play instead like murder-by-censor.

And in an era where Jack Bauer's torture techniques on 24 are psychotically extreme, CSI agents have their hands inside body cavities, and the good people from Oceanic Flight 815 pound each other right in the head, that "off-scene" aesthetic feels quaint. It's so obvious that the violence on Harper's Island isn't actually happening that it's comical to watch.

That's a wake-up call for me. I've clearly become desensitized. Sure, I still get queasy around realistically intense violence (or as I confess here, anything involving needles), but the mere suggestion of carnage isn't enough to affect me.

Of course, the show's overall schlockiness has something to do with my response. Even a disemboweling would seem ridiculous here. The blood would probably be ketchup, and the Heinz squeeze bottle would still be in frame.

But still, it gives me pause that I've apparently become a viewer who needs to see it to believe it. If you see me at a bear baiting match, please drag me out by force.

What do you guys think? What's your tolerance level for TV violence?

For more by Mark Blankenship, please visit The Critical Condition