12 Most Underrated TV Shows Ever
11. Harper's Island
Way back in the dark and stormy spring and summer of 2009, CBS premiered slasher/mystery show Harper's Island on Thursday night with a double-episode blitz. Put off by the fact that the second episode lost two and a half million viewers on the first that night, the network chose cowardice over commitment and not only held the third episode back two weeks, but moved the show to the Saturday night death slot from the fourth episode onwards.
Which is a crying shame, because Harper's Island - brought to you by, amongst others, the guy behind the most malevolent seasons of Angel - was a riot. A post-Scream horror whodunnit over thirteen instalments, each episode with a surprisingly gruesome body count ranging from one to five people, how it ever got onto the normally rather conservative CBS network is anyone's guess.
The mystery was well-constructed, with a logical premise, a dynamic, twisting narrative and a coherent, satisfying ending. But the unique selling point would prove to be the wired, engaging performances from CW-level Hot Young Things, making the most of some surprisingly complex, layered writing. Most of said cast would be horribly murdered, much as we wish most CW-level Hot Young Things would be on a weekly basis: stabbed, shot, impaled, dismembered, beheaded and immolated.
The show never made it to a second season (god knows what it would have looked like), but the first is self-contained, ahead of its time, and still highly watchable to this day.