Webisodes Prime Pump

When CBS unveils its serial-slasher drama Harper's Island Thursday night, the network hopes to build a following online with a set of video shorts drilling into the characters' troubled back stories. Companion site Harper's Globe follows Robin Matthews (played by Melanie Merkosky), a character who wants to create a digital archive for the local newspaper. Her video diary focuses on wedding guests gathered on a remote island near Seattle. The hook: One character gets whacked each week until there's just a single psycho standing. Robin's latest entry (embedded above) recounts a drunken bar escapade ruined by a guy who, she complains, "reminds me of every stupid frat guy I went to college with." Disrupting Robin's personal soap opera footage are expertly shot clips that depict some poor sap chained to a slab as sadists prance around wielding acetylene torches. The Harper's Globe site, produced by Eqal (Lonelygirl15), also enables visitors to communicate with the characters, solve puzzles and contribute to a wiki defining the show's twists and turns. It remains to be seen if the website triggers enough viewer bloodlust to generate big ratings for the 13-episode series, but as an experiment in web/network synergy, Harper's twisted universe will likely test the limits of not-ready-for-prime-time torture porn. The series premiere of Harper's Island airs at 10 p.m. EST Thursday on CBS. See also: Sci-Fi Sanctuary Makes Leap From Web to TV Lonelygirl15 Team Launches Sci-Fi Resistance 'Lonelygirl' Set to Star in Murder Noir Web Show Meet Michael Eisner's Prom Date Wainy Days Webisodes: Best Time Suck Ever Battlestar Galactica Webisodes Begin With a Bloody Gaeta