SummaryDetective John Cardinal (Billy Campbell) was originally removed from a missing child case but is reassigned with a new partner in Detective Lise Delorme (Karine Vanasse) when her body is found in this Canadian crime drama.
SummaryDetective John Cardinal (Billy Campbell) was originally removed from a missing child case but is reassigned with a new partner in Detective Lise Delorme (Karine Vanasse) when her body is found in this Canadian crime drama.
The town of Algonquin Bay has secrets. Bad things happen in the long winter darkness, filled with predators, drugs and violence. All this, and Campbell’s outstanding performance, add up to a drama that stands with the best of TV noir.
Screenwriter Aubrey Nealon is masterfully stingy with the script, carefully doling out information about Cardinal and other characters in very small but tantalizing doses. The performances are quite good, although Campbell speaks all of his lines is a somewhat loud whisper. It feels at times like an affectation, but otherwise, he invests the right about of credible angst to make the character compelling.
Cardinal often pulls from years of cop show clichés in ways that almost approach parody. Most of all, why does it always sound like John Cardinal is whispering? And yet there within the clichés and outside of the torture subplot, there are elements of Cardinal that hooked this mystery junkie.