Cardinal

And had no idea after watching the first two seasons of this excellent Canadian police drama that two more seasons were made and available until today. John Cardinal, well played by Billy Campbell, is a haunted homicide cop because of his wife's ongoing mental illness. Each season deals with different homicides as Cardinal works through dealing with a new partner, wonderfully played by French Canadian, Karine Vanasse as Lise Delorme. I think Season 1 is still my favorite, but as each season builds on the relationships and casualties suffered by Cardinal, I never lost interest in any way.

In many ways, Cardinal is my favorite show about cops; the things they experience, the way they are treated and treat each other, and mostly the grief many cops suffer because they are often torn between the job and their responsibilities to their families. This show is raw in portraying the secrets they must keep, the horror of what they witness, the guilt they carry when they cannot solve every crime, the life they choose to try to bring Justice to a populace that many times does not appreciate them. As well as the corruption and inner politics they must muddle through to get their jobs done.

I watch many cop shows and there are other excellent shows: Law&Order, Law&Order Criminal Intent, Prime Suspect, Vera, The Fall, Hinterland, and so many more on Peacock, Acorn and Brit Box. Cardinal is on Hulu! I'm not sure why Cardinal has stayed with me (so has Criminal Intent), and I watch those two over and over. There is something that touches a nerve in me in these shows and when they are well written with great characters and actors perfect for that character, I just wish they would never end. Highly recommend Cardinal if you love really good murder mysteries. As an addendum, we also discovered "Class of '09", an FBI thriller that takes place over 25 years last night and binged it. It is also on Hulu and highly recommended! But Cardinal is still my favorite. If you love a good, complex mystery cop show, watch Cardinal!

In all honesty, I've watched only 3 of the seasons. It is a very good, hard core noir Nordic-like mystery. That's a compliment. Well, Canada is a bit north too.

The first three seasons I've watched have good stories and characters and some of the wickedest villains I've seen. Billy Campbell is not a favorite of mine and in this series, he affects an inconsistent soto voce whisper that is, frankly, irritating as well as often hard to understand. So, I am still not a fan of his and I had to turn on Close Captioning.

It IS worth watching!! Please don't let me scare you away. Don't let Billy Campbell soto voce you away either!

What might blow you is all the blood and guts that are prevalent in this series. All kinds of it. It is everywhere - except it is "gore lite" in season 3. Thank goodness. Guess everyone needed a break. Don't get me wrong, there's still a bit of it, but nothing compared to the first 2 seasons.

Even outside of the bad guy and police station, gore and gruesomeness is brought in for you to observe with the keen eye and camera of Detective Cardinal's sometimes wife, Catherine. (Billy Campbell is Det. Cardinal.) She's an interesting character on her own. She made me very nervous from the start, and as the series went on, I, personally, liked her less and less.

There are lots of bad guys in this series, absolutely zero giggles and laughs for a break in the tension. And gore galore!! Season 3 is a bit less gruesome - thank goodness.

This series is taken from books, apparently. The writer must have had a strange childhood. Bet he's fun date!!

This is definitely worth the watch! I took away one star because of Campbell's whispering 98% of the time. So unnecessary. Added nothing to the character, in fact hurt it.

The characters and situations seem real and interesting.

Cardinal is a guy with a lot of issues and secrets, there are 50 degrees of grey to this guy.

The show feels Canadian, from the snow covered streets to the remote tree lined roads.

I really enjoyed the first episode and wonder if the show will continue to build interest for me. The politics of the police department feel uncontrived and realistic too.

Cardinal's new partner is initially uncertain of Cardinal and he of she. It seems like they might develop a good or trusting relationship but there are many things going against this outcome. It will be interesting to see the relationship develop as the characters are both smart and strongly independent.

A potentially very interesting show that is truly Canadian.

Highly intriguing first episode, with a lot of Scandi vibes. Ominous music score, vast cold open spaces, lots of torches used, missing kids and an apparent clash of the sexes between Det.John Cardinal and his unwanted new assistant, Delorme whom he fobs off by giving her some B&E cases to occupy her while he tackles the more exciting homicide work. Apparently very routine but wait...is John Cardinal a dirty cop ? We discover that he is being discreetly investigated and suspected of being in cahoots with a local drug lord and...his innocent new assistant is a police snoop, planted to keep an eye on him. The main crime story is about missing children (reminiscent of The Killing) with searches in dark cold uncomfortable places where the need for torches is paramount. A very well directed and acted episode and having the transparently honest upright good guy Billy Campbell as a "dirty cop" is inspired casting. Karine Vanasse as his assistant Delorme catches the eye too. There are other subplots, mainly a spate of burglaries which look like an unconnected open-and-shut case, at this time..but are they. I have high hopes for this one

I've seen 3 episodes so far. Actually the Algonquins were in this area, which was disputed in a different review. They were and remain very much in the North Bay region, which is where the fictional Algonquin Bay is based on. The role of Lise Delorm played by Karine Vanasse is spot on in my opinion. The Giles Blunt books depict Lise as French Canadian and again to dispute an earlier review, many of the northern Ontario towns are french or half-french - Mattawa near North Bay for instance. So it is not really a stretch as suggested. I've read all the John Cardinal books and I think the casting is excellent. I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of the series before submitting a review, but the landscape captured in the series evokes the mood of the book very well.