A cold case heats up as murder comes to a small town in CTV drama ‘Cardinal’
If you missed last week’s premiere of “Cardinal,” airing Wednesdays on CTV, you should probably check out episode one on CTV as soon as you finish reading this. It’s riveting.
As is the entire six-part serialized police drama, based on the award-winning novel “Forty Words for Sorrow” by Ontario native Giles Blunt. It follows Algonquin Bay Detective John Cardinal (Billy Campbell) after he’s been demoted for a hunch on a case that he couldn’t let go. But when the body of 13-year-old Katie Pine is discovered frozen in the drain of a mineshaft, it proves to his superiors that his instincts were correct all along and he is brought back to the Homicide Unit.
As the series unfolds, and back on the case, Cardinal must fight to stay ahead of a serial killer. Meanwhile, he must deal with his own difficult family issues and secrets, which threaten to bring him down thanks to a new partner, Det. Lise Delorme (Karine Vanasse), who seems to have her own agenda.
To say that the micro-series is gripping would be an understatement. In fact, this is likely Campbell’s best work and worthy of award recognition. The same can be said for Vanasse (“Revenge,” “Pan Am”).
“I felt aware of (how good this could be) from before I even took the job,” says Campbell. “I had promised my wife, who at the time was in her last few semesters of architectural school, that I wouldn’t go away because it’s very intense. So I turned it down. And then they came back around again a few weeks later and I loved it so much I thought I would at least tell my wife about it and give her the option to say, ‘No, you can’t go.’
“So I gave it to her to read and she looked at me the next morning and said, ‘You should probably do this.’ And I said, ‘But I promised you. And we have this new baby,’ And she said, ‘We will make it work. You should do this.’ That’s how special this thing was.”
When asked if this is his best work, the selfdeprecating Campbell merely says that he’s “Just incredibly happy with how it turned out” and sheds praise onto his director, Daniel Grou, writer Aubrey Nealon (and Blunt) and co-star, Vanasse.
“It’s probably easy to adapt weak material and make it great,” says Campbell. “But to adapt what is already great material and preserve it is a real feat. … (and) having stood toe-to-toe with (Vanasse), she is a major film actress. She is phenomenal. Working with her has been one of the great joys of my career.”
And if you’re wondering, Campbell says this is the coldest he’s ever been on a set. “And I shot a movie in the Antarctic, so that’s saying something,” he says.