BOOKS COME TO LIFE
CTV’s Cardinal may be the edgy, serialized drama that Canadian television needs,
“We all felt we had this great chance to create that kind of incredible series, that we should really go for it.” KARINE VANASSE CANADIAN ACTOR WHO PLAYS DETECTIVE LISE DELORME
Canadian television broadcasters have long been accused of missing out on the golden age of television and being derelict in investing in edgy, serialized drama.
Where is our Downton Abbey or Game of Thrones?, the critics say. Even tiny Denmark, with a population a sixth the size of Canada, produced the exquisitely rendered The Crime, inspiration for American drama The Killing.
CTV, Canada’s No.1 broad caster, got to the top on the backs of American shows such as the perennial topranked The Big Bang Theory and any number of police procedurals. But it’s now getting into the game with a serialized drama that shows great promise.
Cardinal is based on the John Cardinal mystery books by northern Ontario author Giles Blunt.
The TV adaptation is by Orphan Black’s Aubrey Nealon and directed by 19-2’ s Daniel Grou. It debuts Wednesday at 10 p.m. on CTV.
The six-part series is based on Forty Words For Sorrow, the first of Blunt’s books. It begins with the discovery of amissing13-year-old girl whose body is found in an abandoned mine.
The mystery takes place in northern Ontario where the series was shot, giving it an atmospheric, melancholic veneer.
The show stars, perhaps with some good karma involved, Billy Campbell from the American version of The Killing and Canadian Karine Vanasse ( Pan Am, Revenge) as detective Lise Delorme.
If the précis sounds like the critically acclaimed BBC mystery Broad- church, where a young child’s body is found on a beach in a small town and immensely flawed male and female detective partners try to sort things out, it’s not an unflattering comparison.
“We all felt we had this great chance to create that kind of incredible series, that we should really go for it,” Quebec native Vanasse says in an interview.
“We all love those kinds of shows, and it takes time finding the right partnerships and the right property. I think CTV found something great to run with.”
Mike Cosentino, senior vice-president of programming for CTV Networks and CraveTV, said in an interview he green-lit the show because “first of all, it was a great piece of literature and it was a great place to start investing in this kind of Canadian drama.”
Producers shot in northern Ontario, including Sudbury, which doubles as the fictional city of Algonquin Bay. Vanasse plays Cardinal’s partner, who isn’t sure she can trust him as she investigates him, unbeknownst to him.
“In the beginning you see her more as a threat as she investigates Cardinal. Toward the end, you really understand the choices she makes,” Vanasse said. “She’s driven, she has strong values. She doesn’t know at first whether to trust her instincts. She will learn to listen to them by the end of the season.”
The landscape of the north formed almost another character in the series, Vanasse said.
“The atmosphere informs the tension. It was very cold and there were all these birch trees. It added so much to the show because it is visually something very powerful and present, and felt very cinematic.”
Vanasse said she read the books and felt some pressure portraying a character that had already been fictionalized.
“It’s the first time I’ve played someone who is already in a book. When fans spend so much time with a character they already have an idea in their head, so it can be tough. But it was so clear for me who that girl is and who she becomes through her relationship with John Cardinal.”