[Warning: General spoilers ahead.]
Anna Paquin returns to TV Monday night with CBC’s moody new mystery drama series, Bellevue, co-starring with Shawn Doyle and Allan Leech in the story of Annie Ryder, a small-town detective whose already-tenuous grip on her challenging life is tested by a new case with clues that bears a striking resemblance to a murder case that got her detective father killed years earlier.
That event upended her childhood and sent her on a self-confessed adolescent spiral of sex and booze that yielded her daughter, 12-year-old Daisy (Madison Ferguson). When we meet Annie, she’s working undercover at potential peril to herself when she’s given the case of a missing transgender teen who’s known in the community for a stellar hockey career, so the transgender angle is complicated for the locals and the church.
Doyle plays Police Chief Peter Welland, who was partnered with Annie’s dad when he was killed and became her mentor to help get her back on track. Leech is Eddie Rowe, Annie’s on- and off-again boyfriend and Daisy’s dad, who has some issues of his own to deal with.
The first hour is a slowly unfolding, intense cat-and-mouse game that begins when Annie receives piecemeal clues that are specific to her and chooses not to read anyone else in, putting herself and her daughter at risk. The series was co-created by Adrienne Mitchell, who gave us shows like the similarly dark Durham County and considerably lighter Bomb Girls, and Jane Maggs, who story edited CTV’s current thematic cousin, Cardinal.
Bellevue premieres Monday at 9pm on CBC. Here are a couple of sneak peeks.
Photos and Video Courtesy of CBC
