For decades, Scandinavia, or the Nordic countries, have been considered the most civilised, most peaceful, most advanced and socially sensitive parts of the world, often cited as the ideal towards which Western civilisation should strive. All the more curious, then, that at around the same time, crime novels by local authors depicting the dark sides of life in the Nordic utopia have become enormously popular. The trend, which in recent years has acquired the name Nordic noir, has also attracted interest from non‑Scandinavian authors, above all British and American writers who have sought to exploit it in their own way, through more or less faithful adaptations, or films and TV series inspired by Nordic noir. Some have been more successful than others, and among them is the Canadian TV series Cardinal, which is based on the original novels by Canadian author Giles Blunt. Among them is Forty Words for Sorrow, which served as the template for the first season, broadcast in early 2017.
The story is set in Algonquin Bay, a relatively remote town in northern Ontario where the titular protagonist, Detective John Cardinal (played by Billy Campbell), lives and works. He had recently been transferred out of the homicide division after failing to locate a missing Indigenous girl. Things change when her body is discovered by chance, showing clear signs of sadistic torture. Cardinal is called back to lead the investigation, but is assigned a new partner, francophone detective Lise Delorme (played by Karine Vanasse), whose speciality had until then been financial crimes. The two soon realise they are dealing with a depraved serial killer who, moreover, adapts readily to the situation, switching from girls to young men as victims, luring them by posing as attractive women online. One of them could be the missing young man, but while Cardinal struggles to discover his whereabouts and the abuser’s identity, he is unaware that Delorme did not become his partner by chance. While a detective in Toronto, Cardinal had been involved in a tragically failed operation to capture a drug dealer, and his superiors suspect he was in collusion with them; Delorme has been tasked with secretly investigating Cardinal and confirming those suspicions.
The creators of Cardinal do not strive to reinvent the wheel, nor to offer viewers something they haven’t already seen in countless similar crime series, whether Scandinavian, British or American. The only thing that might connect this series to Nordic noir is the wintry atmosphere, with low temperatures that, not without reason, play a certain role in both the plot and its resolution. The mystery is nothing particularly special, and the writing team led by Aubrey Nealon very intelligently decides to show its hand early on, depicting the killer in a fairly realistic manner. The series contains a good deal of potentially disturbing content, primarily related to scenes of violence and torture, though such scenes are not overly explicit. Far more interesting, and executed quite successfully by the standards of such series, is the interweaving of the investigation with the detectives’ private lives, with Cardinal and Delorme coming across as rather convincing characters – sufficiently “problematic” to be taken seriously, yet not so psychologically damaged as to be unable to perform their police duties adequately. The cast contributes greatly to this, above all Billy Campbell, an actor who at the start of the 1990s failed to establish himself as a film star via The Rocketeer, and has since languished mostly on television. Here, with considerable years behind him – which he makes no attempt to hide – he effectively portrays a not-so-simple character with whom viewers will sympathise despite constant doubts about his moral compass. The impression is not spoiled by the ending, which some might find a touch too melodramatic. A good thing about the first season of Cardinal is that it lasts only six episodes, so the plot isn’t stretched, and by the end presents a rounded whole. Three further seasons have been filmed, which should give fans of Canadian Nordic noir reason for optimism.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
(Note: The text in the original version is available here.)
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