# Cardinal (2017)

> A depressed Ontario detective hunts the killer of a missing 13-year-old girl found in an abandoned mine while his new partner starts investigating him.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/59546

## Facts

- Seasons: 4
- Episodes: 24
- Episode runtime: 43 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: crime, drama, mystery
- Created by: Daniel Grou, Jeff Renfroe
- Network: CTV
- Cast: Billy Campbell, Karine Vanasse, Kristen Thomson, Alanna Bale, Alex Ozerov-Meyer, Brendan Fletcher, Alden Adair, Bruce Ramsay
- TMDB rating: 7.8/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5583512/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: melancholic, brooding, bleak, tense, atmospheric

## What critics say

Viewers broadly rate Cardinal as a well-crafted, positively received Canadian crime drama with a steady audience following across its four seasons.

## Synopsis

Cardinal (2017-2020) is a Canadian crime drama series created by Daniel Grou and Jeff Renfroe for CTV, adapted from a novel series. Billy Campbell plays detective John Cardinal, a melancholic Ontario homicide investigator whose quiet grief shapes every case he takes. When a thirteen-year-old girl's body turns up in the shaft-head of an abandoned mine, Cardinal must chase a killer through small-town leads, interviews and dead ends, while his tough new partner Lise Delorme (Karine Vanasse) begins to scrutinize his own conduct. The engine of the series is the slow accumulation of evidence against a backdrop of institutional rot and personal wreckage, with each season organized around a fresh investigation that bleeds into the lives of the people around it. Across four seasons of six episodes each, the show plays as a serialized police procedural with a single overarching mystery. Its tone is bleak, brooding and atmospheric, with long quiet stretches and a restrained, wintry palette. Fans of The Killing, Twin Peaks and The Bridge will find resonance in its cold, character-driven dread and its interest in what a flawed investigator costs himself and those he works with.

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- [Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent (2024)](https://ember.film/tv/146264)
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