The third season of the Canadian crime TV series Cardinal begins at the most difficult moment in the life of its titular protagonist John Cardinal (Billy Campbell), a police detective from Algonquin Bay, a small town in the north of the province of Ontario. His beloved wife Catherine (Deborah Kay) has just committed suicide after a long struggle with bipolar disorder. Cardinal attempts to restore some semblance of normality to his life by throwing himself completely into his work, and there's no shortage of it even in the provincial town that has recently become the scene of brutal robberies targeting people withdrawing cash from ATMs. A far more serious crime is a double murder that took place at a remote summer house, which Cardinal's partner Lise Dellorme (Karin Vanasse) must somehow solve despite the fact that there are still no bodies. Assistance could come from a young waitress and art student Sam Duchene (Devery Jacobs) who, in fact, witnessed the bloody event, but has personal reasons for keeping her mouth shut. The perpetrator, who managed to get hold of her mobile phone, is trying to convince her further by starting to intimidate her. Meanwhile, Cardinal begins to be harassed by anonymous messages accusing him of being indirectly responsible for his wife's death. When the detective launches his own investigation to uncover the sender, he begins to increasingly suspect that Catherine actually committed suicide.
The third season of Cardinal firmly adheres to the formula established in the previous two instalments. This means that the main villains are again pathological killers who skilfully exploit the low population density of the Canadian province to torment their victims in isolated locations, victims they have abducted, intentionally or accidentally, during their murderous forays. It also means that the main hero, although striving to perform his police duties as conscientiously and thoroughly as possible, will be burdened by a series of dreadful personal problems. And, of course, everything must culminate in a spectacular, action-packed finale. Despite all this, the third season does not create a sense of 'déjà vu', and this can primarily be explained by the fact that the formula works well, and that the writing-producing team led by Aubrey Nealon ensures that everything functions like Swiss clockwork, while simultaneously striving to make the third season at least a little different. Perhaps the most important role in this is that one of the main roles is entrusted to Devery Jacobs, an actress who looks different not only because of her Indigenous heritage, but also due to certain physical parameters that Hollywood has accustomed us to, and in all this she demonstrates exceptional acting talent. The rest of the cast is more than good, with Alex Ozerov particularly standing out in the role of a young psychopath. American actress Rya Kihlstedt also handles her role well, a role that in other circumstances might have been thankless. Billy Campbell has done a good job, and he is still served by the 'chemistry' with Karin Vanasse who plays his partner. The finale is also far better than that of the second season, although one could say that the writers perhaps overdid it a bit in trying to resolve all the subplots as thoroughly as possible. Despite that, Cardinal deserves a recommendation to all fans of Nordic noir in the Canadian style.
RATING: 5/10 (++)
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