The Disappearance

Anthony Sullivan follows his police investigator grandpa Henry Sullivan (Peter Coyote)'s advice to take photos of his neighborhood for a school project. He even breaks into a home and stumbles upon something. His snooping gets him in trouble at school. His parents Luke and Helen are getting a divorce. It's his 10th birthday. He's following Henry's birthday treasure hunt and goes missing. The show jumps two year ahead and he's still missing.

I like the start. It's a standard missing kid show but it's done well at the beginning. There are good actors. It's only six episodes but even with that, the plot deteriorates. It should be a lot simpler considering its limited run. It's still a worthwhile watch but it's not exceptional in any way.

Fabulous twisting tale keeps you hooked. Only downside is the terrible acting from the two male leads, the judge and his son. This is a real shame as it is hard to take either of them seriously they are so wooden. Would have given it 9 or 10 with different actors.

Well, it gets two stars because it started out well. The first episode was intriguing, but each subsequent episode got worse. It was hard to hear the dialogue with loud background noise, and the main characters constantly shouting at each other. The grandfather was obnoxious, the mother screeched a lot, and the son was a drip. The grandson who disappeared was probably the best actor of the lot. It had a reasonable storyline, but was badly let down by the acting and directing. Don't bother.

I watched this, at the beginning, only for Aden Turner as I was a fan of his when he was in Rectify. After the first episode I was hooked. Being a fan of mystery thrillers, this was right up my alley. So many twists and turns. Soon I realized that this was a Canadian production based on the original French show. Well done! I now only hope I can purchase this on DVD so I can watch it again. I am sure I missed some subtle things. Thanks all for this series!

When Anthony Sullivan (Michael Riendeau) disappears on his tenth birthday, his family is devastated. However, as more and more time passes without the police being able to locate him, long-buried family secrets are dragged to the surface, turning the Sullivan family against one another.

A journeyman show, The Disappearance is very much paint-by-numbers stuff, with nothing you haven't before seen in half-a-dozen similar narratives, with writers Normand Daneau and Geneviève Simard taking no real risks. Having said that, however, it's a well made piece of television. Confidently directed by Peter Stebbings, the material may offer nothing revelatory, but what it does offer is enjoyable enough on its own terms. An excellent Peter Coyote dominates the show as Anthony's grandfather, Henry, a retired judge with a strained relationship (to say the least) with his son, Luke (Aden Young), Anthony's father. As the veneer of civility slowly erodes, the fissures running beneath the family dynamic begin to erupt, with blame and recrimination becoming the central tenets of familial interaction. You may guess half-way through who the kidnapper is, and yes, they're one of those Hollywood kidnappers who leave cryptic clues everywhere, but this remains a well made, if unadventurous, show.