Bellevue

I awaited the first episode with high hopes after seeing Paquin knock it out of the park in True Blood, but was very disappointed to say the least. "Annie Ryder" plays just like "Sookie Stackhouse" on a bad day, minus the southern accent. Same facial expressions and body language, same use of words, vocal tones and speech pauses. It doesn't look like Paquin has a real handle on the character, or that she put a lot of effort into really finding that character in herself.

The writing and the other actors (except for Shawn Doyle) did not impress either. The characters feel wooden, the dialogue doesn't flow and it seems like the writers tried to cram way too much plot background and backstory into the first episode. None the characters appears to actually care about any of the other characters, except, again, for Doyle's character Peter Welland.

And for what it's worth, while I had read that the creators found the giant slag heaps at the filming location picturesque and beautiful, all I could think about when they came into view was that some mining company should be sued for creating such a hideous mess of the landscape.

All in all, not one of CBC's finer efforts so far. I'll watch a few more episodes to see how it goes, but my expectations have now hit bottom.

Bellevue (2017): Right from its posters to its trailers,Bellevue promised a great thrilling series.After Cardinal,which is a great investigative thriller,I expected a lot from another detective thriller.So how is it? Plot: Bellevue is a mystery set in a small town with a lot of 'good people' who 'live right' and take it upon themselves to make sure the neighbors do too. Driving the series is Detective Annie Ryder (Anna Paquin), a cop whose intense and brazen personality has always been at odds with her hometown. When a transgender teen goes missing, Annie dives in to unravel the disappearance that suggests foul play, despite finding herself in a difficult position as she must cast suspicion on people she has known all her life. As the case pulls her further away from her family, she is also confronted by a mysterious person from her past with disturbing answers and a terrifying need to get inside her head.

My Review: The phrase "edgy and eerie" has been used repeatedly by CBC to describe the series, but that doesn't do it justice.

Bellevue has one of the most intriguing potential in recent times and has all the opportunities to make a masterpiece thrilling series but all of it was misused to bring us a boring messy series.The problem with the series is that it always seems like a lot is going on in the town and we try to keep track of all those but unfortunately most of the time we don't succeed.All the episodes features only three types of scenes.One is where Anna talks with her family,second is where she talks with Police colleagues and third is where she talks with town people.Most of the series is just talking and driving and even roaming in forest.

Direction and dialogues are biggest drawback of the series.We even feel like laughing whenever any important discussion is going on.Acting is mediocre.Cinematography is the only part which is impressive.

So,Bellevue is one of the most disappointing TV series I had even seen.A wastage of strong potential.

My Rating 5.25/10

I don't really understand why it has a 6.7 from 94 people, didn't anybody watch this show and just some haters gave it a low rating? It had only one episode yet, those reviews are also the reason for my review.

From the other reviews I expected the show to start really slow or with bad actors, but everything is good enough for a TV show and the story is not so different from the very good first season of True Detective.

I'm only bothered by some little things like why would you go in there alone in the dark, you know what I mean, but the story makes up for that, a lot happens and it's not slow at all. I would maybe give it a 7.5 but I'll round it up to 8, because I truly am curious about the next episode.

Bellevue is a dying northern Ontario town struggling with drugs after its mine closed. There's a native reservation close by. Annie Ryder (Anna Paquin) is a hard-charging police detective in town. She's the single mother to Daisy. Daisy's father Eddie Rowe is her on-again off-again boyfriend. Her police father was killed investigating the murder of Sandy Driver over 20 years ago. Another kid has gone missing. It's Jesse Sweetland, the 16 year old transgender hockey star. Maggie is his widowed mother. Peter Welland is the police chief. Annie used to find notes in the woods which she assumed to be from her dead father. She gets a new message which leads to clues about Jesse.

It's another dead kid mystery. The thing about dead kid mysteries is that it should start with a dead kid right away. I did wonder about all the police effort in finding a missing kid when the town is over-run with drugs. Like one of the officer said, he's probably run off somewhere. I'm willing to give it a pass since he is the hockey star. The other problematic issue are the notes with the dead father. Sometimes, it feels too gimmicky although I do like the original sin message. There is a bit too much exposition in the pilot. The over-riding positive is Anna Paquin. She's a top notch actress injecting real power and charisma into this project.

I find the premise and plot very interesting and I am eager to see how the show develops. The characters however aren't very interesting but I feel like the plot makes up for it. My only negative about the show, which is a huge negative, is Anna Paquin's acting. It's just bad. The way she delivers most of her lines is just off. Her inflections often miss the mark. She often says her lines without enough feeling. It's hard to watch. Not everyone will notice these things about her acting. But if you generally pick up on bad acting you most likely will notice that Anna's acting is not up to par with the rest of the cast.