‘Murder in a Small Town’ First Look: Detectives & Dead Bodies Everywhere (VIDEO)
Like a less grim version of The Killing, Murder in a Small Town is an impressively solid whodunnit set in the Pacific Northwest that plays like a page-turner… with just a touch of cozy romance.
The series is based on a series of thrillers by author L.R. Wright, which showrunner Ian Weir called “tremendous,” adding that the books offered him “the absolute gift of wonderfully rich characters and tremendous murder mystery storylines” to adapt.
In this exclusive first look at the series, you’ll see that it’s not just one murder we’re dealing with here; Rossif Sutherland (another son of the late, great Donald Sutherland) stars as Karl Alberg, a former big-city cop who has moved to the cozy coastal hamlet of Gibsons to become the new chief of police. While set in Washington State, the real like Gibsons, Weir explains, “is a town of about 5,000 people at the south end of [British Columbia’s] Sunshine Coast. We’ve fictionalized some of the other place names that we’re using, but Gibson’s is real.”
Imposing yet affable, the stoic, creative-minded Alberg is showcase for Sutherland. “Over the course of the season, his performance goes to extraordinary places,” continues Weir. “He’s a really tremendous actor and he’s got that physical size of course. But there’s a gentleness that goes with the physical size. There’s also an intensity when there needs to be, and in a couple of the episodes as we go forward—particularly when someone whom he loves is that threat—there are levels in that performance that are really quite stunning.”
That “someone whom he cares for” shows up early in Alberg’s tenure in town when he hits it off with local librarian Cassandra Mitchell, played by Smallville’s forever queen, Kristin Kreuk. Having given the actress her start on his 2001 Canadian teen soap Edgemont), Weir is both thrilled to be working with Kreuk again and blown away by her evolution. “She was 16 years old when we cast her as one of the leads on Edgemont with no professional experience at all, but she was just right there from the word go. And over the intervening years, she’s just grown in such extraordinary ways. As an actor. I love watching her work,” he raves. “And again, as you move through the season, she takes that character to places that are compelling and at times heartbreaking, but really quite amazing and powerful.” Not to mention fatal: Before Falberg and Cassandra’s first lunch date is even over, there’s already a dead body to deal with. And it won’t be the last.
“There’s not a murder in every episode, but essentially, yes, almost all of the episodes have a murder at the heart of them,” Weir told TV Insider.
Fox
Despite the alarming mortality rate, however, Weir promised that there’s a lot to love about Gibsons — and not just the fact that the multiple cases mean killer guest stars like Castle‘s Stana Katic, Paula Patton of Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, and Succession‘s Emmy-nominated standout James Cromwell.
“There’s quite a blue-sky feel to the town… leaving aside the fact that, yes, people die at a rate of seven or eight per season,” Weir laughed. “That’s just the occupational hazard of living in an idyllic town where a murder mystery series is set.”
Murder in a Small Town, series premiere, Tuesday, September 24, 8/7c, Fox*
*The show moves to 9/8c starting October 8.
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