A new Canadian crime drama, Murder in a Small Town (premiering Sept. 24), starring Kristin Kreuk and Rossif Sutherland, adapts the “Karl Alberg” series from author L.R. Wright to the screen. Karl Alberg (Sutherland) is a detective who moves to Gibsons, B.C., using his unique talent of analyzing crime scenes, and people possibly involved, to solve murders.
Both Kreuk and Sutherland were born in Vancouver, so the opportunity to shoot the show in B.C. was a desirable element of the project for both actors. Kreuk highlighted that it was particularly attractive to her to work on a show being filmed in a specific location.
“I was at home, mostly, and I got to take a ferry to work, and it’s gorgeous, and I had a little house on the on the water … and I could wake up every morning and see the boats going by,” Kreuk told Yahoo Canada. “I never got to see a whale, I wanted to, but it never happened. But other people did.”
“I like being on location shows. I don’t like being on studio shows. There’s an ease to it, obviously, being on a studio show, but being able to go to places and actually work in homes and work in a cafe … feels really nice. And so being able to play the Sunshine Coast for the Sunshine Coast and go to the location that we’re actually talking about in the script is really special, and it eliminates some of the imagination aspect of it for me. And then, I mean, I love the Pacific Northwest. It’s my favourite part of the world.”
Murder in a Small Town release date: 90-minute premiere on Sept. 24 at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT
Where to watch Murder in a Small Town: Global in Canada, Fox in the U.S.
How to stream Murder in a Small Town: STACKTV in Canada, Hulu in the U.S.
Showrunner: Ian Weir
Cast: Rossif Sutherland, Kristin Kreuk, Mya Lowe, Aaron Douglas, Savonna Spracklin, Fritzy-Klevans Destine
Kailey Schwerman
Watch Murder in a Small Town by adding STACKTV to your Prime Video account with a 14-day free trial, then $12.99/month
For Sutherland, while his on set experience differed from Kreuk, with him being the lead of the series, it was also an opportunity for the actor be in a part of Canada he hasn’t spent significant time in.
“Kristin’s experience sounds really dreamy, I was working all the time, not sleeping, trying to do this thing that I had never been entrusted to do before, which was to be the lead of a show,” Sutherland said.
“I was born in British Columbia. I was born in Vancouver. My dad was doing a film there. My mom was pregnant and she just hopped on a plane, hiding her belly underneath this gigantic long coat so that my dad could be there for the birth. I stayed there for three days and I haven’t really spent a lot of time in that part of the country. Canadian and Canadian proud, but it was nice to be in a place that was so close to me and did feel like home.”
‘I like somebody whose superpower is humanity’
The first episode of Murder in a Small Town begins with the setup of the murder that Karl will work to solve throughout the episode.
Then we transition to the first date for Karl and local librarian Cassandra (Kreuk), also the first time they’ve ever met in person and initially connecting online. Cassandra shows up late for the date and she has this particularly endearing, deprecating way of talking about herself that Karl seems to be attracted to.
“Those were the first scenes that we did, we just sat down at that table for more than half a day,” Kreuk said. “We had so much fun.
“Milan [Cheylov], who directed it, was very clear. … I’ve been doing TV for … over 20 years, … I’m very technically specific. I settle into a routine very quickly about what I’m doing. … But Milan was like, ‘Just stay free.’ And so we were able to play the scene and I was able to get rid of that kind of filter in my brain. And it was really fun. I found the scenes to be a joy and I got to find the character through doing the scenes, and find the places of sensitivity and where she gets scared. It was a nice way to start the shoot.”
For Kreuk, who many may associate with the hit TV series Smallville, or more recently episodes of Reacher, the actor highlighted that it was nice to play a character that has a lot of “joy.”
“I’ve been playing a lot of contained, trauma-filled, angsty characters, and I loved that she was much more free and expressive, and she had a lot of joy,” Kreuk said. “She laughs a lot. She’s emotionally responsive and she’s not super shrouded in mystery, although she has a few mysteries, like we all do.”
While Sutherland has played a few detectives in the past, what’s interesting about Karl is that his biggest strength in his job is to really intellectually understand a crime scene and the people involved, rather than being someone who relies on force or aggression.
“He’s not consumed with demons, … that’s the way I interpreted it,” Sutherland said. “I saw him as a very kind man and I liked the idea of a police officer who didn’t wear his uniform, who wasn’t speaking to people through intimidation, who wasn’t just working off of the power of the badge. I like somebody whose superpower is humanity.”
“I also grew up on Columbo and he reminded me a lot of him. And then at the centre of it all is this love story, and it’s not very common, this formula of trying to resolve these crimes and at the centre of it all is two people who are trying to be vulnerable with each other.”
James Cromwell impresses as the show’s first guest star
Murder in a Small Town will have a number on notable guest stars, including Stana Katic, Paula Patton, Noah Reid and Devon Sawa. In the first episode we have the legendary James Cromwell as George Wilcox, a possible suspect in Karl’s investigation. But he also has a lovely relationship with Kreuk’s character.
“I felt so lucky to be able to work with James Cromwell. He was just a joy,” Kreuk said. “I love that the characters have this flirtatious relationship, that there’s a real warmth between them, and she’s very interested in his life, and it’s clear that she’s visited and that they have a relationship that goes back a long time, and I thought that was a special part of the show.”
“I just got to play these really fun scenes with this man who loves his craft. He’s been doing it a long time and he still loves it, and he’s still committed to it, and he’s also incredibly intelligent and politically active and engaged. So he’s fun to just talk to, and he’s so open.”
Kailey Schwerman
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The way Karl interacts with Cromwell’s character is really evidence of how this detective is really focused on understanding a person, not just a crime scene.
“James was kind of confused by what I was doing. He was just waiting for me to start playing a cop, but then I said, ‘No, no, no, this is what I’m doing. This is my choice,'” Sutherland said. “I think my character really likes James’s character. There’s a warmth between the two of them. … I play a detective whose job it is to find the murderer and put him away.”
“I’m going to try and get the truth out of him, but I think what drives my character is not so much the ability to just be able to get the bad guy, but it’s a fascination that he has for human beings and their motivations, and so he wants to understand the why. And the only way that you can get the why out of somebody who’s older, actually he’s taller and smarter, is through conversation and almost the trickery of him forgetting that my character is a cop to begin with. So that was the dance.”
Donald Sutherland dedication
When we reach the end of the first episode of Murder in a Small Town, the audience sees the dedicated to the late Donald Sutherland, Rossif’s father who passed away earlier this year.
As has been reported by Deadline, a Murder in a Small Town adaptation had been a “passion project” for Donald for decades, but Rossif didn’t know that at the time of his audition. It was only when Rossif was talking to his dad about his new role that he found out.
“It‘s then I found out that he was all too familiar with those books because 30 years ago was when the journey began for him of trying to get a movie version off the ground,” Rossif told Deadline. “He befriended [producer] Nick Orchard and Ian Weir, the writer, and they tried to get it produced. Unfortunately, it never happened.”
“People were asking what they could do to honour dad and, since dad had such an intimate relationship with the birth of this project, I proposed that they dedicate it to him.”