The first season of Wild Cards, which debuted in Janary 2024 on both the CBC in Canada and The CW in the US, is screaming up Prime Video‘s “most watched” charts. As usual, we’re not sure why any given show that used to be on network TV or basic cable finds a new lease on life on a streaming service. But after watching the first episode of the series — whose second season will debut on The CW on February 5 — we can understand why people like it when they find it.
Opening Shot: A big spong squishes on a marble floor as a housekeeper scrubs.
The Gist: When the very-not-nice homeowner wonders who she is, the woman says she’s subbing for the regular housekeeper. But what Max Mitchell (Vanessa Morgan) is really there for is to find the key to the woman’s safe-deposit box. So she dons the woman’s clothes, takes on the woman’s accent and charms her way into the box. But she gets caught.
Cole Ellis (Giacomo Gianniotti) is a police officer on Maritime Patrol, longing to get back to the action of being a street cop; he got demoted to “boat cop” for some sort of disciplinary issue. He’s brought ashore by a call to bring in a suspect arrested at the bank: Max. Max ends up sharing the back seat of Cole’s patrol car with his cat, Mark.
He’s been given what he thinks is “courier duty” because everyone in his district is trying to find the “Infinity Thief.” Of course, his colleagues call him things like “Crimson Tide” to bust his chops. As Chief Li (Terry Chen) gives a briefing about the case, Max pipes up with questions. As Cole processes her and puts her in a holding cell, she tells him that she knows where the next hit is going to be.
On her lead, he goes to a rare coin dealership, where he gets attacked, and a rare coin is stolen. Despite the unauthorized visit, Commissioner Russo (Karin Konoval) acknowledges it’s the closest they’ve gotten to the Infinity Thief, and the mayor is breathing down her neck to get this case closed. Because the ever-honorable Cole gave Max credit for the lead, the commissioner tells Li that they should partner up to close the case; Max’s “skill set” may come in handy here, she thinks. If they close it out, she’ll get probation and he’ll go back to solving cases on land.
One of the people Max knows that can help is her father, George Graham (Jason Priestley), who is currently serving a stretch in prison. He connects her to a Russian thug that is a key to finding who actually stole the coin.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Wild Cards has the vibe of other network-style procedurals with comedic edges, like High Potential, though the “mismatched team” aspect has more of a Castle or Bones feel. Max happens to mention both shows in some of her rapid-fire dialogue.
Our Take: Wild Cards is a light, airy show to watch if you don’t want to think too hard. It’s a pretty standard network-style mystery series — it first aired in January 2024 on the CBC in Canada and the CW in the States — but it’s elevated by the magnetic charm of Vanessa Morgan, whom most people know from Riverdale.
Creator Michael Konyves and his staff have made Max into a pretty layered, mysterious character right off the bat in the first episode. She’s a con artist, but she lives in a mansion and has a loyal butler, Ricky Wilson (Fletcher Donovan). She may or may not actually perform her cons to steal things and enrich herself. She keeps Cole on his toes about who she is, and she has an ulterior motive in her arrangement with the police commissioner.
Does Max have a bit of that air of a person who pulls some things out of the air via her life as a con artist and her particular “skill set”? Sure, but we found her to be a funny and vibrant presence on the show, and in her role she’ll be able to play other people as a way of getting in places and getting information.
Gianniotti, who is familiar to viewers from Grey’s Anatomy, is a bit stiff as Cole, at least in the first episode, but we can see how Konyves will build the chemistry between them, as we see the two of them linger on a fake smooch that might generate feelings between them down the line. We do get a bit of backstory on Cole and why he got busted down to “boat cop,” and a scene where he talks about his brother shows the potential Gianniotti and Morgan have when their characters take a break from banter and talk about their characters’ backstories.
The mystery in the first episode wasn’t that great, and we figured out who did it pretty early on, but we’re not watching Wild Cards for intricate mysteries. With less exposition needed as the season goes along, perhaps the added time will help the mysteries get better.
Sex and Skin: None.
Parting Shot: Max mysteriously tells her father that “we’ll both get what we want” from her new arrangement.
Sleeper Star: Jason Priestley is a regular cast member as George, so we’ll be seeing a lot of him. Of course, the idea that his character has a 30-year-old daughter makes us feel creaky and old, but at least he’s a regular on a show again.
Most Pilot-y Line: “Look, if we’re going to work together, here’s the deal: No more secrets, no more lies,” Cole says to Max. Saying that to a con artist seems to be a bit naive, don’t you think?
Our Call: STREAM IT. As we said above, Wild Cards is a light, airy show that’s made very watchable by Vanessa Morgan’s fun performance as Max.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.