If there's one thing that TV audiences love these days, it is a hard-boiled, badass detective with a bit of an antihero streak. Now it is time for True Blood's Anna Paquin to get in on the action. On that note, WGN America has officially released a trailer for the upcoming crime drama, Bellevue, and it looks like Paquin is about to get her hands dirty as a bonafide bad cop. Check out the awesome preview for the upcoming show (which already premiered in Canada) below to see for yourself.
Set in the sleepy, blue-collar town of Bellevue (hence the title), the series centers on perpetual outside Annie Rider (Anna Paquin), a detective who never quite fit in with the folks in her seemingly picturesque hamlet. Annie finds herself pulled into the case of her life when a bullied transgender teen goes missing. Becoming increasingly engrossed with the overarching mystery, Annie's home life and family life begin to fall apart as her obsession over the case eventually manages to dig its claws into her mind and gets the best of her. Think True Detective mashed with a grittier version of Riverdale, and you can start to get an idea of what we're working with here. And, of course, she gets to kick some serious ass and take some names along the way.
Despite the amount of pain that Anna Paquin appears to dish out in this trailer for Bellevue -- and in the face of the sheer amount of personal struggle that her character seems to go through -- it is also pretty clear that she is not a villain in this story. Along the way, this preview shows us that Annie will eventually find herself forced to face off against a mysterious figure from her past who has once again taken to tormenting her from a distance. One of the main taglines used in the marketing campaign for the show so far has been the reasonably ominous statement that "Everyone has something to hide," so something tells us that a dark secret is lurking deep in Annie's past that she does not want the rest of the world to find out about anytime soon.
In addition to her status as the show's lead, Anna Paquin is also an executive producer on the series. There's a predominately female creative vision behind the scenes on this project (sadly not the most common sight in the world of television), as Paquin has joined forces with series co-creators Jane Maggs and Adrienne Mitchell to bring this story to life. With such a unique viewpoint driving the show, we will have to wait and see what happens when Bellevue finally gets its U.S. premiere, and Annie gets a chance to cut loose.
As mentioned earlier, this is actually Bellvue's second chance at life on the small screen. The crime drama initially premiered in February in Canada before getting the ax in May. WGN America relatively recently acquired the canceled eight-episode series, and it looks like it will soon have a chance to find new life with American audiences when it arrives here in early 2018. Here's hoping it's popular enough to get a second season ordered.
Bellevue will debut on WGN America early next year on Tuesday, January 23, 2018, at 10 p.m. ET. We still have plenty of other excellent TV shows left to premiere before then, though -- such as Stranger Things Season 2 and The Walking Dead Season 8 -- so make sure to take a look at our comprehensive fall TV premiere guide for more information on everything coming up in the world of television!
