Previewing Cardinal: Season Two

Netflix used to be the place where you could catch up on television and movies. Breaking Bad was even credited with becoming a hit basically out of nowhere in its last season because people were apparently binging on it with Netflix. But now Netflix is more interested in becoming a content creator. In the half year alone they have ponied over a half a billion dollars for Ryan Murphy and Shonda Rhimes to create new programming. While their original programming grows even larger, their acquired library keeps shrinking with basically Disney and The CW being basically their only major contracts left with the former saying they will not be renewing their contract when it is over.

Quietly Hulu is becoming the go to place for classic programming. The recently landed ER’s first streaming rights along with plenty other television shows from your childhood. Sure if you want to watch the Fuller House reboot, you need Netflix, but if you want to watch the original series, you need a Hulu subscription. And though they may not have much original programming, The Handmaid’s Tale has swept every major television award in the past year, including Best Drama at the Emmys, besting three Netflix series in a category Netflix has never won.

Aside from old shows, Hulu has also been amassing a growing foreign catalogue too. Want to watch the original Shameless? Hulu’s got it. Want to watch Real Humans which the AMC show is based on, Hulu’s got it. The original The Bridge? Yep, on Hulu. And, oh my goodness, the original Australian The Slap is also on Hulu. Hulu even has a bunch of international shows not (yet) bastardized by American networks yet.

Last year Hulu acquired the right to the Canadian show Cardinal and tomorrow the entire second season premieres on Hulu. It was another murder mystery show that benefitted from international schedules allowing shorten seasons with Cardinal only being six season. Ten to twenty-two episodes t solve a crime on American television is way too long.

As you would expect, the second season of Cardinal starts off with a scared woman running through the wood, falling, hitting her head to her death. Except, the big twist of the season is the girl shows up a couple scenes later in a bar without her memory. Oh, and after a medical examination Red (named for the color of her hair and because Jane Doe is usually for dead chicks; apparel they do not watch Blindspot) also has a bullet in her brain that essentially lobotomized her. Then the episode ends with some weird and creepy ritualistic killing that it is safe to assume ties into Red’s memory loss.

Cardinal may not be a profound show or reinvent the wheel, but it has proven to be a compelling bit of mystery television crammed into an easy to consume six episodes. And for people looking for something to do when everything on television is on an Olympic hiatus, here is something worth trying out.

You can stream the second season of Cardinal on Hulu starting tomorrow, season one available now.