Cardinal

The series adapted Giles Blunt's detective novels centered on detective John Cardinal, with the first season based on the novel Forty Words for Sorrow (2000).

Each season adapts one or more novels in the series: the second adapts Blackfly Season, the third combines By the Time You Read This and Crime Machine, and the fourth and final season adapts Until the Night.

The first season began filming in Sudbury, Ontario, in February 2016, with additional filming in North Bay, Nipissing First Nation and Atikameksheng Anishnawbek.

The former CBC Northern Ontario studios and the North Bay Public Library were used as settings, the latter being transformed into the Algonquin Bay police station.

The first season had a production budget of 1,800,000 dollars per episode.

Karine Vanasse, who is from Quebec and had previously acted in the American series Pan Am and Revenge, commented that Cardinal was the first time she played a Québécois character, not a European one, in an English-language television program.

The series' theme music is adapted from the song 'Familiar' by Danish singer-songwriter Agnes Obel, while the incidental soundtrack was composed by Todor Kobakov, based in Toronto.

The series received 12 nominations at the Canadian Screen Awards in 2018, winning six awards, including Best Actor (Billy Campbell) and Best Cinematography in a Drama Series (Steve Cosens); the following year it won even more awards, including Best Miniseries and Best Lead Actor and Actress in a Drama Program.