The field expands this weekend with the slick Showcase drama "King," an urban whodunit that offers a distinctively female POV in the form of lead investigator and all-around fireball, Jessica King.
"New management, different style," the flame-haired King declares early in the series as she assumes control of the Major Crimes Task Force from a hot-headed male colleague.
"I'm not here to make friends. I'm here to solve cases."
Much of the show's energy rests on star Amy Price-Francis' ability to pull off a delicate mix of sensuality, wit and hard-earned police smarts. Price-Francis says she knew the moment she read the pilot script she had to have the role.
"I was fortunate enough over the summer to be working on two different shows — recurring on a show in Vancouver and a show in Chicago," said the Toronto-raised Price-Francis, referring to recent stints on "Life Unexpected" and "The Chicago Code."
"When I read the script I was so drawn to it and it was so vivid and so clear. I thought, 'I could live in her and she could live in me.'"
Melding both procedural and serial elements, "King" focuses on a crime-a-week while also following longer story arcs that delve into the characters' family and personal lives.
While the outspoken policewoman has an impressive track record closing homicide cases, King's personal life can be a real mess. She's already got two divorces under her belt and her current marriage appears to be straining under her workaholic schedule and ticking biological clock.
"She was just so vivid, she jumped off the page. There wasn't really a lot of work for me to do," Price-Francis says of the character, adding that creators encouraged her to bring her own quirks and silly sense of humour to the role.
"(I'd say) little things like, 'easy peasy, lemon squeezy.' Just silly little things in that kind of vein that I employ in my life, and so she does too," she says.
Gabriel Hogan of "Heartland" stars as King's clean-cut cop husband while Suzanne Coy plays her trusted ally, Eleni Demaris.
Alan Van Sprang co-stars as the stubborn Det. Sgt Derek Spears, who gets demoted from lead investigator after exploding in anger in front of television cameras. When he's unceremoniously replaced by King, their relationship gets off to a rocky start.
With that kind of tension brewing, could romance be far off?
"They would never, ever tell each other if they were attracted to one another but I think it's fairly evident," Sprang allows during a break from filming at a snow-covered east-end park.
"I think they have a hostile enough relationship that there is some sort of underlying subtext going on that they might have something a little more than just a working relationship."
Sprang, who played Sir Francis Bryan on "The Tudors," describes Spears as a "guy's guy" who refuses to take anything at face value.
"He has tunnel vision, if he thinks something is right in his mind or his instincts that's what it is," says Sprang, who also appears in the upcoming fantasy film, "The Immortals" with John Hurt and Mickey Rourke.
"And it's difficult for him to listen to somebody else's opinion about it if they feel that it could be someone else or something else has happened in the case, unless it is absolutely convincing to him. He is by all means a very complicated, not by-the-books police officer. He's kind of tough, he's rough, from the streets and I think he's a teddy bear of a guy when it comes to kids, family, and that sort of thing."
Price-Francis says sinking her teeth into a Canadian production has been a stimulating experience after years of working south of the border.
"It's quite refreshing that there's not a big studio behind it," says Price-Francis, whose recurring U.S. roles have included the "LOL"-referencing Meredith on "Californication" and Melissa Banks on "The Cleaner."
"It just seems a bit more collaborative, but that may just be the people I'm working with and for. But they're very generous and very inclusive and you don't get a sense that there's a big brother watching over the whole thing."
The U.K.-born actress says she hadn't been specifically hunting for a lead role when "King" came her way. Now that the show rests on her shoulders, she admits to feeling some unease at what that entails.
"People use the terminology that, 'It's your show,' 'You're carrying the show,'" Price-Francis says.
"And to be honest, I understand where this is coming from but that's something that I personally am uncomfortable with. The way I look at it is — it's never one person's show. It's a collaboration with everybody — the people you see on screen and the hundreds of people you don't.... I just kind of look at it like, I'm there a lot more, I have a little more to say."
"King" kicks off an eight-episode run Sunday on Showcase.
Source : Canadian Press
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