New Crime Show Based On 19-Book Series Debuts To Underwhelming Score On Rotten Tomatoes
Tracy Spiridakos is back with Anna Pigeon, but critics are not impressed with her new crime outing.
Adapted from Nevada Barr's 19-book series, the new show stars Spiridakos as the eponymous character who goes from a life in New York City to working as a park ranger in Montana's Glacier National Park in the wake of a devastating loss. However, while trying to embrace her quiet new life and avoid her past demons, she finds herself getting wrapped up in a variety of crimes throughout the national park.
In time for the show's August 7 premiere on USA Network, reviews have begun rolling out for Anna Pigeon, securing it a debut Rotten Tomatoes score. With six reviews calculated at the time of writing, the new crime series is sitting at a 50% approval rating on the review aggregate, marking an underwhelming start for the new crime series.
Anna Pigeon marks a continuation of TV's major recent trend of adapting multi-book crime novels into series, particularly following the successes of John Krasinski's Jack Ryan and Alan Ritchson's Reacher. USA Network themselves have also had success with book-based thrillers, including the Ryan Phillippe-led Shooter, the Bill Pullman-starring The Sinner and John Grisham's The Rainmaker, which similarly split critics down the middle.
Moreover, the arrival of Anna Pigeon serves as Spiridakos' first major TV role following her departure as Hailey Upston-Halstead from Dick Wolf's One Chicago universe. The star went from the underrated post-apocalypse series Revolution to fellow NBC series Chicago P.D., having a main role from seasons 5 through 11, while also appearing in various Chicago Me and Fire crossovers, as well as season 2 of CBS' FBI.
Across the various reviews published thus far, critics generally agree that Spiridakos' performance is one of the better elements keeping the series afloat, with Christina Escobar of RogerEbert.com praising the star for "hold[ing] the eye whenever she's on screen" thanks to her mix of "piercing blue eyes," as well as "humor and vulnerability, even as she radiates strength." The supporting cast, however, which includes everyone from Star Trek: Discovery's Ronnie Rowe to Letterkenny's Melanie Scrofano and Lucifer's Tricia Helfer, were deemed by The Hollywood Reporter's Daniel Fienberg as being "dismal."
Though it may have gotten off to a polarizing start with critics, that doesn't entirely spell doom for Anna Pigeon. The crime drama genre is still one of the more reliable in terms of drawing viewers in, and Spiridakos' passionate fan following from her time in One Chicago is sure to bring a fair amount of viewership to the new series in its first few episodes. Should they be more enticed than reviewers, it could help secure the show's future beyond its eight-episode debut season.
The first season of Anna Pigeon largely adapts the first two books in Barr's 19-novel series, Track of the Cat and A Superior Death, thus leaving the door wide open to tackle the various other installments in the source franchise. If it finds some strong early viewership, it could even attract more critics to review the series and lead to a rise in its Rotten Tomatoes score.
New episodes of Anna Pigeon air Fridays at 10 p.m. EST.