The women’s lit bestseller to television series pipeline continues to gather steam. Greatest hits include “Big Little Lies,” “Lessons in Chemistry,” and “Sharp Objects” to name a few. Among the biggest by-products of this trend has been a sharp increase in strong women’s roles for actresses from a variety of generations, from Elle Fanning to Brie Larson to Nicole Kidman.
Now it’s USA Network’s turn to cash in with “Anna Pigeon,” based on Nevada Barr’s 19-book mystery series pegged on a park ranger that began with the Agatha Award-winning “Track of the Cat” in 2013. With 19 bestsellers in the can, there’s already a built-in fanbase for the show.
A cross between classic Nancy Drew and nutty “Northern Exposure,” the relatively light-hearted USA series places the title heroine in Glacier National Park. In a city-mouse to country-mouse twist, the widowed Pigeon has left the hustle-bustle of New York (and a dark past) for the fresh air and wilderness of northwestern Montana. But, no rest for the weary, the former stage manager soon finds herself tripping over suspicious corpses. A fellow ranger with a deep two-pronged neck wound that can’t be explained by a mountain lion bite is just the beginning.
The series also builds on its star’s existing popularity. Tracy Spiridakos is a veteran of 141 episodes of “Chicago P.D” where she played tough detective turned FBI agent — and fan favorite — Hailey Upton (who also cropped up in episodes of “Chicago Med” and “Chicago Fire”). Spiridakos may not be a detective herself, but she has played one on TV. Her appealing Anna Pigeon is an emotionally bruised, no-nonsense, hair-in-a-braid, hard-drinking-and-loving refugee from city life who never knew a ledge she wouldn’t leap off to solve a crime or save an endangered species.
Over the series’ ten episodes, each outing has its own local mystery that Pigeon needs to solve with the help (and occasional hindrance) of a circle of fellow rangers, townspeople and clueless superiors. This brings in the hunky bartender with whom she has a fling, Jesse Garland (Cooper Levy), the nature-exploiting nemesis Jeremiah Paulson (the mustache-twirling Kim Coates) and recovering addict-turned ranger Manny Lopez (Manuel Rodriguez-Saenz).
Meanwhile, her Manhattanite sister Molly (Tricia Helfer) nags the ranger over the phone for exchanging her chic cocktail dresses for a uniform, a badge, and a dorky hat that somehow looks fabulous on her. Well, after all, for all her drinking and bad choices, she’s still a woman who looks as good in hiking boots as stilettos. Not an easy feat, but par for the course for this kind of literary heroine.
While there’s an overarching mystery — what happened to Pigeon’s perfect husband back in the city and why does the hard-drinker feel so guilty and torn-up inside — the majority of the one-hour whodunits start with a local casualty that resolves itself into the identification of the perp by the end credits. Along the way, there are children-and-campers in peril, locked room mysteries and past secrets bubbling up into present-day crimes.
As a bonus entertainment tie-in, 80’s leading lady and “Back to the Future” star Lea Thompson directed four episodes and serves as executive producer. It’s possible to speculate that she once identified the Nevada Barr series as offering a role for herself, and shifted her involvement over the time it took to develop the project from page to small screen.
Set against stunning mountain landscapes — the series was shot on location in Canada — and filled with bald eagles and wildcats, the show also echoes the Taylor Sheridan universe. There are many parallels with the widowed city-slicker turned nature-lover Stacy Cliburn played by Michelle Pfeiffer in “The Madison.”
And, if “Anna Pigeon” has any political stance to take, it does so quietly. Watching Pigeon and her fellow rangers at Glacier National Park, viewers will be struck by the great American experiment that resulted in the preservation of broad swaths of wilderness — and, hopefully, recognize the contemporary government’s seeming disregard for our national legacy.
While the crime drama isn’t must-see watercooler television, the show bops along with a pleasing rhythm, modest plot puzzles and a jaunty heroine brought to life by the charismatic Spiridakos. And, as one literary adaptation piles on the next, from “Margo Needs Money” to “Scarpetta,” a new generation of TV heroines has emerged with actresses stepping away from typical roles of housewife, mother, girlfriend and sidekick, to carry their own narrative arcs while drawing on a powerful pre-existing audience of readers longing for female characters with grit and gumption.
“Anna Pigeon” premieres Friday on USA Network.
