Sullivan's Crossing - Season 1

When Maggie's life is turned upside down in Sullivan's Crossing, she travels to her father's campsite. She hopes to find peace here, but past events make this difficult for her.

A quietly flowing drama series, that is how I would briefly describe Sullivan's Crossing. In this series we follow Maggie Sullivan (Morgan Kohan, When Hope Calls), a neurosurgeon who is about to be honored at an awards ceremony. What should be a wonderful evening takes a turn when the FBI raids and arrests both Maggie and her colleague. Maggie appears to be facing a number of accusations. Shocked and uncertain about her future, she flees the city back to nature, to her father's campsite called Sullivan's Crossing.

The series is very predictable.

Maggie and her father Sully (Scott Patterson, Gilmore Girls) have a difficult relationship. After her parents divorced when she was young and she was moved away from Sullivan's Crossing, she grew up with her mother. Ultimately, her stepfather Walter (Peter Outerbridge, ReGenesis) became her role model and she followed in his footsteps by becoming a neurosurgeon just like him. Sully was left with a broken heart and although he desperately wants his daughter back in his life, his ego is too big to admit his mistakes. Sully also has quite a few personal problems that sometimes get in the way of his relationship with Maggie.

Sullivan's Crossing is a Canadian series of which one season has now been broadcast with ten episodes in total. The second season can be seen in Canada from April 14, 2024, but nothing is known yet about when it will be released in the Netherlands and Belgium. The story is loosely based on the books of the same name by Robyn Carr, who is also behind the Virgin River series. Yet I understand that there are not many similarities with the books and that the series really follows its own story. The filming took place in beautiful Nova Scotia, the place where the series is also set. A beautiful background but unfortunately not enough to take the series to a higher level.

Cal (Chad Michael Murray, One Tree Hill) works as a handyman for Sully and doesn't make the best first impression on Maggie. That's not saying much because he becomes Maggie's, unsurprisingly, love interest throughout the season. However, Maggie is not single but is in a relationship with fellow surgeon Andrew (Allan Hawco, Republic of Doyle). Andrew doesn't understand her decision to leave the big city and tries to convince her to come back. This love triangle provides the necessary drama, although these are not the only storylines that are central.



The series is very predictable. Whether it was dramatic events or happy ones, everything was very obvious. The acting was also unconvincing at many times. This surprised me because I always thought Chad Michael Murray and Scott Patterson were good actors in previous roles. Perhaps this is all due to the scripts, which are very simple and leave little room for much depth. The emotions shown often feel empty, there are no real tears and the exaggerated music sometimes makes it all a bit too obvious. All the previously mentioned criticisms, taken together, are not that big of a problem within this genre. Unfortunately, the combination of negatives makes the whole thing very weak.

Unfortunately, Sullivan's Crossing did not live up to my expectations.

Rob (Reid Price, From) and Sydney (Lindura) are brother and sister and former good friends of Maggie. After years of minimal contact, their friendship is revived by Maggie's return. Sydney has changed her whole life to come and help Rob and helps out where she can. However, Rob nevertheless has little free time as a widow, single father and owner of the local diner. Edna (Andrea Menard, The Switch) and Frank (Tom Jackson, Outlander) are Sully's best friends and also work with him. They get along well with everyone and are overjoyed to finally see Maggie again. They are concerned about Sully's attitude towards his daughter and hope for a reconciliation between the two.

I had a hard time watching the first season. It all went too slow for me and the cliffhanger at the end was so corny that it didn't even make me very curious about season two. In addition, I really missed the emotional connection with the characters. I would have liked to have been drawn into Maggie's stress about her career, her doubts about the men in her life, and her sadness about her past with her father. But instead, I was more irritated by her attitude, missed raw emotions, and didn't feel any kind of sexual tension between her and either Andrew or Cal. So I will have to continue looking for a good drama series with a beautiful love story because unfortunately Sullivan's Crossing did not live up to my expectations.