Rueben's Ramblings

TV viewers were introduced to actress Stana Katic back in March of 2009 when she starred as NYPD Detective Kate Beckett alongside actor Nathan Fillion in the ABC drama Castle, which went on to become not only a fan favorite but also a long-running series for the network.

Katic will be returning to the small screen this Friday in the dark and gripping new series Absentia, where she will portraying FBI agent Emily Byrne, who disappeared without a trace while hunting one of Boston’s most notorious serial killers, and is declared dead. Six years later, though, Emily is discovered held in captivity, with little memory of who kidnapped and tortured her.

Emily is reunited with her family, which includes her retired cop father Warren (Paul Freeman from Raiders of the Lost Ark) and her brother Jack (Neil Jackson from Sleepy Hollow) as well as her husband Special Agent Nick Durand (Patrick Heusinger from Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce and Royal Pains).

She also learns that her young son Flynn (Patrick McAuley from The Conjuring 2) – now a 9-year-old – is being raised by Nick and his…wait for it…new wife Alice (Cara Theobold from Downton Abbey) [Emily was pronounced dead in absentia years before, remember!].

Emily tries to unravel the mystery behind her abduction while reconnecting with her family, but at lot has happened since her disappearance six years earlier. Worse yet, she becomes a suspect herself in a string of new murders that are similar in nature to the serial killer she was investigating before her disappearance.

Without giving too much away, Emily struggles with flashbacks to the torment she dealt with by her kidnapper – some scenes are fragmented but very hard to watch given she was tortured and held captive in a water tank; she has to deal with a troubled brother with his own set of problems; a husband who moved on with a new wife and a son who doesn’t see her as his mother. And, the man convicted of being the serial killer she was investigating, gets out of prison because she was found alive.

Needless to say, this is a much different character for Katic to be playing, but one that she pulls off very convincingly. The storyline is obviously much darker than that of nearly all of the episodes of the 8-season-long Castle but pulls you in wondering whether there is more to Emily than meets the eye, who was behind her horrible six-year captivity and who is really a villain or victim.

The rest of the cast includes Angel Bonanni (Shots Fired) as Boston Police Detective Tommy Gibbs, who is in charge of Emily’s case; Ralph Ineson (Game of Thrones) as Special Agent Adam Radford, Nick and Emily’s boss; Bruno Bichir (Narcos) as Dr. Daniel Vega, an FBI psychologist and profiler and Richard Brake (Ray Donovan) as Conrad Harlow, the prime suspect in the serial killer case.

Here is the trailer for Absenita:

You can learn more about the series Absentia at the show’s website and make sure to watch all 10 episodes of Absentia on Amazon Prime when it debuts on Friday, February 2.