Canaan Review

Studio: PA Works
Premiere Date: 7/4/09
Genre: Action/Mystery

Some shows just need some extra time to get going…

The Story

In the first couple of episodes of Canaan, the setting opens in a very rowdy Shanghai where a local festival is taking place. Within the city a war is being fought all around the residents without anyone really giving it much thought. Living in the city is an assassin named Canaan who is fighting against a terrorist organization called the Snakes while waiting for the target of her own personal vendetta to resurface.

Arriving to the city is a journalist, Minoru, after his next big scoop and his impossibly perky and cheerful rookie photographer, Maria. Upon arriving in the city, the two get wrapped up in a very strange situation. People in the city are dying right in front of crowds but no one notices, gun fights between Canaan and the Snakes occur on a regular basis but no one cares. When the Snakes start to go after Maria and Minoru for seeing things that they shouldn’t, more information comes to the surface and more characters begin to be pulled into the conspiracy.

Good and the Bad

Within moments of beginning, Canaan treads into very dangerous waters for a new series. With an opening sequence that is filled from start to finish with daring acrobatics, gun fights and action; Canaan goes out its way to build exceedingly high expectations from its audience. In other cases a series might be cursing itself right away for raising the bar so high but Canaan manages to spend the first two episodes living up to every single expectation they create.

Overall

Canaan does an incredibly good job of keeping things moving while giving the audience just enough to dig their nails into. While no one watching this series for the first time can predict exactly where the story is going, PA Works does a good job of making sure you’re at least entertained while trying to figure it out. This is a series that many fans are going to start but not everyone is going to finish. If Canaan plans to keep this trend of cliffhangers up, the only way to sustain is to grow. With the height that Canaan begins the series at though, just how big can they make this story?