6 October 2014 (2014-10-06) – 2 February 2015 (2015-02-02)
Strange Empire is a Canadian Western television series that aired on CBC Television in the 2014–15 television season.[1] Created by Laurie Finstad-Knizhnik,[2] the series is a serialized drama set in Janestown, near the Alberta-Montana border in the 1860s, in which three women band together for survival after their husbands are murdered.[3]
CBC cancelled the series in March 2015 after one season.[5]Strange Empire was broadcast on LMN in the US and was renamed Strange Empire: Rise of the Women, it premiered on May 29, 2015.[6]
Cast and characters
Cara Gee as Kat Loving, a Métis woman who loses her child and her husband and struggles to protect her surrogate family.
Melissa Farman as Rebecca Blithely, an autistic woman[7] who was previously institutionalized and who now works as a doctor.
Tattiawna Jones as Isabelle Slotter, a madam who is grieving after the loss of her child.
Aaron Poole as John Slotter, a violent mine owner, who is married to Isabelle.
Michelle Creber as Kelly and Matreya Scarrwener as Robin, sisters who are rescued and adopted by Kat Loving after their gambling father sells them to Slotter for use in his bordello.
Terry Chen as Ling, a Chinese man looking to take over Slotter's coal mine.
Laurie Finstad-Knizhnik, Jackie May, Jacquie Gould(story editor)
January 26, 2015 (2015-01-26)
13
"The Dark Riders"
Gary Harvey
Laurie Finstad-Knizhnik, Jackie May, Jacquie Gould(story editor)
February 2, 2015 (2015-02-02)
Reception
The series premiere was watched by 319,000 Canadian viewers.
John Doyle of The Globe and Mail called it "a remarkable, rugged western drama" and praised the cast. Doyle concluded "Strange Empire wobbles a bit in episodes two and three, but never falls down. Watch and you are carried through on the freshness and zest of it, this dose of hard, rugged TV storytelling."[8]
