The Disappearance

Unadventurous but enjoyable

The first Canadian statistics on missing children were released in 1987. There were 57,233 children reported missing that year. In 2017, there were 47,168 reports of missing children in Canada as reported by the RCMP using numbers provided by the Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC). These statistics may not reflect the actual number of children currently missing in our country.

• "National Statistics"; Missing Children Society of Canada

When Anthony Sullivan (Michael Riendeau) disappears on his tenth birthday, his family is devastated. However, as more and more time passes without the police being able to locate him, long-buried family secrets are dragged to the surface, turning the Sullivan family against one another.

A journeyman show, The Disappearance is very much paint-by-numbers stuff, with nothing you haven't before seen in half-a-dozen similar narratives, with writers Normand Daneau and Geneviève Simard taking no real risks. Having said that, however, it's a well made piece of television. Confidently directed by Peter Stebbings, the material may offer nothing revelatory, but what it does offer is enjoyable enough on its own terms. An excellent Peter Coyote dominates the show as Anthony's grandfather, Henry, a retired judge with a strained relationship (to say the least) with his son, Luke (Aden Young), Anthony's father. As the veneer of civility slowly erodes, the fissures running beneath the family dynamic begin to erupt, with blame and recrimination becoming the central tenets of familial interaction. You may guess half-way through who the kidnapper is, and yes, they're one of those Hollywood kidnappers who leave cryptic clues everywhere, but this remains a well made, if unadventurous, show.