Wild Cards appealed to me because I was already a fan of cop procedurals. The show reminds me of Castle, White Collar, and a bit of Leverage. It has the "will they won't they" aspect from Castle and the "can the criminal really be trusted" theme from White Collar.
There was one episode so far where there was a flashback of how the con was really orchestrated, something Leverage was known for. There was also one time Max had to climb through an air vent which reminded me of Parker from Leverage. While one can argue this show isn't doing anything special and just recycling previous shows of the genre, I still recommend it because of the quality of the writing. At first I thought Ellis's character was going to be very one-dimensional because the backstory behind his character was eerily similar to Beckett from Castle. Also the acting from Gianniotti felt a bit stiff but the details of his backstory were revealed quickly and he becomes a very relatable character who doesn't fall into the stereotype I thought he was going to be. The amount of banter between Max and Ellis every episode gives the show a very light-hearted tone. If you are looking for a dark and serious show, this isn't for you.
I think the show makes use of its side characters well. Max's dad George has a significant presence in the show and I think he's going to be a fan favourite. Ricky the butler is the smart guy who is always available and is great at computers. Simmons and Yates haven't had much development so far but they've been slowly becoming less adversarial to our main characters. J. J., an unassuming minor character, was surprisingly later featured in episode 7 and that episode has been one of my favourites so far.
The CBC isn't exactly known for producing great shows but this one is definitely an exception. The budget seems to be significantly higher than the early seasons of Hudson and Rex (comparison only because they're both Canadian cop shows from this era). The set designs, scenes and editing look modern and polished and it didn't look like they had to cut any corners which is different than a lot of Canadian shows I've seen. Looking forward to future seasons!
