By Anne Brodie
Kaley Cuoco best known for her comedic roles goes dark, bewildered and terrified in the MGM /ROAR series Vanished which she also executive produced. The four-parter thriller finds her character Alice, a rising star archaeologist and her boyfriend Tom (Sam Claflin) touring Europe. Tom’s charming, solid and responsible and cares for her. They board a train from Paris to the south of France; she nods off and awakens to find him gone. A search of the train turns frantic, no one saw him, and the conductor tells her he’s not on the roster. Sam works for an African charity providing vaccines; she uses ID and possessions he left behind and sets out to find him. She speaks to a strangely nervous train conductor named Giroux and police but finds no help; they assume Sam’s left her, which seems unlikely. Train passengers have no recollection of him. Alice walks to the bridge where she last saw him and explores the terrain, finding boot prints and a wrapper of his brand of chewing gum. Hélène (Karin Viard), an investigative journalist approaches her to help; ndshe says people regularly go missing in France but says she’ll investigate. And Hélène says she reported on Sam when vaccines went missing a while back. Alice finds Giroux’s apartment, and enters to find him murdered. This cat and mouse puzzler is engaging and intense and despite frequent time jumping, is worth an evening. Streams in Canada Feb 27 on Prime Video.