Yaga isnt the show Hudson Williams fans want it to be

There's so much to want to love in Canadian series Yaga , from its small-town mystery to its hints of folklore and witchcraft.

But the biggest draw of all is undoubtedly its cast, which includes Carrie-Anne Moss, Noah Reid, Clark Backo, and Heated Rivalry breakout Hudson Williams.

SEE ALSO: 2026 fall TV preview: Every show you should know about Yaga is Williams' first major project to come out since the runaway success of Heated Rivalry catapulted him and co-star Connor Storrie to stardom.

With that comes an opportunity for Williams to further showcase his range beyond his Canadian Screen Award-winning work as Shane Hollander.

It's a shame, then, that Yaga gives Williams and his co-stars so little to latch onto, in a dark feminist fable that feels more hollow than revelatory.

Want more film and TV news and reviews delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for Mashable’s Top Stories newsletter or get Mashable push alerts today.

What's Yaga about? Noah Reid and Clark Backo in "Yaga." Credit: Crave / Christopher Lawrence Based on the play by Kat Sandler, who also serves as showrunner, Yaga invites us to the small town of Whittock, where Henry Park (Williams), heir to a powerful fishery owner, has gone missing.

Enter private investigator Rapp (Reid) and local police detective Carson (Backo), who are paired — reluctantly, on Carson's end — to get to the bottom of this mystery.

What begins as a standard missing persons investigation soon becomes something darker and stranger.

Chicken carcasses hang menacingly on doors.

Bloody symbols mar crime scenes.

Through it all, Rapp hears whispers of Baba Yaga, a legendary witch from Slavic folklore known for living in a house on chicken legs and flying around in a mortar and pestle.

Could Henry's disappearance be tied to the occult? Given that the whole series opens with images of an unknown figure being burned at the stake, and that each episode opens and closes with a voiceover monologue from a wizened witchy figure, the answer appears to be an unequivocal "yes." SEE ALSO: 'Crystal Lake' review: Linda Cardellini slashes her way through this bloody Friday the 13th prequel So the stage is set for a strange, folkloric mystery.

Yet Yaga 's witchiness never truly sings.