Yaga arrived on October 23, with its first two episodes streaming on AMC+ and weekly releases scheduled through November 27. The Crave series stars Noah Reid as Charlie Rapp, a private investigator sent to the rainy town of Victoria to investigate the disappearance of Henry Park, the wealthy heir to a local fisheries fortune. Henry has not been heard from since January 21, and Detective Carson suspects he may have gone to Europe with a girlfriend.
The setup resembles a detective procedural, but Kat Sandler's series moves into supernatural mystery and folklore. It draws on the Slavic tale of Baba Yaga, the witch often depicted as a threat or, in some stories, as a guide. The show opens with the witch's voiceover and a man being burned alive in the woods, then shifts to the search for Henry. Rapp's investigation brings him into contact with Henry's housemate Logan, who knows Henry's secrets and looks strikingly like the missing heir. Rapp is described as flirting and seducing his way through the case, including with people of interest.
Carrie-Anne Moss plays Professor Katherine, a character fascinated by bones and the author of Sexy Bones. Henry had become obsessed with her after featuring her on his true crime podcast. Hudson Williams takes on a dual role as Henry and Logan. In the early episodes, the witch is not shown directly, but the series keeps her presence alive through voiceover, lurking stares and dead roosters.
The show uses the folklore to examine female agency, age and reputation. Its argument is that women who challenge patriarchal expectations or express their sexuality are often cast as monsters. Katherine is portrayed as unapologetically sexual while retaining her own agency, a rarity for older women on television, who are often defined only as wives, mothers or grandmothers. Yaga gives its women, older and younger, room to be complex rather than caricatures, while the mystery unfolds slowly through details that pay off later. The early episodes treat the mystery with care while building a horror atmosphere from the start.
Sources: Comic Book Resources.