Acorn TV Will Find 'The Gone' in January 2025

Here at Telly Visions, we sometimes encounter the problem of what constitutes a British series. Does The Lord of the Rings: The Rings off Power count? It's based on Tolkien's works and stars a heavily U.K. cast, but it's also set in Middle Earth. The Sandman is another weirdly borderline case — it's even set in an alternate London, and yet, one episode in, you know, it's not British. Meanwhile, Bridgerton, based on American books and produced by Americans at an American company, is absolutely considered a British show. But there's good news (well, sort of) in that Americans are not alone in having this problem. The supposedly Irish Drama The Gone, funded and produced by RTE, raised the same questions when it debuted in 2023. The series is set in New Zealand with a Kiwi sensibility to the overall themes and led some critics to ask if it's really an Irish Drama if it's only nominally about Ireland.

American viewers will get to decide whether The Gone is an Irish drama or a New Zealand one when the series comes to Acorn TV in January 2025. Unlike BritBox, which is set on being British above all with its programming, Acorn TV tends to pick up a lot of series from both Ireland and down under, so perhaps it will be a distinction without a difference. What does matter is that the Irish detective in the series is played by Richard Flood, who Americans know well from his time on the never-ending Grey's Anatomy.

Despite critics' uncertainty about whether to file the series under Ireland or New Zealand, The Gone was a big enough hit on RTE and TVNZ to earn a second series, which was filmed in early 2024. Though Acorn TV has only announced a Season 1 pickup, the fact that there are more seasons is almost certainly a factor, and if the show does well, one should expect Season 2 to eventually follow.

Here's the series synopsis:

Theo Richter is an Irish detective who teams up with Kiwi cop Diana Huia to find a young Irish couple after they vanish from an infamous rural town in North Island, New Zealand. Amid the search and race against time, the pair must contend with a community’s growing concern that the disappearances may be linked to a series of historical murders.

Flood stars as Theo Richter, with Acushla-Tara Kupe (The Crown) as his co-star, playing DS Diana Huia. The rest of the cast includes Michelle Fairley (Gangs of London), Manu Bennett (The Hobbit), Carolyn Bracken (Dublin Murders), Bill Murphy (The Nan Movie), Rachel Morgan (The Tourist), Scott Wills (The Brokenwood Mysteries), Simon Mead (Under the Vines), Vanessa Rare (The Sounds), and Wayne Hapi (The Dead Lands).

Anna McPartlin and Michael Bennet penned all six episodes, with directors Peter Burger and Hannah Quinn splitting helming duties, with Timothy White and Reikura Kahi producing. Executive producers include Steve Barr, Laura Beetz, Michael Bennett, David Creen, Yvonne Donohoe, Katie Holly, Dermot Horan, Karl Zohrab, and Anna McPartlin.

The Gone will arrive on Acorn TV with a two-episode premiere on Monday, January 20, and streams weekly on Mondays through February 17, 2025.