''Haven'' is a

supernatural Supernatural phenomena or entities are those beyond the Scientific law, laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin 'above, beyond, outside of' + 'nature'. Although the corollary term "nature" has had multiple meanin ...

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

television series developed by Jim Dunn and Sam Ernst, loosely based on the

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author. Dubbed the "King of Horror", he is widely known for his horror novels and has also explored other genres, among them Thriller (genre), suspense, crime fiction, crime, scienc ...

novel ''

The Colorado Kid ''The Colorado Kid'' is a mystery fiction, mystery Mystery novel, novel by American writer Stephen King, published by the Hard Case Crime imprint in 2005. The book was initially issued in one paperback-only edition by the specialty crime and m ...

'' (2005). The series, which deals with strange events in a fictional town in

Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...

named Haven, was filmed on the South Shore of

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, located on its east coast. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and Population of Canada by province and territory, most populous province in Atlan ...

, and is an American-Canadian co-production. It stars Emily Rose, Lucas Bryant,

Nicholas Campbell Nicholas Campbell (born 24 March 1952) is a Canadian actor and filmmaker. He is a four-time Gemini Awards, Gemini Award winner, a three-time Genie Awards, Genie Award nominee, and a Canadian Screen Awards, Canadian Screen Award nominee. He is k ...

and

Eric Balfour Eric Salter Balfour (born April 24, 1977) is an American actor. He made his film debut in the Lifetime movie ''No One Would Tell'' in 1996, followed by the drama '' Shattered Image'' (1998), followed by roles in '' What Women Want'' (2000), Rise ...

, whose characters struggle to help townspeople with supernatural afflictions and protect the town from the effects of those afflictions. The series premiered on July 9, 2010, on Syfy, and concluded on December 17, 2015. In August 2015, Syfy canceled the series after five seasons.

Premise

When

FBI Special Agent The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. An agency of the United States Department of Justice, the FBI is a member of ...

Audrey Parker ( Emily Rose) is dispatched to the small town of Haven, Maine, on a routine case, she finds herself becoming increasingly involved in the return of "The Troubles", a plague of

afflictions that have occurred in the town at least twice before. With an openness to the possibility of the paranormal, she also finds a more personal link in Haven that may lead her to the mother she has never known. Over time, Parker, who eventually quits the FBI to join the Haven Police Department, begins to realize that her arrival in Haven may have been pre-arranged and that her name and even her memories may not be her own. As the series progresses, she learns more about the mysteries of both Haven and her true identity. She and her partner, police detective Nathan Wuornos ( Lucas Bryant), find themselves frequently facing problems caused by both the effects of the Troubles, as well as the activities of town folk who take more drastic measures against those who are Troubled.

Cast and characters

Main

* Emily Rose as Audrey Parker / Sarah Vernon (seasons 2–3) / Lucy Ripley (seasons 3 & 5) / Lexie DeWitt (season 4) / Mara (seasons 4–5) / Paige (season 5) * Lucas Bryant as Nathan Wuornos *

as Garland Wuornos (season 1; guest seasons 2–3) *

as Duke Crocker

Recurring

* Mary-Colin Chisholm as Eleanor Carr (season 1) *

Richard Donat Richard Donat (born 1 June 1941) is a Canadian actor, known for his work in Canadian and American television. He is well known for playing the character Vince Teagues in the Canadian–American TV series, '' Haven''. Donat is the younger brot ...

as Vince Teagues * John Dunsworth as Dave Teagues * Anne Caillon as Jess Minion (season 1) * Michelle Monteith as Julia Carr (season 1) *

Stephen McHattie Stephen McHattie Smith (born February 3, 1947) is a Canadian actor. Since beginning his professional career in 1970, he has amassed over 200 film and television credits. He won the Genie Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in '' ...

as Edmund "Ed" Driscoll (season 2; guest season 1) *

Kathleen Munroe Kathleen Munroe (born April 9, 1982) is a Canadian actress. Munroe was born in Hamilton, Ontario, and currently resides in Los Angeles. She attended high school at Westdale Secondary School in Hamilton, and studied cinema at the University of T ...

as FBI Agent Audrey Parker (season 2; cast season 1) *

Jason Priestley Jason Bradford Priestley (born August 28, 1969) is a Canadian-American actor and television director. Priestly starred as virtuous Brandon Walsh on the television series ''Beverly Hills, 90210'' (1990–1998, 2000). His other television roles in ...

as Chris Brody (season 2; guest season 5) * Vinessa Antoine as Evidence "Evi" Ryan (season 2) * Adam "Edge" Copeland (credited as WWE Superstar Edge in seasons 2–3 and as Adam Copeland and WWE Superstar Edge in season 4–5) as Dwight Hendrickson (seasons 2–5) * Maurice Dean Wint as Agent Byron Howard (season 3; guest seasons 1–2 & 5) *

Bree Williamson Bree Williamson Roberts (born December 28, 1979) is a Canadian actress. Career After graduating from Bayview Glen School, she completed her education at the University of Toronto. She played the role of Jessica Buchanan on the ABC soap opera ...

as Claire Callahan (season 3) * Dorian Missick as Tommy Bowen (season 3) * Kate Kelton as Jordan McKee (seasons 3–4) *

Steve Lund Steve Lund (born January 9, 1989) is a Canadian actor, best known for playing the roles of Nick Sorrentino in ''Bitten (TV series), Bitten'' (2014–2016) and Jake in ''Schitt's Creek'' (2016–2020). Before acting, he played in the Quebec Majo ...

as James Cogan (season 3; guest season 5) * Colin Ferguson as William (seasons 4–5) * Emma Lahana as Jennifer Mason (season 4) *

Christian Camargo Christian Camargo (né Minnick; born July 7, 1971) is an American actor. He is best known for playing army officer John Cambridge in Academy Award-winning film ''The Hurt Locker'', Brian Moser in the Showtime drama ''Dexter'', Michael Corrigan ...

as Wade Crocker (season 4) *

Jayne Eastwood Jayne Eastwood (born December 17, 1946), also credited as Jane Easton or Jane Eastwood, is a Canadian actress and comedian. She is best known for her film roles as Anna-Marie Biddlecoff in '' Finders Keepers'' (1984), Judy the Waitress in '' The ...

as Gloria Verrano (seasons 4–5) * Robert Maillet (credited as Robert Norman Maillet in season 5) as Heavy (seasons 4–5) *

Kris Lemche Kris Lemche (born February 23, 1978) is a Canadian actor. Career At 17 years old, Kris Lemche answered a newspaper casting call and won a role on the Disney series '' Flash Forward''. Abandoning plans to study biochemistry in university, Lemc ...

as Seth Byrne (season 5; guest season 4) * Laura Mennell as Charlotte Cross (season 5) *

Paul Braunstein Paul Braunstein is a Canadian actor who starred in the popular Canadian television series ''Train 48'' in 2003 as Johnny McLaughlin, a comical character. He was considered one of the most popular cast members of the series and has also made a few o ...

as Mitchell (season 5) *

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

(credited as WWE Superstar Christian) as McHugh (season 5) *

William Shatner William Shatner (born March 22, 1931) is a Canadian actor. In a career spanning seven decades, he is best known for his portrayal of James T. Kirk in the ''Star Trek'' franchise, from his 1966 debut as the captain of the starship USS Enterpri ...

as Croatoan (season 5) * Rossif Sutherland as Henry (season 5) * Tamara Duarte as Hailie Colton (season 5)

Development and production

''Haven'' was originally developed for ABC Television in 2007 by writers Sam Ernst and Jim Dunn, with production company Piller Segan. In September 2009, E1 Entertainment announced it was working with

to develop a television series based on his novel ''

'' (2005). The entertainment company ordered the concept straight to series, with thirteen episodes planned. In November, Syfy announced it had acquired the series. Sam Ernst and Jim Dunn wrote the pilot episode. According to Ernst, the original idea had no supernatural involvement, which prompted Stephen King to ask "Where's the supernatural element?" after he read their notes. In February 2010, Emily Rose was cast in the lead role of Audrey Parker. Eric Balfour and Lucas Bryant came on board in late March. Canadian broadcaster

Canwest Global Communications Canwest Global Communications Corporation, which operated under the corporate name Canwest, was a major Canadian media conglomerate based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, with its head offices at Canwest Place (now called 201 Portage). It held radio, t ...

acquired rights to the series in March as well. In April 2010, Adam Kane signed on to direct the pilot. Production began April 20 in Halifax, Nova Scotia and surrounding areas. Filming occurred primarily in

Chester Chester is a cathedral city in Cheshire, England, on the River Dee, Wales, River Dee, close to the England–Wales border. With a built-up area population of 92,760 in 2021, it is the most populous settlement in the borough of Cheshire West an ...

, Nova Scotia (including using the local arena as a studio) and throughout the South Shore of the province, including Lunenburg, Halifax, and

Mahone Bay Mahone Bay is a bay on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, Canada along the eastern end of Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia, Lunenburg County. The bay has many islands (potentially 365), and is a popular sailing area. Since 2003 the M ...

. The promo of the series premiere features the song Short Change Hero by The Heavy. The series premiere, "Welcome to Haven", aired on Syfy in the U.S. on July 9, 2010, and on Showcase in Canada on July 12.Showcase page
The show became available to other international markets in October 2010.

Episodes

The one-hour drama premiered on July 9, 2010, on Syfy. The series was the first property to be produced for Syfy Pay channels around the globe, excluding Canada and Scandinavia. On October 12, 2011, it was renewed for a third 13-episode season, which began airing on September 21, 2012. On November 9, 2012, it was renewed for a fourth 13-episode season. On January 28, 2014, the show was renewed for a split 26-episode fifth season. The first half aired in 2014 with the second half airing in 2015.

Reception

Although ''Haven'' premiered to mixed reviews, the series now has an average score of 60% fresh on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, with Seasons 5 and 6 rating 80%.

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

only rated the first season.

References to other works

Allusions to the written works of author Stephen King are made in the series regularly; the setting for the series is derived from King's novella ''

'' (2005), although the name of the town is changed. On Syfy.com's ''Haven'' website, many of these references are explained for each episode. For example,

Derry Derry, officially Londonderry, is the second-largest City status in the United Kingdom, city in Northern Ireland, and the fifth-largest on the island of Ireland. Located in County Londonderry, the city now covers both banks of the River Fo ...

and Haven are both fictional towns in Maine previously used in the author's stories. One of the main characters receives a copy of a novel written by a character from King's novel, ''Misery'' (1987), while another character has just been released from Shawshank Prison. In some cases the plot of an episode revolves around an idea from King's works: a character who has

precognitive Precognition (from the Latin 'before', and 'acquiring knowledge') is the purported psychic phenomenon of seeing, or otherwise becoming directly aware of, events in the future. There is no accepted scientific evidence that precognition is a ...

psychometric Psychometrics is a field of study within psychology concerned with the theory and technique of measurement. Psychometrics generally covers specialized fields within psychology and education devoted to testing, measurement, assessment, and rela ...

visions after touching people or things; or plants that start killing people. It is noted on the Syfy site that "'' It'' is a particular favorite Stephen King book for the Haven writers and producers". For example, in "A Tale of Two Audreys", a little boy in a yellow rain slicker is seen outside the church chasing a newspaper boat that he has set in the stream in the gutter. He chases until it falls down into a storm drain on Witcham Street. He then sticks his right arm down into the drain and screams. The scene can be found in the opening chapter of the 1986 book. Also derived from ''It'', the episode "Fear and Loathing" revolves around a troubled person who (unwillingly) takes the form of a person's worst fear, and in one instance appears as a clown, a visual allusion to Pennywise of the film version of '' It'' (1990). The "Troubles" also seem to coincide with the arrival of the stranger, in this case Audrey, every 27 years. This is the same amount of time between appearances of the creature in ''It''. "Croatoan" coincidentally also appears carved into a tree in the 3 part Stephen King mini series "Storm of the Century."

Home media

DVD

Blu-ray

In Region A,

Entertainment One Lionsgate Canada is a Canadian entertainment company and a subsidiary of Lionsgate Studios. Based in Toronto, the company is primarily involved in the acquisition and production of films and television series. The company began on June 1, 1973 ...

released the first season on

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

on June 14, 2011, and the second season on September 4, 2012. In Region B, the first season was released on September 14, 2011.

Broadcast

''Haven'' has been sold for broadcast in several countries worldwide, including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Syndication

Chiller A chiller is a machine that removes heat from a liquid coolant via a vapor-compression refrigeration, vapor-compression, adsorption refrigeration, or absorption refrigerator, absorption refrigeration cycles. This liquid can then be circulated th ...

'' acquired the rights to air ''Haven'' in June 2013. It first premiered on Sunday, July 14, 2013, at 8pm ET, and aired four episodes every Sunday thereafter until the series was discontinued prior to the network's closure.. Genesis International distributes the syndication version to several local markets in the US.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Haven (Tv Series) 2010 American television series debuts 2015 American television series endings 2010 Canadian television series debuts 2015 Canadian television series endings 2010s Canadian drama television series American English-language television shows Fictional populated places created by Stephen King Saturn Award–winning television series Television shows based on works by Stephen King Syfy original programming Television shows filmed in Halifax, Nova Scotia Television shows set in Maine Showcase (Canadian TV channel) original programming Television series by Lionsgate Canada Television series by Lionsgate Television Television series by Corus Entertainment Television shows filmed in Nova Scotia Television shows based on American novels Canadian supernatural television series 2010s American crime drama television series 2010s Canadian crime drama television series