USA Network
If you like murder mysteries, then Briarpatch, the USA Network’s latest dramedy, is about to be your new favorite show. It stars Rosario Dawson as a woman who must solve her sister’s murder in a modern-day film noir. Here’s everything you need to know about the premiere date, time, channel, plot, cast and more.
Briarpatch Premiere Date & Time: This new murder mystery premieres Thursday, February 6 at 10 p.m. ET/PT.
Briarpatch Premiere Channel: As part of its darker, grittier programming in the past few years, the USA Network is launching Briarpatch right after the season three premiere of The Sinner starring Bill Pullman.
Briarpatch Season 1 Cast: Dawson anchors the cast as Allegra Dill, a political operative who is forced to return to her hometown of San Bonifacio after her younger sister Felicity is murdered.
In this Texas border town, nothing is as it seems and the cast is populated with a host of quirky characters. Jay Ferguson is Jake Spivey, a wealthy ex-arms dealer whom Allegra knew in high school; Alan Cummings is Clyde Brattle, Spivey’s former business partner; Gerardo Celasco as Senator Joseph Ramirez, Allegra’s boss; Kim Dickens is Chief of Police Eve Raytek, and even TV legend Ed Asner appears as James Staghorne Sr., the president and owner of the local newspaper, The Chronicle.
In supporting roles, there’s Brian Geraghty as Captain Gene Colder, who moved his wife Lucretia (Christine Woods) 2000 miles for this job; there’s also Chris Mulkey as Calvin Strucker, a police detective, and his wife Yvette (Connie Jackson); and hippies Harold Snow (Timm Sharp) and Cindy McCabe (Allegra Edwards), who were the last people to see Felicity alive.
Briarpatch Season 1 Plot: As Allegra tries to figure out who murdered her sister, she peels back the layers on her quirky hometown and quickly finds out that nothing is at it seems and no one is to be trusted. Dawson told the 2020 Television Critics Association winter press tour that it’s a murder mystery the audience can work to solve right alongside her character.
“I wouldn’t necessarily look at this as a revenge story,” Dawson said in an interview. “This is really a murder mystery and a revelation for this character about the armor she’s put on in life to survive, coming from an incredibly impoverished background and a lot of childhood trauma. She’s clawed success out of a lot of really trying situations, and now she’s actually put to her most incredible test, which is dealing with the murder of her sister.”
There is also the side plot of Allegra’s boss, U.S. Senator Joseph Ramirez (Celasco), who may or may not have ties to Spivey and Brattle. And how is the slovenly mayor of San Bonifacio tied into it all?
As the USA description teases, “As Allegra attempts to navigate — and upend — the power structure of San Bonifacio, she finds herself dealing with people who are corrupt, egotistical, manipulative and willing to kill. Felicity is the first to die in Briarpatch. Will she be the last?”
“We wanted to make a hot noir,” revealed creator Andy Greenwald. “We wanted to make a classic story updated and switched up and spiced up and heated up for our contemporary era, so [I] definitely give her a lot of credit as well for giving us just the push we needed in that direction.”
Briarpatch premieres Thursday, February 6 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on the USA Network.
READ NEXT: ‘Briarpatch’ Changes From the Book