Detective Charlie Hudson (John Reardon), a cunning Major Crimes detective for the fictional St. John’s Police Department, teams up with an unusual partner – Rex, a former-K9 German Shepherd, whose heightened senses keep Charlie hot on the trail of his suspects. Together, they investigate puzzling crimes, from a kidnapping which reveals a much larger conspiracy at play to an art theft murder which runs deep into the world of high society. With Charlie’s deft detective work and Rex’s keen canine senses, this crime-fighting pair is unstoppable.
Hudson and Rex is a Canadian police procedural drama television series, based on the Austrian and Italian drama Inspector Rex, which premiered on Citytv on March 25, 2019. The show began filming in October 2018, with ongoing production in St. John's, Newfoundland.
Eight complete seasons have aired as of March 2026, and a ninth is planned to debut in the fall. Reardon's screen time was sharply curtailed in Season 7 while he underwent cancer treatment, and a new detective was introduced near its end as the human half of the titular duo — Mark Hudson (Luke Roberts). Reardon was absent during all of Season 8, but has been confirmed to return for Season 9.
Tropes Related to this series are:
- Always Murder: Downplayed. While the overwhelming majority of the series involves the Major Crimes team solving murders, there are occasional cases where crimes like kidnappings, robberies, and hijackings are the order of the day.
- Bait-and-Switch: In one episode, Donovan believes his daughter Camilla may be on drugs and has Charlie and Rex investigate. Later, they, along with Sarah, find Camilla meeting another girl in secret and assume that the other girl is a drug dealer. However, it turns out that this is Camilla's girlfriend. Another bait-and-switch occurs right after; Charlie initially assumes that Camilla's secretive behaviour is because she hasn't come out to her father. Turns out, Donovan is aware of her sexuality; Camilla had previously agreed to avoid serious dating until she was done with high school and wanted to keep her relationship private.
- Blatant Lies: While infiltrating an art auction, Charlie writes off Rex's presence by claiming that Rex is his "emotional support dog".
- Cerebus Retcon: Donovan's paranoia about his daughter Camilla's possible drug use in the third episode is Played for Laughs, but in episode 12, it's revealed that Camilla's mother is a recovering addict, making Donovan's fears come off as a lot more justified and a lot more chilling.
- Da Chief: Inspector Joe Donovan is a subversion; while he fits the mould of a black, authoritative cop, he's a Reasonable Authority Figure and is quite easygoing, albeit as serious as his position demands.
- Deadpan Snarker: Hudson's primary form of humor.
- Detective Animal: Rex, who is a master at using his size, senses an species to do his job better than his human partner.
- Evil-Detecting Dog: Rex's raison d'être. When something is going wrong anywhere near him you can bet he'll be on top of it.
- Free-Range Pets: Rex is explicitly not a pet, but he ranges wherever he feels he needs to go. And his humans know better than to worry over him as they know he can take care of himself.
- The Ghost:
- The Chief Superintendent of the SJPD, who is sometimes referred to in passing and generally doesn't appear onscreen. When he eventually does appear in Season 5, it's only so he can become a Victim of the Week and get replaced by a new unseen Chief offscreen in the following season.
- Sarah's family. She occasionally mentions them, but they don't make a physical appearance. This stopped applying for her mother Paige when she debuted in Season 8.
- Government Agency of Fiction: There is no "St. John's Police Department" in real life; law enforcement in the city is primarily handled by the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary.
- The Heart: Rex, being a dog, is physically incapable of hating anyone, even the most hardened criminals. Though he will chase down and attack threats to his people, his first concern is always caring for those who need his help more than fighting and he feels most deeply when someone he's responsible for gets hurt.
- Heroic Dog: Rex is a heroic police dog that has helped solve crimes.
- Hitman with a Heart: The plot of the first episode revolves around one of these.
- Hollywood Law:
- While dogs have worked with police since their inception, it's questionable to say the least whether or not a dog would legally be allowed to be a detective's official partner.
- Addressed in universe during episode 2 when some other, more junior police officers make an official complaint about Rex working with the Major Crimes Division putting Rex's job (and potentially life) in jeopardy.
- Stretched to the limit during most of Season 7, as Sarah and Donovan sub in as Rex's new handlers while Charlie is out on a family emergency in Central America; Sarah is a coroner, and Donovan is a superintendent. The third episode of the season posits that Rex has been around them long enough to understand their commands, with Sarah adjusting to this new job in a subplot, but that's about it.
- Living Lie Detector: One of Hudson's interrogation techniques is telling people Rex can do this. It's complete baloney and Rex is simply smart enough to play along, but most people are willing to believe it so they do.
- The Main Characters Do Everything:
- Practically played straight as an arrow with the Major Crimes team. Sarah handles every part of forensic operations, while Charlie and Donovan are both likely to do field work and interrogation as the plot requires, and Sarah can also join them sometimes. Jesse is a possible exception, as he rarely does any field work (with mixed results), so he usually tends to stick to his IT specialist job and the occasional interrogation.
- This is used as a plot point in Season 7, after Charlie goes to see his brother Jack in a boxing match, only for the latter to go missing somewhere in Mexico and get his father Edward for the search. Donovan, Sarah, and Jesse all pick up the slack to compensate for Charlie's absence and wind up stretching themselves thin, with Sarah barely seeing her forensics lab anymore and Jesse doing more field work than normal. They don't get any extra assistance until Detective Mark arrives from Halifax late in the season.
- Master of Delusion: Season 5 involves a subplot of Jessie suspecting Charlie and Sarah to be an item, only for him to find no conclusive evidence, and the guilty party to deny that anything serious is going on. Until near the end of the season, that is; Jesse catches the two of them having an intimate moment on camera footage from a popular restaurant.
- Missing the Good Stuff:
- The initial CityTV airing of the Season 8 episode "Of All the Gin Joints" on October 13, 2025 was set for 8:00 PM EST, only for the ALCS 6 game between the Seattle Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays to preempt and spill over roughly 45 minutes, leaving only the closing minutes for the episode to be broadcasted as normal.
- The following episode "Fortitude Newfoundland" got it worse, as its initial airing on October 20, 2025 was set for 8:00 PM EST, only for the Seattle Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays' follow-up ALCS 7 game to air in its place. The actual premiere was delayed to October 26, 2025 at 10:00 PM EST as a result, although the episode itself was released on the CityTV+ service for the planned airing date.
- Name and Name: The title alludes to its two protagonists: Hudson and Rex.
- Nearly Normal Animal: Rex, who leans more than a little into the Sapient Pet category. He takes initiative and seems to come up with complex plans which one would think beyond his species.
- Non-Action Guy: Jesse Mills, the SJPD's resident tech expert, is very good at his job, but he's very much not a field officer; Hudson and Rex handle all of the unit's legwork, and both times Jesse is placed undercover, he either ends up in mortal danger or bungles the assignment.
- Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: In "The Rex Files", Charlie quotes "may the Force be with you" while making the Vulcan salute, oblivious to the difference. In "Under the Influencer", he shows that he knows very little about social media and had never heard of shipping before.
- Put on a Prison Bus:
- Most of the culprits get arrested at the end of each case, though a few occasionally make a return appearance while they're serving their prison sentence (which sometimes results in their unfortunate death).
- "A Room with a Clue" sees Detective Porter get put under arrest for attempting to leak seized firearms, after his previous appearance established him as a less-than-competent policeman.
- Real Men Wear Pink: "Under the Influencer" reveals that Donovan is well-acquainted with social media influencers, including the episode's murder victim. He claims it's just a result of being around his 15-year-old daughter.
- Running Gag:
- Almost Once an Episode, someone will point out that Charlie either can't or shouldn't bring Rex into various areas. He always ignores them, usually justifying this by pointing out that Rex is a police animal. The only place where he actually follows this rule is the forensics lab (which is justified, since Rex could potentially contaminate evidence).
- Charlie having to sic Rex on culprits who try to run away eventually became this.
- Same Surname Means Related: Pointedly averted with the SJPD's star detectives. Charlie Hudson is succeeded in late Season 7 by Mark Hudson, who is transferred out of Halifax and seconds the Major Crimes team, although his last name isn't revealed until three episodes into the following season.
- Scenery Porn: The show is not at all shy about showing off the beauty of the city of St. John's or the Newfoundland landscape.
- Ship Tease: Charlie Hudson and Sarah Truong get quite a few pseudo-romantic moments, whether heart-to-heart chats, posing as a couple for a case, or agreeing to what might be considered a date before Jesse turns it into a group thing. Eventually subverted by the Season 4 finale, in which they have officially hooked up.
- Shoo Out the New Guy:
- Season 5 introduces Dr. Karma Poole, Sarah's new pathologist assistant who previously kept getting transferred to a new department after a brief adjustment period, alleviating Sarah's handling of the SJPD's forensics by herself. The narrative didn't do much with her, so she is jettisoned out of the series in Season 6, when it's briefly mentioned that she was transferred to Halifax.
- Similarly, Season 7 brings in Ingrid Quinn as Sarah's next assistant. She left even less of an impact than Karma, being used for all of two episodes before she disappeared without so much as an explanation.
- Shout-Out:
- "Bad Water Rising" has a suspect provide an alibi by claiming to have been at a midnight showing of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Both Charlie and Jesse are fans of the film; the former even laments that he can't pull off a fedora.
- In "Bury the Lead", a wi-fi signal is detected from within the SJPD station and Charlie remarks "The call is coming from inside the house"; Jesse praises him for the reference.
- Silent Snarker: Rex gets in a few licks too, even though he doesn't speak.
- Sliding Scale of Continuity: The show is somewhere between Level 2 and Level 3. The vast majority of episodes focus on a single case that gets solved, with the occasional second case taking up a subplot, and every once in a while there will be throwaway references to previously-solved cases or a returning character that the leads met before. An attempt at Level 4 was done in Season 5, but only one of its ongoing subplots (Jesse wanting to do more than just be a tech guy) was carried over into the following season before it got wrapped up. Meanwhile, the Charlie era of the show has a slowly-developing romance between him and Sarah as a recurring plot element, which is resolved in the fourth season and ended on a more permanent note in Season 7 after Charlie seemingly dies.
- Smart Animal, Average Human: Hudson is a very capable detective and law enforcement officer, but it's clear from episode 1 that Rex is the brains of the operation.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: Rex, demonstrated when he talks a wolf into backing down.
- Status Quo Is God:
- While the show is otherwise good about retaining continuity, it seems as though the Major Crimes team can't have any major changes, as Charlie and Rex benefit from Plot Armor, Sarah continues to operate forensics on her own, Jesse still has sporadic chances to contribute anything useful on the field, and circumstances ensure that any possible promotions will be temporary or won't come to pass. The only major one that's occurred thus far is Charlie and Sarah hooking up after four full seasons of teases. Meanwhile, Jesse does get the rank of Special Constable by Season 6 (though he still mostly continues his usual duties).
- The Season 7 finale finally shakes things up by having Charlie missing and possibly killed during his trip in Belize, at which point Mark replaces Charlie's former position in the Major Crimes team. After that, the succeeding episodes go back to the usual crime-of-the-week formula.
- Strictly Formula: Many episodes involve this formula: a crime/murder is committed in the Cold Open, Major Crimes investigates the murder/crime, Charlie and Rex track any clues, possible suspects are brought in for interrogation, and Rex helps to save the day by catching the culprit after they are exposed at the end.
- Stunt Performer: In "Fearless Freaks", the murder victim is a member of an online masked daredevil group who seemingly died mid-stunt while streaming. This is revealed to not be the case — Birdy was in fact accidentally murdered out of self-defense in an argument. His daredevil friends, thinking he had gotten like that himself, impersonated him on the death video so he could have a more epic death in the eyes of the public.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- Hudson is not a trained K9 Handler. Rex, being a dog, is tied in to the emotional responses of his human and reacts accordingly and sometimes aggressively even to non-dangerous threats. He and Hudson work well together, but that is only because Rex is abnormally intelligent. Hudson asks a fellow officer who is a trained K9 handler for advice on how to improve in this area.
- A human being, no matter how acrobatically gifted, cannot outrun a full grown German Shepherd. Especially not when said German Shepherd has police training.
- Rex is an abnormally capable police dog, but he's still a dog; a few problems crop up from his inability to verbally communicate and the fact that he can't open doors.
- Third Line, Some Waiting: After Season 7's second episode, the show suddenly begins a plot thread of Charlie searching for his brother Jack in Central America, while the Major Crimes team handles Rex and continues solving crimes during his absence. This gets minor focus, as Charlie reports on his progress for only a few minutes before he can end his calls.
- Trailers Always Spoil: The fact that Season 8 features Mark, a new detective replacing Charlie Hudson has been spoiled mere weeks of the season premiere by CityTV's promo trailer, as well as a similar trailer debuting two days prior.
- True Companions: The Major Crimes team is a closely tight unit, with rare occasions of them even seeing any relatives. They always remain together and back each other up as much as the law allows.
- Uncertain Doom: Played for drama. The Season 7 finale has a subplot of Detective Mark investigating Charlie's search for his brother Jack in Belize, only to learn that Charlie took a bullet and fell into a river while protecting Jack and a local female witness. A few months later, Mark has replaced Charlie as the Major Crimes team's star detective, with it being entirely uncertain whether the latter is KIA or not. The team is understandably shaken— Sarah in particular (to the point of briefly going into retirement), but they move on by continuing to solve crimes.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Rex is possibly the smartest dog alive. He cannot, however, open doors.
- Written-In Absence: Due to John Reardon having been treated for tonsil cancer at the time of Season 7's production, his character Charlie Hudson only appears for the first two episodes before taking an offscreen trip to Mexico, as he searches for his brother Jack who has seemingly gone missing. However, Charlie's search leads to him being absent for the majority of the season. The rest of the Major Crimes team is aptly concerned about his MIA status, as his communications with them gradually stop completely.
- Wunza Plot: Detective Charlie Hudson is partnered with Rex, a K9 German shepherd. And together they investigate crimes.