The Matrix TV Series Everyone Forgot
The 1993 series actually starred Carrie-Anne Moss.
Seven years before Keanu Reeves changed everyone’s perspective as Neo in The Matrix, the TV series called Matrix premiered. While the series has no relation to the sci-fi adventure formed from the minds of the Wachowski siblings, it does have one thing in common with the hit franchise: Carrie-Anne Moss, who starred in both.
In 1993, Matrix, a Canadian fantasy series, premiered on CTV in Canada and USA Network in the US. The show follows Steven Matrix, played by Nick Mancuso. Once a top hitman in the criminal underworld, Matrix sees his fortune take a dark turn when a contract is placed on his life.
The Matrix series starts when Mancuso’s character is struck in the forehead by a .22 pistol. He experiences an apparent demise only to awaken in “The City In Between.” Confronted with the haunting faces of the hundreds of souls he’s murdered and surrounded by a sea of fire, he is given a second chance at life.
To earn a reprieve from Hell, Matrix must live a life of service to others. Returning from what seems like a near-death experience in the hospital, the Matrix series takes viewers on a 13-episode adventure with Matrix encountering a new guide from the afterlife in each episode.
Throughout the Matrix series, he’s given different missions to help people in need. Despite receiving limited guidance and at times, resorting to brutal methods reminiscent of his past, Matrix consistently accomplishes the tasks at hand.
The core concept of the Matrix series seems to draw inspiration from “Sea of Fire,” an episode of the TV series The Equalizer. In this episode, Robert McCall, portrayed by Edward Woodward, tries to reform a street gang by bringing them to a morgue. He introduces the gang to a former hitman, his acquaintance, who shares a dream he experienced where he stood beside a sea of fire, encompassed by all the people he had ever taken the lives of.
Long before she secured her big break in The Matrix, Carrie-Anne Moss starred in the Matrix TV series as Elizabeth “Liz” Teel. Her character is the co-owner of The Silver Flex Gym alongside Steven Matrix. While Matrix remains a “silent” partner, Liz takes charge of managing daily operations, which involve teaching fitness classes and handling paperwork.
Over the Matrix series, Liz evolves to become his romantic interest. However, Matrix remains tight-lipped about his past, leaving Liz in the dark about his true profession, although she knows he works independently.
Through Liz, the audience sees another side of Matrix, proving to the audience that he is more than a hit man, but a man of integrity who proves to have a good heart by the end of the series.
Despite Moss having appeared in all 13 episodes of the Matrix series, she doesn’t consider the show her big break. Instead, she attributes The Matrix to being the start of her career, saying, “I had no career before. None.” To play Trinity alongside Keanu Reeves’ Neo, Moss went up against some of the biggest stars of the 90s, including Janet Jackson, Rosie Perez, Salma Hayek, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Sandra Bullock.
While everyone knows The Matrix, many have never heard of or have forgotten one of Moss’s first projects, the Canadian Matrix series.
