“I came here to negotiate. I don’t hear you negotiating.” - Ian Tracy as Jimmy Reardon
Intelligence: Season One DVD Review
By L.B. Bryant
In the Canadian drama Intelligence: Season One, we are taken into the underground world of organized crime in Vancouver, British Columbia. On the wrong side of the law are Jimmy Reardon (Ian Tracey) and his business partner Ronnie Delmonico (John Cassini), who make their living through various criminal operations, including marijuana smuggling and money laundering. On the surface though, Jimmy appears to be a regular family man who has made a fortune through a shipping company. His business problems are plentiful as another gang known as the Disciples wants his share of the marijuana trade and money laundering. His personal life isn’t much better with an ex wife that won’t go away (Camille Sullivan).
On the other side of the law is Mary Spalding (Klea Scott), the head of Vancouver’s Organized Crime Unit. She is gunning for a job as head of CSIS’s Asia Pacific Region, but her rise to that position is hindered by a subordinate, Ted Altman (Matt Frewer), who wants to climb the ladder himself. Higher ups at CSIS would also rather see her fail miserably.
When smuggler Jimmy comes into possession of confidential informant files, he and Mary strike a deal that grants him immunity from future prosecution if he, too, becomes an informant.
Having no knowledge of this series before I watching the first disc, I was only vaguely aware of what I was about to watch, and for the next fourteen episodes I was absolutely riveted. Moving away from the tired clichés of the crime drama that include sex, drugs and violence, this series tells its story in a refreshingly cerebral fashion.
I also found the series’ lack of action and violence are a welcome change. While many crime dramas have absolutely no problem with their heroes or anti heroes shooting people left and right, Jimmy Reardon is presented as an entirely different type of criminal, who doesn’t use violence at every opportunity. Instead, he tries to be much more diplomatic, often with mixed results. Since deaths rarely occur in the series, when they do happen they have a much greater impact on the audience.
The interplay between the actors in this series is also very strong. In particular, the chemistry between Ian Tracey and John Cassini is absolutely wonderful. When Jimmy and Ronnie are talking together or discussing business, it really shows how much these two characters trust and rely on each other.
To point out those two actors, however, is unfair to the rest of a wonderful ensemble cast. Klea Scott is absolutely terrific as the cold and calculating Mary Spalding, although I really wanted to see some of her storylines get wrapped up by the end of the season.
Ironically, one of the primary strengths of this series also proves to be one of its most obvious flaws. As a series that tries to be intelligent (no pun intended) with its storytelling, it suffers heavily from its own weighty dialogue. With so many scenes taking place in secret back alleys in parked cars, the characters rarely seem to be moving whenever important information is being delivered. Consequently, this series suffers from an absolutely terrible pacing problem. Upon getting about halfway through this box set, I attempted to show it to other people in my life including family members and every single one of them eventually gave up due to how slow and methodically this series moved when they wanted action.
The first season of this series contains 14 episodes including a 90 minute pilot on four discs. The discs are housed in slim keep cases with each one containing the same image of five characters in front of a Vancouver skyline and episode summaries on the back.
The menu screen on these discs are boring with just the primary theme music being played over a simple menu screen that shows very short clips from the series and “mood” shots. Each menu choice takes viewers to another screen which shows a still character image along with DVD options.
