Because, Perversely, I Know It Matters To You...

DAVINCI'S INQUEST's 2nd season was just released on DVD, and today the New York Times gives it some love:

VIEWERS disappointed with this fall’s crop of new crime shows — or worried that a lingering writers’ strike will rob them of their favorite old crime shows — can take solace, we’re told, in DVDs. But what if you’ve already watched all 10 seasons of “The Sopranos” and “The Wire,” as well as the 14 Orbach-Noth-Florek-Moriarty episodes of “Law & Order”? What’s left to discover?

At the moment the best answer may come from a country known for its low crime rate. The Canadian series “Da Vinci’s Inquest,” whose second season has just been released on DVD (Acorn Media), passed largely unnoticed in the United States but had an eerily “Sopranos”-like track record at home. The shows, which made their debuts just three months apart, were both nominated as their countries’ best dramatic series in all seven years they were eligible. “The Sopranos” won the Emmy twice; “Da Vinci’s Inquest” won the Gemini five times.

Because it’s a police procedural centered on a coroner’s office, “Da Vinci” has been called a cross between “Law & Order” and “CSI.” (It’s right there on the DVD box: “The realism of ‘Law & Order.’ The science of ‘CSI.’”) But it’s not at all like either of those shows. While its crimes can be sensational — several multiple-episode story arcs in the first two seasons involve a serial killer preying on prostitutes near the Vancouver docks — its approach is resolutely low-key, avoiding both ripped-from-the-headlines formulas and glossy melodrama.