INTELLIGENCE is coming out on DVD from Acorn media. The justly-adored CBC series was canceled after the end of its second season due to low ratings. Anybody who really got into the story of Jimmy Reardon can't understand why the show was only drawing 250 000 viewers near the end. Except, of course, for the fact that when you compare that 250 000 viewers on CBC to a show like Rescue Me, which gets 3, 4 million viewers on cable in the USA, you see that with Canada's 1/10th population, that kind of number is probably what you should expect a challenging, literate show like Intelligence to get.
Yet another reason why it would be wonderful, as the WGC pointed out recently, if government finally confronted the CBC's mandate in the Broadcasting Act. There are a million different constituencies arguing about what CBC should be, what it shouldn't be, what it should do and what it shouldn't. The very same people who excoriate CBC for canning Intelligence would be ripping it a new one if the show was currently finishing up Season 3 with 200 000 viewers. It's all so depressing.
So, a show gone too soon seems destined to suffer the fate of many others -- a discovery and raving on DVD. Tv Eh? Points us to a current RAVE for the DVD set in the New York Times.
But reading that review, the other thing struck me was that Chris Haddock, the Exec Producer and Creator of Intelligence, has absolutely mastered the kind of muscular, grabby quote that encapsulates his series. When we're selling, you've gotta have a way to push that series in a sentence. Look how Haddock does that with Intelligence:
“I believe that everything can be understood through the lens of a dope deal.”
Man. That is a killer quote.
FYI, by praising Intelligence here I am in no way suggesting that it was the first show that was good that maybe got canceled before its time in the history of Canadian TV. Nor am I suggesting that Haddock is the only guy to ever come up with a good quote to sell his Canadian series. Okay? Everybody happy? Nice.
3 comments:
No worries on that FYI note. We know these facts to be true.
It's certainly among the ten best shows that suffered such straits in Canadian history to date, though...
(You planning to pick up the soundtrack they're offering on iTunes?)
Intelligence fucking rocked. In my view it was the most exciting Canadian TV series I had ever seen, and I still really miss it. Haddock is a national treasure. The fact that he had the third season 'mapped out' and they cancelled it anyway just pisses me off even more.
Watch it go be a big hit in America.
What is going happen to Jimmy Reardon - all shot up and bleeding to death at 20 minutes to midnight in the doorway of the Chickadee? This drive me nuts.
It is a killer quote. And should anyone think its just, I don't know, flippant might want to check out this recent, absolutely great interview of David Simon on the Bill Moyers show.
Looking at that interview right now.
Thank you for that.
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