The first is a lingering sense that it's not any good. Such is the domination of Canadian airwaves by U.S. product, that it's hard to find homegrown shows, and even harder to keep them in their timeslots.
Then there's the notion of promotion. There isn't any. Promotional budgets are scant. The Canadian privates rely on piggybacking on the U.S. promo, and the CBC only has enough juice to pick a few shows each quarter.
And then, there's that malingering sense of whingeing and entitlement. People who complain about their reviews. Reviews that let homegrown stuff off too early, or the corollary -- reviews that reflexively judge Canadian stuff by a harsher yardstick. The combo of the two makes for that strange feeling that anything you read is unreliable.
And then, unfortunately, there is the carping. Sometimes, people will carp about their shows being treated badly. This is en famille stuff that shouldn't be in the news -- there's little enough ink devoted to our shows in the first place. Our family squabbles shouldn't suck the air away from that.
Chris Haddock has been engaged in an increasingly bitter feud with the CBC over the treatment of his series Intelligence, this season. As the ratings have dropped, Haddock has been everywhere, accusing the CBC of dumping his show on an icefloe to die.
While I sympathize with his frustration, and even agree with some of his points, I don't think airing the laundry out has helped Intelligence, which concludes its second season with two hours tomorrow on CBC.
What I do know is this: in much the same way that critics everywhere praise The Wire, Intelligence is a show that is not done.
The Wire is changing the way that a lot of people think about HBO and Television, even if it's never had the same audience response as The Sopranos or Six Feet or even Deadwood. What it lacks in viewers it more than makes up for in sheer, plate tectonic moving virtuosity.
There is not a doubt in my mind that Intelligence is our Wire. It is a show that rewards careful viewing. It is a show that is quietly inspiring a generation of younger TV writers who want to seize the showrunner reins and do quality, nuanced work in this country -- NOT have to head to the U.S. like the generations before us. It is a prescient view of the toxic relationship between source and handler, and the need for 'humint' that, I think, will still stand years from now as an extraordinary document of this time, a brave show that cast a jaundiced eye on a very important and shady aspect of our relationship with the Americans, and our relationship with our own government.
In sophistication, in execution, and in scope, Intelligence ranks up there with British miniseries like State of Play, Prime Suspect. The show is not without its flaws, but those flaws are pale indeed when stacked against the show's importance for Canadian screenwriters and the medium of Canadian television. You want to know what the Canadian point of view is? There it is. Skeptical, unsentimental, and adult when it comes to issues that matter. That is the show's legacy.
If, as expected, the show is cancelled sometime after tomorrow, it will not be the end. The first season is finally going to come out on DVD next year. The second season will probably follow. And people will pore over those DVDs for the next several years and marvel at the Canadian show that got it so right, and wonder why we couldn't get more Canadians to watch it.
For a "professional" view on Intelligence -- here's an endorsement that should give you a jolt. Try one from an ex- U.S. spy -- the guy who was the inspiration for the show Burn Notice, Michael Wilson (NOT the former Tory Finance Minister)
Away from the technology, intelligence thrives – indeed relies – upon deception, manipulation, and betrayal. To take an example, in the U.S., we have the case of Valerie Plame, an intelligence officer working counter-proliferation: keeping hostile actors from acquiring terrifying new weapons. There is no more trying beat to walk and by all accounts, she was exemplary. Chosen because she was pretty, blonde and intelligent, Plame was trained and then slotted into a "non-official cover" role to get men to betray themselves and their interests. Consider that she was a once-in-a-generation opportunity, and you'll have an appraisal of the toxic culture that outed her.
When working covertly, the way a case officer does, you have to find a way to meet your targets and work them. Large men of military bearing need not apply. Plame was given a commercial cover that would put her into rooms of men who, frankly, wished to bed her. Not only did she get in the room, she had a way (as long as nobody ever did manage to bed her) to get men to talk to her, even compete to top each other for her attention. She worked them by making them work themselves.
The act of blowing her cover not only took Plame out of the game, but exposed the tradecraft of her cover, how she operated, what she was asking about, any of her contacts. Pulling apart the Plame story on the outside became a roadmap for "hostiles" to look for other potential officers; pulling apart the damage on the inside became a roadmap of how to prepare a new one. Meanwhile, there's a gap between now and when a similarly prepared officer might be ready to accomplish something.
Intelligence has taken you into this world – building trust with questionable people, engaging in deception and manipulation to encourage betrayal. It's tough to get someone to sell themselves out, but that's what officers do to agents (as assets are known).
Intelligence's Jimmy Reardon (Ian Tracey), the drug kingpin, can provide essential information and insight to Mary Spalding (Klea Scott), who is not just his handler but the head of the operation. Of course, Reardon is being gunned for (rival mobs, law enforcement, and this season, the CIA), just as Spalding is by co-workers like Ted Altman, her own bureaucracy (if only that glass ceiling were bullet-proof), and the CIA.
The inherent conflict between handler and asset in Season One of Intelligence was in the dynamic between Jimmy and Mary, both trying to use the other, both trying to maintain their own agenda.
You won't need a spoiler alert for this next bit about Season Two, but Mary is about to be thrust onto the horns of a moral dilemma: do your job as a handler and protector of your country, but deal with the human cost of having that upper hand.
That's a pretty heady thumbs up. Canada, you've got one chance to give those numbers a goose, Monday night on CBC. No sense lamenting it as the TV equivalent of the Avro Arrow three years from now. Intelligence needs you to vote with your remote.
EDIT: In the interests of balance, here's a response from Jeff Keay at CBC on the network's handling of Intelligence. The one point I can quibble with here is the contention that CBC continued to promote Intelligence in season 2. That certainly did not seem to be the case -- but, everything else he says really can't be countered. It simply solidifies the point I've made above -- this shouldn't be being fought about in the media.
