One of the local network affiliates has been running episodes of a TV show called Da Vinci's Inquest. This is a Canadian production which ran from 1998-2005, and now a new series called Da Vinci's City Hall has come to fore.
The season the local station here appears to be airing at present is either from 1999 or 2000.
It took a few episodes for me to get into the series, but once I was in, I was hooked.
In the show, Dominic Da Vinci (Nicholas Campbell) is a Vancouver cop turned coroner (at least, that's what the blurbs for the show say). Da Vinci heads the coroner's office and is not himself a doctor. It is also interesting that Da Vinci is also not a college man, although that was only brought up in passing and is not a running element of the show, of what I have seen.
Da Vinci's Inquest is a police drama, of sorts, which differs from the standard fare to which we have become accustomed on US television, in that there is a heart and soul to the characters, both those who are regulars and the people involved in the storyline; which is something the shows like CSI and Law & Order forgot about as these shows simply treat people as statistics and guilty until proven innocent.
Some may consider a medical/crime drama which uses forensic science to a good degree in its story development to be a take-off of CSI, but Da Vinci's Inquest preceeded CSI.
If CSI was a take-off of Da Vinci's Inquest, it was a poorly done job.
Da Vinci's Inquest re-introduces two well known character actors, Ian Tracey (Sweating Bullets, The Commish) and Donnelly Rhodes (Soap, the new Battlestar Galactica) into roles as cops (and I never knew both actors were Canadian); not just your run of the mill TV cops, but cops with personality and grit.
Venus Terzo also plays a cop on the show and Gwynyth Walsh played a medical examimer, and Da Vinci's ex, until 2002.
I just brought this up as I have quite thoroughly enjoyed the show and look forward to catching what episodes I can (and I look forward to television so little any more). Have any of the other board members caught this show, or does it play regularly where you live? Do any of our Canadian friends watch the show?(lucky bastards) Is Da Vinci's City Hall as good as the Inquest?
You can find out more information about the show at the official site, here (http://www.davincisinquest.com/).
You can also find the imdb listing here (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0156442/)
Strangely, 'Inquest' is being shown completely out of order here in the States! Also, isn't his character a medical examiner (more just like a detective) and hix ex the coroner?
From what I have seen, his character is more of a detective, as he is not a doctor, but he is the coroner.
There is a Detroit UPN/WB (?) affiliate that shows it, plus I get it via CBC. I don't watch it though, I pretty much don't watch any dramas (except Battlestar Galactica), it's too hard to make the time to see a show at the same time every week.
DaVinci's Inquest is far more realistic than CSI. In Inquest they don't have lab guys running around with guns arresting people. In fact I have never watched any CSI show because of this.
DaVinci's Inquest actually started airing in 1998 in Canada and is now morphing into a new show called DaVinci's City Hall (Dom is now the mayor of Vancouver).
You will see a lot of people from other shows shot in Vancouver for American TV like Donnelly Rhodes (Doc Cobble on BSG). I've seen a lot of characters from Stargate SG-1, including the guy who played Apophis as a junior coroner. In fact this is first show I've seen that's shot in Vancouver and set there as well.
DaVinci is based on real life British Columbia Chief Coroner Dr. Larry Campbell who was elected as the mayor of Vancouver in 2002.
Here's another good article (http://www.teevee.org/archive/2003/11/05/) about it.
As the reviewer points out, it is definitely a show with a difference, and I like its difference. I don't know whether the local station is showing the episodes in order or not. I agree, with what little I have seen, that if it were not for the end credits, sometimes it would be difficult to tell when an episode was over. The show is certainly addictive, and I want more. (:
I don't get to watch it often. I thought one of our local stations was running it, but I haven't been able to find it.
WGN runs it a 2:00pm with a repeat at 11:00pm central time. On Tuesday night they run two episodes back to back from 7 to 9.
I frankly wouldn't mind back-to-back episodes, as this is one of a few shows which just seems to end too soon.
Interestingly, when I first saw the show, I just had it on in the background. What caught my interest was seeing Donnelly Rhodes in the show.
It is certainly a show which grows on you as it took me a few episodes to get into it. It does have quite a different pace to it, and quite a bit of character development.
I hope they continue to air it here. I hope they air the episodes in order. (:
I like the DaVinci character. He curmudgenly, prejudicial , an alcoholic, and a womanizer; but has a strong ethics when it comes to his job.
I have another friend at work that watches it and her biggest complaint is the ambiguous way they just cut some episodes off.
It is interesting, though, that the way they sometimes end episodes kind of gives it a slice-of-life feel, being that it sets its own pace and doesn't really seem to care if they finish a plot or not. Eventually, it will probably come back on them in a later episode. I don't believe my local station is showing them in order, as I have seen an occasional repeat episode among episodes I have not seen yet. I wonder if this is out on DVD. Probably expensive if it is.
It's available on Amazon.ca (http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000ACOYO/701-4126827-5360357) for $59.70 Canadian.
Saw it on ebay for $48.99 U.S. I guess this could be considered expensive seeing as there are only 13 eps per season.
Ouch.
Maybe I'll wait for it to show up used.