New DVDs: 'Intelligence' from Canada

"Intelligence" is one smart series.

The Canadian production usually is compared with HBO's "The Sopranos" and "The Wire." While we're invoking cool premium cable shows, I'd add "Six Feet Under" and "Weeds" from rival Showtime as matches on the domestic drama side.

The series ran on CBC for two seasons, beginning in 2006. Acorn Media has just released season 1 in a four-disc set, another winner for the TV-on-DVD import specialist.

"Intelligence" tracks the flow of inside information swirling about a web of Vancouver law officers and organized crime figures. The series does not make for relaxed viewing. The cast is fairly large and the plotlines implode and explode real quick like. You don't want to wander off for long without hitting the pause button.

There are two compelling figures at the center of "Intelligence": heroine Mary Spalding (Klea Scott), who runs the city's organized crime unit; and antihero Jimmy Reardon (Ian Tracey), a drug smuggler and money launderer who also fronts a waterway shipping operation. They're good people, mostly, playing out their roles in life.

Both of these characters have believable private lives that eat away at their professional time and energies. Spalding deals with a squirmy cheating husband while Reardon tries to keep his cokehead ex-wife from doing damage to their surprisingly wholesome tween daughter. It's not long before viewers start wondering where the empathy and chemistry between the two might lead.

Work is no bargain, either: our heroes are both betrayed, plotted against and abused by lowlifes on either side of the law. Then there are the Americans, sometimes portrayed as the smirky jerks that many Canadians expect to see slither up from south of the border. Anyone who's spent time in western or eastern Canada will recognize the 'tude.

The series creator is Chris Haddock of "Di Vinci's Inquest"; there is a bit of overlap between the series. "I wanted to make a true, adult series about the city I knew," the Vancouver native has said.

The production budget undoubtedly wasn't on par with the big U.S. network cop shows, so some allowances are called for in the series' look, sound and minor-player acting. Not necessarily a bad thing.

The 2.0 audio is an annoyance on this DVD set, as with some other Acorn Media DVDs I've otherwise enjoyed. Dialogue can be muddy, especially when the bald creepy investigator starts talking. There are no subtitles, but Acorn once advised me to use the closed captioning.

The video is OK if you don't get too close. Extras are routine and include a profile of show creator Haddock.

Also circling the DVD blog's players this week: "The Fall of the Roman Empire" (read the DVD review); the third installment of "Young Indiana Jones"; and the three classy children's releases from Janus/Criterion: "The Red Balloon," "Paddle to the Sea" and "White Mane."

New and notable:
The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Volume 3 (Paramount)
Beverly Hills 90212: The Fourth Season (Paramount)
The Big Gay Sketch Show, season 2 (Paramount)
Cheers -- The Complete Ninth Season (Paramount)
The Classic Caballeros Collection (Disney)
Dark Shadows: The Beginning, Vol. 4 (MPI Home Video)
Diamond Dogs (with digital copy, Sony)
Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Miramax)
The Fall of the Roman Empire (The Miriam Collection/Weinstein Co./Genius)
First Knight (Sony)
The Golden Compass (Sony, also Blu-ray)
Hero Wanted (Sony)
How She Move (Paramount)
Intelligence (Acorn Media)
Paddle to the Sea (Janus Films)
The Red Balloon (Janus Films)
White Mane (Janus Films)
27 Dresses (Fox, also BR)
The Waltons, season 7 (Warner)

Complete list of this week's releases on my pal Harley's site, onvideo.org