Da Vinci – Dom and Len

Before Dan Brown gave us the currently popular Da Vinci Code, Dominic Da Vinci (Nicholas Campbell) was prowling the streets of Vancouver in Da Vinci’s Inquest. This rumpled city coroner at first reminded viewers of Peter Falk’s character, Columbo, but there was a subtle difference in the two characters. While the audience always knew that Falk was simply putting on the act of incompetence to fool the bad guys, there was never any pretence in Da Vinci’s bumbling ways. The character himself was never sure what had happened and it often took another couple of episodes for him (and us) to sort out the details.

Dan Brown, on the other hand, leaves no detail unturned, in fact makes up his own history as he searches for answers to one of Christianity’s biggest questions about the life of Jesus. While our modern screen hero, Tom Hanks, seeks out the truth so long hidden by albino monks and the secretive Templars, Da Vinci has moved to the new intrigues and corruption at City Hall. The parallels between the corruption in the Catholic Church and City Hall are obvious, but the Canadian TV series rings most true.

Much ink has been spilled over Dan Brown’s book, The Da Vinci Code, and indeed, millions of copies are now sitting on shelves around the world. The Catholic Church in particular has taken much umbrage with the book. Besides showing the church in unflattering light, the church scholars have been quick to point out errors in the novel. Some priests are even telling their parishioners to avoid the movie. This must bring a smile to the moviemakers at Sony, and non-Christians surely find it amusing when the believers are comparing two works of fiction and saying which is correct. Masons have taken to giving their secret handshakes and albinos are whining about being typecast as bad people. Dan Brown has a first-rate hit!

We Canadians seem too often to disparage our own works as second-rate, when in fact, we have a genuine diamond in the rough in the Da Vinci series. Maybe the cops and the prostitutes are played too realistically, the drug addicts too real and the hero himself simply too liable to fail like the rest of us, for Canadians to take the series as great viewing. The corruption in the police force and at city hall is too believable and we want it soft-soaped with happy endings for all the good guys. The series does take the dedication to watch a few episodes to get you hooked, but like the street drugs so openly displayed, Da Vinci will win you over. So much so, that it is now running in 45 countries around the world.

If you think the albino killer in The Da Vinci Code is scary, you would not want to run into the under-cover cop who is in so deep he cannot come back from the dark side. Killing drug users or prostitutes may seem like ordinary American TV drama but when he sets up fellow police officers, the series will chill you with its reality.

Just when it appeared that Da Vinci’s Inquest was running out of material, the hapless coroner decides to run for mayor of Vancouver. In real life, that is what happened but one can only hope that the corruption and finagling that goes on at Da Vinci’s City Hall is fiction. If you liked West Wing for its portrayal of government at the top, you will find Da Vinci’s City Hall just as interesting and enjoyable.

Where else can you see a proposed race track flipped right under the mayor’s nose? The homeless infiltrated by police and forced out of their refuge while the mayor tries to accommodate these people who are as much a part of his community as the rich developers who want their land. The idea of cross-training police and firefighters is fought from every angle – the unions, the police and fire chiefs, and the accountants, leaving Mayor Da Vinci between a rock and a hard place. The backroom vote garnering at council is surely familiar. Throw in a sex club whose members number the rich and powerful and one can see why Dominic needs a drink or two.

While historians and Christians alike have taken very critical shots at Dan Brown and his work of fiction, it would be interesting to hear what the people portrayed in the Da Vinci series – the police, health workers, homeless, prostitutes and politicians – have to say about the realism of the Canadian TV show. In the season of re-runs, give Domenic Da Vinci a try.