Da Vinci’s Inquest – Season One
Picture:
C Sound: C+ Extras: C- Episodes: B-
It is not
that I am Da Vinci-ed out as much as I am tired of police procedurals where the
coroners and police makes jokes because they are so beyond being shocked by the
mortality. House is the latest example of this, but they are one at least a
generation down from Quincy, where
Jack Klugman’s title character used alcohol more freely than anyone since Dean
Martin and only equaled lately by the Emeril cooking shows. Now comes Canada’s Da Vinci’s Inquest and the jokes flow so often that they might as
well be drunk.
Not that
the comments makes this Scrubs, Grey’s Anatomy or a comedy, but this
cycle is getting played out and only continues because the shows are still hits
and this one arrived in 1998 deep in the middle of the cycle. Nicholas Campbell is Nicholas Da Vinci in the
first 13 shows of the first season.
Beginning with a TV movie split into a few parts, the show introduces
the character, his associates, situations, places and situation before settling
into a formula. The show is not awful,
but is not able to rise above its genre or cycle. Except that it is Canada actually represented
as Canada for a change, it is much of what you have seen before. If you like this type of show, you’ll enjoy
it. If not, skip it.
The 1.33
X 1 is surprisingly soft with digititis and detail issues all over the
place. Why does such a new show look so
poor? Despite being credited as being in
Dolby Surround (read Pro Logic), The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is surround-weak
and the presentation smacks of being a generation or two down. The only extras are a preview trailer and
text cast filmographies.
- Nicholas Sheffo
